“Are you going to pay it?” The cost of the needed repairs was all apartment owners could talk about since April.

Just over two months later and with bids for the work still pending, the 12-storey Champlain Towers South building in Surfside, Miami, came tumbling down early last week. While the structural problems from the 2018 inspection have come under intense scrutiny, no definitive cause has been identified for the collapse that has left at least 11 people confirmed dead and more than 150 unaccounted for.
The Morabito report focused attention on the pool deck, which was found to have waterproofing underneath that had failed and had been laid flat instead of sloping to drain off water. This threatened not only the concrete slab under the pool but also other concrete structural areas.
The inspection was an early part of a process mandated by Miami-Dade County that all buildings undergo recertification which would include any necessary repairs once they reach 40 years of age. Champlain Towers South was completed in 1981.
Just a month after Morabito presented his findings in 2018, a Surfside building official assured board members that the building was in very good shape, according to minutes from that meeting.
The condominium association pegged the total repair and restoration cost at $US16.2 million counting items added since the 2018 Morabito inspection that would be defrayed in part with about $US707,000 the association had in cash on hand. That left the owners with a bill of $US15.5 million, with individual assessments ranging from $US80,000 for a one-bedroom unit to more than $US300,000 for a penthouse.
For those who believe we are assessing too much, this shows that we are actually under-assessing a bit, according to estimates, Wodnicki wrote.
The letter also shows that, in April, a bid package for the major concrete and waterproofing work was still being discussed. The plan was to open those bids on June 8, but its not clear from documents released to date whether that happened.
The bill for the repairs was a big topic of conversation among residents.
A lot of people were complaining, especially the old people living there, said apartment owner Rosalia Cordaro, who was in New York when the building collapsed. It was a lot of money. I was complaining.
Another owner said the assessment was the talk of the pool when she last visited a week before the collapse.
It was the theme of most of our conversations, said Nieves Aguero. Are you going to pay it? Are you going to refinance?
The number kept getting bigger, bigger and bigger, said owner Alfredo Lopez, adding that the board did a good job of communicating and keeping the process transparent.
A lot of people were unhappy with the upcoming assessment, but we all had the same goal of protecting our building, protecting our investment, Lopez said.
A gruelling effort continues in the search for possible survivors. The death toll stood at 11 on Wednesday morning AEST, with 150 people still unaccounted for.
While there have been no sight or sounds of survivors since the hours immediately following the destruction, Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett insisted: Nobodys giving up hope here. Nobodys stopping, Reuters reported.
The Washington Post