Associations, Individual Owners Holding Up Needed Repairs in Miami-Area Condominiums

Nelson Martinez of Miami Beach would like decent water pressure and windows that completely close. Manuel Blanco wants the leaking roofs and crumbling stairs fixed in his Kendall condo.

These South Florida real estate owners are just two of many who face a growing problem in condo living — the difficulty of persuading often reluctant neighbors to pay to fix deteriorating buildings.

Lack of action could lead to greater problems down the road, reports Donna Gehrke-White of the Miami Herald. The hurricanes of 2005 (especially Wilma) revealed the cost of not keeping up with maintenance, unleashing fury on older buildings. But owners pressing for repairs face difficult obstacles and circumstances:

• Ineffective government agencies.
• Hostile boards and management companies.
• Aathetic owners who don’t want to get involved and certainly don’t want to pay more for repairs.

Cyber Citizens for Justice, a Florida grass-roots association group, has gotten scores of complaints from residents who say needed repairs aren’t being made.

“This is one of the biggest problems owners are facing. They often don’t really have a say how their money is used or spent,” says Jan Bergemann, president of Cyber Citizens.

Indeed, condo associations and owners have been sparring over hurricane damage for months, and owners say they often get the runaround when they ask the government for help. State and local agencies refuse to intervene, or may allow boards to take years to make repairs.

COMMON PROPERTY
Florida requires condo boards to maintain and repair common property, says Kristen Ploska, spokeswoman for the state Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR). Condominium documents must spell out what is and what is not considered common property. Typically the building’s structure, pipes, parking lots, landscaping and amenities are common.

Yet there are plenty of gray areas. Such as when the condo board admits there’s a problem but wants to fix it later. Much later.

Bill Raphan, the state’s condo ombudsman, suggests owners worried about a certain safety issue contact their city or county’s building enforcement division. Municipalities will investigate reports of potentially unsafe structures (as well as plumbing, electrical or structural problems) and look into violations of local codes.

When Wilma forced scores of families out of their homes last fall, the difference between proper and lackadaisical maintenance was never more clear. Across Southern Florida, roofs were ripped open, windows shattered and units flooded. If a building escaped major damage, it had replaced its roof and common fixtures in a timely manner.

“The new roofs held up surprisingly well,” says Dean Decker, a Lauderdale Lakes building official who went up on many a roof after the storm. He would like to see more homeowners associations educated about their buildings’ maintenance, including part-time residents.

“They should be more involved,” agrees Miami Beach senior building inspector Andres “Andy” Villarreal.

Florida condo associations need to let owners know when major common elements, such as a roof and plumbing, need replacement and to start planning out how to pay for their share. State law requires associations to collect reserves for future repairs, but also allows owners to vote not to collect reserves, which many associations do.

Doesn’t that defeat the purpose? Donna Berger, president of the Community Association Leadership Lobby (CALL), a group of Florida community associations, says condo boards don’t do more repairs because some owners complain about spending money.

Indeed, there are many people like Martinez, whose waterfront one-bedroom unit in the Bonne Vie condominium in South Beach has a serious water pressure problem. He has phoned, faxed, written and attended board meetings to complain — with no luck to date.

WHEN THE WALLS COME CRUMBLING DOWN
Meanwhile, Martinez’s walls are beginning to chip off at spots near his 39-year-old windows, where rain has poured in at times. Board president Joseph Bravo says the board realizes the Bonne Vie needs new windows, but other repairs have priority at present. In 2005, the board approved assessments totaling $1,477 for Martinez’s unit. As a result, monthly maintenance went up about 20 percent, from $344.56 to the current $410.

“There are a lot of things to be dealt with,” Bravo adds. “It’s never ending. In the past… a lot of things were let go. We are now playing catch-up.”

In Kendall, Blanco says state officials and his condominium board have been unresponsive to his complaints. Most of the massive 1,067-unit condo complex’s owners aren’t clamoring for repairs, so nothing happens. Blanco even ran for the condo board as a reformer trying to get repairs, but he was defeated. Three months later, owners are still waiting for the promised roof repairs to begin.

Unfortunately, he is not alone. Many Florida condo owners balk at paying, including many elderly residents who don’t care about preventative repairs because they will not be around when the work is needed. Younger owners are often just as resistant because they don’t realize the importance of maintaining condos.

Some lawmakers are pushing for reform. In the Florida State Legislature, Rep. Juan Zapata (R-Miami) and Rep. Rene Garcia (R-Hialeah), are co-sponsoring a bill that would require condo boards to hire an engineer or architect to inspect the structural and electrical safety of a building at least once every five years.

But will minor legislative tinkering convince owners that this maintenance needs to be done, or will they continue to put it off? This approach is a common one in America these days, as we leave problems for someone else to clean up later. Hopefully, Florida home loan applicants and future condo inhabitants can count on both reforms and forward-thinking attitudes in the coming years.