Florida Condo Collapses, June 24, 2021

Was hearing about this morning. Tragedy. Prayers go out.

One article says the building had an upcoming 40 year inspection. I don't know how often complexes like this have a thorough inspection, but I hope it doesn't turn out that the board was deferring needed maintenance or inspections.

From https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article252325063.html:

As far as ages of buildings go, the 12-story oceanfront condo tower that partially collapsed Thursday morning in Surfside was a relative youngster.

“I’ve seen things like this happen before, but never in the United States of America,” said architect Kobi Karp, who has designed some of the most notable buildings in Miami-Dade, including the Surf Club in Surfside. “It’s a 40 year-old building and we have buildings in Miami from the 1920s. It’s a sad, sad scenario that we may find out could have been prevented.”

The Champlain Towers South Condo at 8777 Collins Ave was 40 years old. The 12-story, 136-unit building, which was completed in 1981, was the first project to be built in the area after Miami-Dade County placed a moratorium on new developments during the 1970s, said Daniel Ciraldo, executive director of the Miami Design Preservation League.

Surfside struggled financially during the 1970s, Ciraldo said, and its water and sewer systems had degraded. The county required the town to upgrade its water and sewer systems before approving any projects.

Champlain Towers South Associates, the developer of Champlain Towers South, paid Surfside $200,000 in late 1979 — half of the cost for a new sewer system. With the new system in place, construction soon started on the project, Ciraldo said.

Once completed, international buyers flocked to the building. “A lot of foreign people were moving to South Florida for political stability that we had in the United States,” he said. “They wanted to live on the beach.”

Amenities in the 136-unit building included a pool, gym, barbecue area, tennis courts and a parking garage, “which was a newer thing,” Ciraldo said, “compared to hotels, where you just drove up to the entrance.”

County inspectors were reviewing the 40-year-old building, Ciraldo said. According to the Miami-Dade County building code, all residential buildings are required to undergo a re-certification process when they hit 40 years. The process includes inspections to ensure the building is habitable and safe.

“The building was in okay shape,” said a Realtor with Compass who has multiple listings in the building and spoke on condition of anonymity. “They were just starting repairs to upgrade.”

The association recently hired an engineer to develop specifications for electrical and structural changes needed to obtain the re-certification, a requirement of Miami-Dade County, but had not yet started construction.

“They were well into the review with the engineer about the project,” said Kenneth Direktor, an attorney with the law firm Becker who has represented the association for the last five years.

Condo association meetings were well attended, Direktor said, even throughout the COVID-19 pandemic over Zoom. Direktor described the community as “active and engaged.”

“There are working people, families with kids, people of retirement age,” he said. “Not a particular ethnicity or particular religion. It is a diverse community.”

Nearly 70% of Champlain Towers was occupied by primary homeowners and second homeowners, said the Compass Realtor by email and text. Units ranged from 1,500-square-foot, two-bedroom homes to 2,200-square-foot, three-bedroom homes. Prices ranged from $500,000 to $1.2 million. Penthouse unit 1012, a Compass spokesperson said, sold for $1.1 million in January 2020.

AugustinD comment:
After the World Trade Center collapsed in 2001, I recall engineers describing the "pile driver" effect, where the heat of the aviation fuel weakened the structure on lower floors, then when a lower floor collapsed, the floor right above it collapsed, causing the next floor above to collapse, and so on.

I'm no steel frame engineer but the way these building are erected, they're designed to collapse like this. I hope their D&P premiums and other insurance are current. This is going to be a mess
Condolence to those who lost their lives and to their families.

Less than 24 hours after the condo building's collapse:

Champlain Towers South residents file $5 million lawsuit against condo association

Some Champlain Towers South residents filed a $5 million lawsuit Thursday night against the building’s resident-led condominium association, seizing on statements that the association’s attorney made to media outlets about plans that were in the works for extensive repairs for rusted steel and damaged concrete.

