Designed to fail: How Florida's lack of condo board oversight could mean another Surfside

[Zorro]

The deadly Surfside collapse is casting a spotlight on how Florida's condominiums are built and regulated.
...
A USA Today Network analysis of property records in the coastal communities of Miami Beach, Fort Myers Beach, Daytona Beach and Palm Beach show more than a thousand condos three stories or taller close to the water constructed in 1981 or earlier. There are likely many more across the state. Some date back to the early 1960s. With so many aging oceanfront condos, could a collapse happen again?

A network examination of the way high-rise condos are regulated and maintained in Florida shows why some experts believe the system was designed to fail.

And human nature plays a part: Many condo boards defer repairs because of the costs. Too much economizing could be deadly.

https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/business/real-estate/2021/08/26/florida-surfside-collapse-miami-condo-disaster-lack-oversight-volusia-lee-palm-beach/7912717002/

[Chainfire]

1. I live in a single family dwelling. I don't like spending money maintaining the house either.

However, if I let it fall down on my head, it is my doing.

Many people probably stretch their finances to live in the older condos near the beach and simply don't have the resources to pump tens or hundreds of thousands of their savings into problems that they can't see, and over issues that they do not understand. They do the human thing; they ignore the problems. Just plaster over those cracks, it will be OK.... People get trapped by financial circumstances. Like much of South Florida, image is more important than substance, if they spend money, they want to make the place look better, not be safer. You can bet on seeing this happening again.

The boom in construction in South Florida decades ago was all about making as much money as fast as possible. Just about everything in the industry was crooked, especially the building inspection departments. Instead of making inspections, the inspectors took bribes. Everyone in the industry knew how it worked.

[Moebym]

3. They may be burdensome at times, but regulations save lives

A truth too many ignore in the interest of boosting profits.

[marie999]

4. We lived in a condo in Margate Florida.

We sold it in 2001. Each 3 story building of 36 units was a corporation by itself in a 12 building complex. 1 year after moving a friend of ours in another building called to tell us that the hurricane that hit them destroyed the roof on the one we had owned. It was learned that the board of directors of our building took the money that was supposed to repair the roof before the hurricane hit used the money to pretty up the place. At least no one was killed.