Eden Isles Condos Inc

CONDO HELL - ONE CONDO OWNER'S TALE OF HORROR

http://www.ccfj.net/condoCONDOHELL.html

Article Courtesy of the City News Of Fort Lauderdale
By Valerie Austin
January 24, 2008

I attended the well organized Annual Condominium Conference and it was an eye opener. I had heard how bad the fight with boards and condo owners were, that’s why I’m involved, but I had no idea of the scale.

As an author, I always like fodder for my books but this was the type of material I would expect for a bestselling novel on the underworld but, the players were ordinary people fighting corruption in every direction.

The problem was that many of the ordinary people were doing the corrupting.

Two men, from separate condos, said that were literally frightened for their lives. One of the men said he should
be on the FBI protection program because of the board’s President having mafia connections. 

Another condo owner had been threatened with being shot in the head by a board member and one 70 year old lady went on a 7-day hunger strike outside where the board had their meetings.

Many were intimidated and had windows broken and eggs thrown at their cars, and much worse, for complaining about
their extraordinary high assessments and simultaneously watching board members suddenly sporting new cars and  $10,000 stereo systems.

It was truly sad to see the human misery; lives have been turned into a living hell.  But these are people’s life savings “It’s like taking candy from a baby” one old gentleman said. Another likened the assessments to, “Robbing a bank only easier.” There were over 100 people that were given their chance to speak about their grievances.

I spent 5 hours listening to condo owners relating their nightmare situations. Many boards seemed to have been infiltrated by con people. This is how serious it is and why the law needs to be changed.  (A new condo law has passed since this piece was written).

At the moment, you can buy a condo and within days have an assessment for $50,000 and given a period of 90 days to pay or there is a lien put on your condo and then it can be repossessed.  If you fail to pay it, bingo, you’ve lost your home because of greed and corruption that the law, as it stands seems powerless to stop.

What has happened! Why is everyone I talk to having balcony restoration, even new buildings, and stranger still the new restoration is having to have yet more restoration? There seems to be a mantra, “Even if there is no signs that your balcony has a problem there ‘may’ be something going on underneath.” Where’s the common sense in this. You can imagine that a person on these high balconies are frightened and want to have them looked at just in case they fall off. As this is what they have been told by the so called experts.

The truth is that it is rubbish. There will be signs if there are problems cracking (depending how bad the cracking is) and rust signs seeping threw the concrete, Cracks needs to be ‘monitored’ but monitoring seems to be a foreign word to the South Florida engineers and contractors. Contractors often say that we have problems with balconies in South Florida because we are by the sea and the salt is to blame.

One structural engineer told me. “I have lived in my 60 year old building in Beirut all my life and it has never needed repair. It is by the sea with a much saltier climate than here and it is in great condition and will last many more years.I

n Europe, the German bunkers are on the sea and have been there since the 40’s. Not to mention the Roman Pantheon built in Rome some 18 centuries ago and is still standing.

I spoke to an engineer who was referred to by an architect. He said he was no longer in balcony construction he had tried to save balconies that did not need work but the contractors gave him so much trouble trying to make extra work that he said it wasn’t worth it, “I’m busy enough without all that.” Balcony restoration has become a nightmare. Is it because of corruption? Or naivete’?

Another problem is that your board may be just naive. But the result is the same. Some owners are finding millions of dollars spent for unnecessary work. Many contractors are doing substandard work and some balconies are worse than before they started. Since many contractors will only guarantee the balcony for 5 years it shows how much faith they have in their work. They should be lasting another 40 years. One contractor that came to our building said, “ My balconies will last forever, the other contractors dilute the concrete purposely so that it will only last 5-7 years but I don’t do that.”

Is this really happening?  The good news is that at the meeting I attended State Representative Julio Robaina is looking to license even volunteer board members, “because of the corruption and pettiness that is rife with boards members” he said. However, this conference gave us somewhere to go and people to talk to. Which will, hopefully, help change the laws.

I live in a delightful old building on the New River where we are having all kinds of problems fighting the boad on issues of concrete restoration. So watch this space because we have Inger Garcia, the Galt’s Condo Lawyer, fighting our case.