“The collapse of Champlain Towers South was due to Defendant’s inadequate protection of both the safety of residents and visitors to the building,” said the complaint that was filed in Miami-Dade County’s circuit court. The filing describes it as a class-action suit.

Because the damages were identified but not immediately addressed, “one of the most breathtakingly frightening tragedies in the history of South Florida followed,” the complaint said.

More at https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/06/25/miami-building-collapse-live-updates/

Still looking for bodies and the lawsuit is already filed.

I am sure the filing of a lawsuit just made your day.

Yes, and corporations declare bankruptcy to avoid paying money out to shareholder-members.

I figure the attorneys are after the insurance money.

Considering everything we see on this website about underfunded reserves, no reserves at all, not making repairs and improvements because people don't want to pay higher assessments, board members who don't do their research, property managers who nickel and dime HOAs, ancient building codes, proposed building costs that get shot down because developers don't want higher standards to eat up their profits and everything else, in the end there may be fingers pointing everywhere and it still won't help the people who were killed, injured or left homeless - the last thing I saw on the news was 160 are missing, and some of them COULD be renters, as Max noted.

Nice post, SheliaH.

Like many people, and while remembering the suffering of families, what interests me most is (1) What caused the collapse?; (2) Are other buildings nearby possibly as vulnerable to a collapse?; (3) What will the latter uncertainty do to those who live in the area, in tall buildings especially? I know I am thinking that, for the immediate future, I wouldn't gamble on a condo purchase in that area no way no how.

There's an awful lot of expert chatter about how the rising sea level, flooding that has increased due to climate change, massive development, and the like are causing infrastructure problems state-wide.

New details emerge daily regarding conditions of the concrete structure and rebar in the property which seem to indicate there have been years of deferred maintenance and low cost repairs which may not have adequately addressed problems. I would like to see the financials for this property, including the reserve study. I can only imagine what some of the owners/board meetings must have been like.

Those 150+ people unaccounted for will remain in that status until the workers begin to peel back the layers as the debris is removed from the site. I am deeply saddened for those who cannot be found and those who are grieving for them.

I know this is a pipe dream on my part but I hope this incident scares the bejesus out of condominium boards and property managers everywhere to the point at which the attitude 'damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead' prevails on assessment increases to secure reserve funding and special assessments for maintenance.

I do not pay close attention to the details of the Florida laws/statutes affecting HOAs and condominiums which are posted here as our company does not operate in Florida. I have the impression they are more strict or codified than in other states, including ours.

I predict the introduction of numerous pieces of legislation in the Florida Senate and House in an attempt to hold Boards more responsible for ensuring maintenance and its funding cannot be sidestepped as it is now all over the country. Since our Legislature in Texas meets only every other year, and a session just ended, by the time of the 2023 session much of this tragedy will have been forgotten in Austin. There are coastal cities in Texas with high rise developments, this incident could very well have happened in this state.

We had a Zoom Board Meeting yesterday with a client, maintenance items were on the agenda. The majority of the Board ignored the 500 pound gorilla in the room, mainly that they do not have adequate reserves, and kicked the can of maintenance of exterior steel railings down the road until another time. Frustrating.

Bill, that's just what i was thinking when I saw an article saying the concrete issues in that building became known in 2018. The article also mentioned above the seawater is also an issue and we know climate change is a factor inhabits happening in the Miami area, indeed along the entire gulf coast.

There's another conversation on this website where the poster wanted to know what's the best way to break the news to homeowners that assessments will increase, and people are already responding with the old "why should I pay for improvements I'll never enjoy because I won't be here in 10-15 years" argument. Ladies and gentlemen, THIS is why you prepare, because you don't know if 10 - 15 years won't show up 1-5 years earlier. you don't know what your situation might be- maybe you won't be able to afford to move. Maybe the housing market takes another dip and you won't get the sales price you want.

