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mahatmakanejeeves

(57,656 posts)
Wed Nov 17, 2021, 01:01 PM Nov 2021

Construction of luxury condo just feet away weakened frail Champlain Towers, lawsuit says

Source: Miami Herald

Construction of luxury condo just feet away weakened frail Champlain Towers, lawsuit says

BY NICHOLAS NEHAMAS AND JAY WEAVER UPDATED NOVEMBER 17, 2021 10:44 AM

The construction of a new luxury condo tower just feet away from Champlain Towers South caused severe damage to the fragile, poorly designed building in Surfside, eventually leading to the collapse that killed nearly 100 people, according to a civil complaint filed late Tuesday in a class-action case.

The 169-page complaint — filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court on behalf of victims, survivors and their families — alleges that the development team at Eighty Seven Park ignored clear warning signs that its work posed a danger to the 12-story Champlain Towers South and failed to follow industry standards, presenting photographs, emails, internal documents and building plans to buttress its case. The construction took place between 2016 and 2019, several years before the collapse.

“CTS was an older building in need of routine repairs and maintenance, but it was not until excavation and construction began on the luxury high-rise condominium project next door … that CTS became so badly damaged and destabilized as to be unsafe,” the complaint alleges. TOP VIDEOS

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Read more: Link to sourcehttps://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/miami-beach/article255872896.html

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NullTuples

(6,017 posts)
2. "filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court on behalf of victims, survivors and their families"
Wed Nov 17, 2021, 01:05 PM
Nov 2021

Due to the self-owned structure of the building, are the victims also the ones legally responsible for not paying for upkeep?

(note: I'm saying "legally responsible" but many of them were sold their condos bases on income that was adequate to make payments but did not include the also necessary expensive upkeep over time, especially after a few decades, as I understand it)

ToxMarz

(2,169 posts)
4. Condos are not more expensive in general per owner to maintain than a single family home
Wed Nov 17, 2021, 01:29 PM
Nov 2021

The problem is they don't do the maintenance, it's always someone else's responsibility, no one can agree when it comes to spending money, so nothing ever get done.
Then the deferred maintenance is far more costly to correct than ongoing proper maintenance would have been, and it becomes even harder to get the owners to agree and do the work.

3. Champlain Towers is looking for someone else to blame and pay for their construction negligence
Wed Nov 17, 2021, 01:17 PM
Nov 2021

"The two properties were originally separated by 87th Terrace in Miami Beach. But Beach commissioners voted to “vacate” the 50-foot road to the developers. The developers in turn made a “voluntary contribution” of $10.5 million to the city — something the class-action claims is illegal because Florida law does not permit the purchase of public rights-of-way."

TeamProg

(6,285 posts)
5. The CTS would not have collapsed if it was not damaged from its own rusty, swelling rebar that
Wed Nov 17, 2021, 02:05 PM
Nov 2021

cracked the cement foundation / wall construction.

But yeah, got to hand it to Florida's anti-regulation, pro-development mentallity.








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