Top RI Realtor Says Condo Owners and Associations Need Vigilance - New Focus After Miami Tragedy

Top RI Realtor Says Condo Owners and Associations Need Vigilance - New Focus After Miami Tragedy

Sarah Huard, one of the top realtors in Rhode Island, says the condo industry should expect to see far more scrutiny in light of the recent tragedy in Florida.

“I think now, just watching Florida, how now that within forty days now, condo associations have to be looked at and inspected. You can’t help but feel as a condo owner, especially if you live in a high-rise, what’s the safety of my unit, how well is the condo association keeping up with inspections and repairs,” said Huard of Mott & Chace Sotheby's International.

Questionable activities by condo boards are nothing new — there have been other high-profile controversies in New England, in Miami and in other locations across the country in the past 15 years.

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The Harbor Towers in Boston delayed improvements for decades and then condo owners were hit with massive assessments.

"For years before the partial collapse of the Champlain Towers South complex near Miami, the condo board wrestled with how to come up with the $15 million needed to fix the building’s dilapidated roof, a poorly designed pool deck and crumbling support columns. The problem: The homeowners’ association had just $800,000 in reserves, and getting the work done meant asking residents to shoulder huge special assessments ranging from $80,000 to $200,000 on each home. No one was eager to pay," reported the New York Times.

"'The dirtiest words in the community-association industry are ‘special assessment,’ Donna DiMaggio Berger, a lawyer for the board, said of the effort to get 135 homeowners — of varying means and of multiple nationalities — to agree on a plan to do the repairs. During the prolonged tumult over the needed renovations, several members of the board had quit in frustration," reported The Times.

“I think it’s going to have people looking a little more closely now, when there is a condo sale. OK, how strong is this association? What are the standards by which they pass this building? What is their insurance? I will be advising my clients that we look closely at those details — which in the past, many hadn’t,” added Huard.

In 2007, Boston's Harbor Towers were hit with massive assessments. In 2007, Boston Properties reported, "And in Boston, Harbor Towers Condominiums was hit with a $75.6 million special assessment—believed to be the highest ever in Boston—to cover costs of repairing and replacing the heating and cooling systems of the two waterfront mid-rises. The one-time assessment, ranging from $70,000 to $400,000 per unit owner, led to a bitter political struggle and assertions by some residents that they would have to sell their units to pay the huge bill, due November 29th last year. Fortunately for Harbor Towers, the situation has eased, and over 95 percent of the assessment had been collected as of late January, according to a letter from its trustees."

- Condos in Springfield, Massachusetts were left empty for years as legal disputes and health and safety violations imperiled the Longhill Gardens Condo project.

- In Miami's trendy South Beach District, Castle Beach Condominium owners were forced from their upscale units for 2 1/2 years while a host of electrical and structural problems were fixed. The owners only started trickling back into their units earlier this year, still smarting from paying both assessments and monthly condo fees on units they were unable to use—in addition to temporary housing costs, according to reports.

- Now authorities in North Miami announced on Friday that they were ordering the closing of the 156-unit Crestview Towers stemming from an audit prompted by the Champlain Towers disaster in nearby Surfside.

“In an abundance of caution, the City ordered the building closed immediately and the residents evacuated for their protection, while a full structural assessment is conducted and next steps are determined,” North Miami Beach City Manager Arthur H. Sorey said. “Nothing is more important than the safety and lives of our residents, and we will not rest until we ensure this building is 100% safe.”