RobW (California)
Posts: 279
Posts: 279
Posted:
I've been living in a common interest development (CID) in northern California for the past 25 years. Our association has 177 units: 156 condos in six 3-story wood frame buildings, and 21 townhouses in three blocks of 7. Each unit owns 1/177 of the land and improvements. The complex was built in the mid-seventies, and is only a 15-minute drive to downtown San Francisco, and a 10-minute drive to the Pacific ocean. I served on the Board for 5 years, was president of the Board for 3 years, and have been the chair of the Architectural Control Committee for most of the years I wasn't serving on the Board.
Here's the story:
The developer bought the land and got the development plan approved by the local town planning commission, and then began to take all of the steps required to start a CID in California. He graded the land, built the first condo building, and started an association by registering the non-profit corporation. He then had family members move into some of the units, and "elected" a Board of Directors. As work progressed, he conducted open houses, and began to sell units.
Over the course of a year or so, he continued building 5 additional condo buildings, three blocks of town houses, a visitors' parking garage with a tennis court on the roof, a second tennis court, a recreation building with a meeting room, sauna, showers, a gym, and a game room, as well as a pool building with heated pool and spa, and a second tennis court at the top of a hill. He installed an artificial creek that ran from the top of the complex down to the entrance of the complex, culminating in a spectacular waterfall - the first thing visitors saw when entering the community. And all of this was set in a pine forest, surrounded by gorgeous landscaping.
Sounds great, so far, right?
Sounded great to my wife and me, also, so we bought a condo here. But as we gradually discovered, there was trouble in Paradise.
As it turned out, the developer had cut a few corners during development. He saved money by skimping on nails and screws, by using substandard materials and labor, and by hiring an inexpensive and inexperienced architect. There was an inconvenient spring running through the complex, and rather than divert it or contain it in a culvert, he simply filled it in with a bulldozer. The architect thought the wood siding, which is called T-111 and comes in 4'x8' sheets, would look better if it were installed horizontally, rather than vertically. This siding has grooves that run in parallel, from top to bottom, through which rain that hits the walls flows to the ground. Each sheet of T-111 is connected to the next with a special connector called Z-flashing. When properly installed, the buildings behind the siding remain dry, and the Z-flashing prevents water seeping behind the siding at the joints. When installed horizontally, the waterproof integrity of the buildings becomes compromised, however, and this is a major problem that few people buying into the complex understood.
And this is my point: When you buy into an association like this, you may not know there is anything wrong. The buildings may look fabulous, and the landscaping may make it seem like the front cover of Better Homes and Gardens. Unless you walk around with someone who is an expert in construction, how would you notice the early-warning signs of construction defects?
If you move into a complex where the developer is still in charge, you are essentially taking his word for it that all is well. You may presume that the local building codes were followed, and that the local building inspectors did their jobs, and would never have signed off on the finished construction had there been defects or violations. But your assumptions may be supported not so much by evidence, but by wishful thinking.
In the early years, construction defects may not be apparent to the casual observer. Take roof flashing, for example. Roof flashing consists of inexpensive sheets of metal that are used to ensure that rainwater drips off the eaves of a sloped composition roof, and into the rain gutter. If the flashing is missing, or worse, installed backwards, not all of the rain is directed over the eaves and into the gutters. Instead, some of the water seeps underneath the last course of shingles, and doing what water does, will find low spots to run to. Often the low spots are areas where roofing staples or nails were supposed to be, such as at framing joints or overlapping tar paper underlayment, and will settle on bare wood, where it will slowly be absorbed. This may take years before any deleterious effect becomes obvious.
Every type of construction has its own water intrusion issues, regardless of the type of materials used. once water seeps into a joint or crack, it can't get back out. Eventually, the wood begins to decay, fungus begins to grow, or both. Even if there is no wood framing at all, eventually the dampness will make its way into interior framing, to the backside of drywall, and fungus will grow inside the unit.
Meanwhile, a spring that was simply filled in by bulldozer may not surface until a major storm saturates the ground. It could be years before this happens. When it does, the spring may become a swamp, or a creek that flows right across the living room floor of a condo or town house. And throughout the entire complex, siding that was installed incorrectly may be allowing rainwater to flow behind it, and into the plywood underlayment, and dry or wet rot and fungus may be growing there in every building, but will not be visible to the naked eye without destructive testing. These conditions then invite termites and other pests who like wet environments to move in.