Home maintenance isn't cheap and it IS a pain in the ass to look for contractors, check their licensing and complaint history, compare bids, review contracts before signing them, scheming the work, addressing issues that came up as the work for underway that neither side could have prepared for because there way no way to know that would be an issue until it was discovered, etc. And yet, If you want to get to a point where you can sell your home at a higher price than what you paid, you must take care of it.

I suspect there will be a lot of blame to go around as this continues to unfold and everyone will have to work together to resolve it. I agree with Augustin that other condos in that area may want to take a long look at their own buildings. And other communities, whether they are townhouses, high rise built by and even single family homes should watch, learn and act, and not be so shortsighted.

While people are thinking about making the HOA boards more accountable, they'd better include developers as well. Make these guys and gals set assessments based on reality from the start, set up reserves, educate new boards so they'll know how why why certain things must be done. No, it can't guarantee mistakes won't be made, but at least the community will be in a better position when it's turned over to homeowners. What the homeowners do after that will be up to them.

This is also why I've occasionally made negative comments about HOAs/COAs (and state laws) that require homeowner approval of budgets and why I've referred to such requirements as a license to commit financial suicide. Directors have a fiduciary duty to the association, but homeowners don't and can act in their own self interest regardless of how harmful that can be to the association as a whole.

Fortunately many board members only have to listen to griping if they raise assessments. But even those boards are vulnerable to a determined effort to replace them with a group that's determined to keep costs down.

This tragedy should be a wake-up call to anyone who's even thought about living in a condo. Unfortunately we humans don't have a very good track record when it comes to learning lessons.

I found one article (https://komonews.com/news/nation-world/before-building-collapse-9-million-in-repairs-needed) that says a special assessment had been assessed and was due July 1. "owners at Champlain Towers South were facing payments of anywhere from $80,000 for a one-bedroom unit to $300,000 or so for a penthouse"


In the end, this will probably get very messy, and the lawyers will be the ones seeing most of the money.

If they get a judgement for more than the insurance limit, what do they do then, assess the owners?

Heh. It's the owners who are suing, right? Some have lost property. Some have lost use of their property. Some have suffered loss of life. Some have suffered physical injury. Granted this appears to be quite few. Folks either survived with few injuries or died. My head is spinning.

Why aren't there articles on how much insurance coverage the COA has (had?)? (I know: This is not the first priority right now.)

What is the typical insurance coverage limit for a condo of this size for this kind of disaster?

EEP! I wondered why the link was so long but a techno wiz I'm not!

The story is on The Conversation website - if you google managed retreat it may show up in a search

you don't think the insurance company will try and weasel out of it. from what i heard the policy is only worth 48 million def not enough in a situation like this

now that the place is demolished they can also sell the land and raise money for the residents

Do not think this may be land they can just sell. It's most likely going to be turned into a memorial park for the victims. Not too many people may be keen on buying condo's on land of which over 150 people/pets died. It will still be years before something may happen on the site.

I wonder what obligations the members may have in rebuilding? Was it still owned by the Developers? I know that in our HOA that is NON-high rise you have to replace the house. You can't just sell the property. Have to rebuild similar home that was constructed. The HOA owns the land but the owner owns the lot the home sat on.

Makes me wonder how other condo's or houses replacement policies are? Plus is anyone's HOA/Condo taking a good look at this situation to get evaluated? If disaster hit tomorrow, what would your HOA/COA face or require?

Would not be surprised if the land will be sold off after it's officially cleared. Just wonder if it is, what has to be built to replace it? Same footprint/design? There are still 2 other buildings (I believe) connected by the COA.

In the long run, the sea will reclaim that land. I wonder what the current projections are.

i wonder how many are thinking of selling but are holding off. they found another building in need of repair i'm sure they will find more that are in need of repairs. now that the cities are going through the inventory. the sad thing is that yes these buildings do need repairs and up keep like anything else. but the cost to do it is staggering...