All of a sudden, things are not looking as idyllic as they did when you moved in. "What the hell?" Where's that developer?
Where indeed?
End, Part I
Rob
Here's the story:
The developer bought the land and got the development plan approved by the local town planning commission, and then began to take all of the steps required to start a CID in California. He graded the land, built the first condo building, and started an association by registering the non-profit corporation. He then had family members move into some of the units, and "elected" a Board of Directors. As work progressed, he conducted open houses, and began to sell units.
Over the course of a year or so, he continued building 5 additional condo buildings, three blocks of town houses, a visitors' parking garage with a tennis court on the roof, a second tennis court, a recreation building with a meeting room, sauna, showers, a gym, and a game room, as well as a pool building with heated pool and spa, and a second tennis court at the top of a hill. He installed an artificial creek that ran from the top of the complex down to the entrance of the complex, culminating in a spectacular waterfall - the first thing visitors saw when entering the community. And all of this was set in a pine forest, surrounded by gorgeous landscaping.
Sounds great, so far, right?
Sounded great to my wife and me, also, so we bought a condo here. But as we gradually discovered, there was trouble in Paradise.
As it turned out, the developer had cut a few corners during development. He saved money by skimping on nails and screws, by using substandard materials and labor, and by hiring an inexpensive and inexperienced architect. There was an inconvenient spring running through the complex, and rather than divert it or contain it in a culvert, he simply filled it in with a bulldozer. The architect thought the wood siding, which is called T-111 and comes in 4'x8' sheets, would look better if it were installed horizontally, rather than vertically. This siding has grooves that run in parallel, from top to bottom, through which rain that hits the walls flows to the ground. Each sheet of T-111 is connected to the next with a special connector called Z-flashing. When properly installed, the buildings behind the siding remain dry, and the Z-flashing prevents water seeping behind the siding at the joints. When installed horizontally, the waterproof integrity of the buildings becomes compromised, however, and this is a major problem that few people buying into the complex understood.
And this is my point: When you buy into an association like this, you may not know there is anything wrong. The buildings may look fabulous, and the landscaping may make it seem like the front cover of Better Homes and Gardens. Unless you walk around with someone who is an expert in construction, how would you notice the early-warning signs of construction defects?
If you move into a complex where the developer is still in charge, you are essentially taking his word for it that all is well. You may presume that the local building codes were followed, and that the local building inspectors did their jobs, and would never have signed off on the finished construction had there been defects or violations. But your assumptions may be supported not so much by evidence, but by wishful thinking.
In the early years, construction defects may not be apparent to the casual observer. Take roof flashing, for example. Roof flashing consists of inexpensive sheets of metal that are used to ensure that rainwater drips off the eaves of a sloped composition roof, and into the rain gutter. If the flashing is missing, or worse, installed backwards, not all of the rain is directed over the eaves and into the gutters. Instead, some of the water seeps underneath the last course of shingles, and doing what water does, will find low spots to run to. Often the low spots are areas where roofing staples or nails were supposed to be, such as at framing joints or overlapping tar paper underlayment, and will settle on bare wood, where it will slowly be absorbed. This may take years before any deleterious effect becomes obvious.
Every type of construction has its own water intrusion issues, regardless of the type of materials used. once water seeps into a joint or crack, it can't get back out. Eventually, the wood begins to decay, fungus begins to grow, or both. Even if there is no wood framing at all, eventually the dampness will make its way into interior framing, to the backside of drywall, and fungus will grow inside the unit.
Meanwhile, a spring that was simply filled in by bulldozer may not surface until a major storm saturates the ground. It could be years before this happens. When it does, the spring may become a swamp, or a creek that flows right across the living room floor of a condo or town house. And throughout the entire complex, siding that was installed incorrectly may be allowing rainwater to flow behind it, and into the plywood underlayment, and dry or wet rot and fungus may be growing there in every building, but will not be visible to the naked eye without destructive testing. These conditions then invite termites and other pests who like wet environments to move in.
All of a sudden, things are not looking as idyllic as they did when you moved in. "What the hell?" Where's that developer?
Where indeed?
End, Part I
Rob