Condo building collapses in Surfside..... (Miami, Miami Beach: renters, condominium, lawyers)

[Truth Traveler]

Of course you can sue anybody for anything, but if, I say IF the contractors built to the code at that time, and was signed off by the gov't, and there was no demonstrable negligence or fraud, then they have no direct liability - the likely defendants if any might be the insurance company, condo management, or the Board - again, these would be the insurance companies in actuality -


Just wait until you get your Home Owners Insurance next period lol ---for anything here in FL, esp condos and all beach property!

[City Guy997S]

Originally Posted by Atlwarrior

Inexperienced contractors and cheap materials over those family's safety. Shame on the investors and general contractors of this building. The condo fees alone could have a hirer an expert to inspect the building quarterely.

Originally Posted by cjseliga

So the building association will be going to be facing a copious amount of wrongful death lawsuits and possible jail time right?

Obviously you have never lived in a condo association. The association is generally residents elected to a board of directors and they vote on small issues but usually need the residents to vote on larger issues (particularly if it involves big spending). So everyone on that association board is an owner of a unit in the building.

Jail time............no chance, building stood for 40 years if it was defective it would have fallen down sooner. Likely the issue occurred due to settling or something that was not due to the original build.

Lawsuits............once the buildings insurance hits the max limit then it will be really tough to collect. Sure the lot is worth something but each owner owns 1/130 of that so you are essentially suing your neighbor and diluting your share value.

If 99 people really died there (using the published count), they will not want to rebuild on that site, likely it will become a park or something. This is going to be a sticky situation even if the insurance companies settle with everyone, write the checks that is then going to be their land, worth several million dollars and they will want to unload it to recoup some of their money.

Sadly whoever that roofing company was, they are likely going to be added to every lawsuit as a party and the legal fees will put them out of business very quickly. The building is going to sit for years until everyone has investigated everything, the owners are going to go through hell trying to get sorted out. The insurance companies are not going to sit back and write checks to everyone. How do you value your furniture/possessions that are likely fine sitting in the building but since the building is condemned then you can't access them.

Think about the people that escaped. They now own whatever they were wearing that night, whatever they carried out of the building with them. The people who didn't escape of course have it far worse.

[City Guy997S]

Originally Posted by Truth Traveler

Of course you can sue anybody for anything, but if, I say IF the contractors built to the code at that time, and was signed off by the gov't, and there was no demonstrable negligence or fraud, then they have no direct liability - the likely defendants if any might be the insurance company, condo management, or the Board - again, these would be the insurance companies in actuality -


Just wait until you get your Home Owners Insurance next period lol ---for anything here in FL, esp condos and all beach property!

Contractors/architects/city are off the hook. I'd bet most of the people that built that building are dead now anyway. 40 year old building, if the GC was 50 then, he would be 90 now!

Board will be not liable..........they live there too! UNLESS they got a bad report and ignored it, like settling/foundation issues but also remember the board can only spend what the building owners approve. If they got a report that the place needed a 10mm repair and they don't have 10mm in reserves then the owners would need to come up with $77,000 each (10mm/130 units =77K). So if they were older retirees, younger people mortgage poor they would vote no, then the issue gets tabled until next year's meeting.

The building insurer will be out for blood if they had any type of pre-existing issue that wasn't addressed, they will try to dodge payment but the publicity backlash will be brutal considering the deaths.

[AntonioR]

Originally Posted by City Guy997S

If 99 people really died there (using the published count), they will not want to rebuild on that site, likely it will become a park or something. This is going to be a sticky situation even if the insurance companies settle with everyone, write the checks that is then going to be their land, worth several million dollars and they will want to unload it to recoup some of their money.

Way more people died at the World Trade Center attack in NYC.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCX60P9YEuo

The tallest building in the United States? Wasn't that the site where almost 3,000 people died?

[popcorn247]

Originally Posted by Cloudy Dayz

The pictures that got me, was when I saw that the ground level parking deck was collapsed into the below ground level, and that was inside the part of the building still standing. That means that the base of the part that is still standing is severely compromised, and could collapse at any time. I'm worried for the rescue workers on the site. Fortunately it doesn't look like too many of them are in there. It looks like they have just a few dozen rescue workers with search dogs going through the semi-collapsed part. I couldn't see anybody on the main debris pile. So I don't think they are even looking for people under the debris, at this time.

The rescue workers are under the debris pile, in the parking garage area. That is why they are not visible from above.

[Cloudy Dayz]

Originally Posted by k350

Well, if we had earthquakes here, would agree, however, we do not, so they are fine.

This incident proved that it doesn't even take an earthquake to bring this type of building down. Plus my understanding is that earthquakes can strike any place on the planet at any time. Even though Florida doesn't have any earthquake faults, that we know about, there is still the possibility of shaking from distant powerful earthquakes, in the the Caribbean or in other states. Soft story buildings need to go, or at least be retrofitted and strengthened.

[Huasho]

Navy Fires On Its Own Ship (And Sets Off An Earthquake)

June 21, 2021

The Navy detonated a 40,000-pound bomb to test the battle readiness of the USS Gerald Ford, causing a small earthquake near a Florida beach.

DAYTONA BEACH, FL — The U.S. Navy set off a minor earthquake 100 miles off the coast of Florida after firing thousands of pounds of explosives at the USS Gerald Ford in a simulation to determine how the aircraft carrier would perform in battle conditions.

The Navy posted video to social media Sunday showing the massive explosion of a 40,000-bomb detonated in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

The test about 100 miles off the coast of Florida caused a 3.9 magnitude earthquake near Florida's Daytona Beach. A spokesperson for the Navy said it's not uncommon for tests conducted as part of its "full ship shock trials" to register as earthquakes.

"The first-in-class aircraft carrier was designed using advanced computer modeling methods, testing, and analysis to ensure the ship is hardened to withstand battle conditions, and these shock trials provide data used in validating the shock hardness of the ship," the Navy said in a statement.

The Navy has conducted similar tests over several decades, most recently for the Littoral Combat Ships USS Jackson and USS Milwaukee in 2016.

(A Magnitude 3.9 in the Richter Scale is enough strength to unravel a bad Foundation of a building in Sandy Soil in Florida in just 2-3 days)

[kidyankee764]

159 unaccounted for as of this morning. This is horrifying.

[Cloudy Dayz]

Originally Posted by popcorn247

The rescue workers are under the debris pile, in the parking garage area. That is why they are not visible from above.

I watched over two hours of continuous helicopter coverage on YouTube, some of it at 2.5 x speed. I saw lots of activity in the uncollapsed part of the building, including rescue workers and dogs going in and out all the time. They seemed to be paying particular attention to the areas on the edge of the collapse zone. But in that two hours of video I didn't see even one person or a dog go anywhere near the debris pile, and I was looking. I think the rescue effort was being centered on the damaged parts of the building that didn't collapse completely.

[logybogy]

There will be many, many wrongful death lawsuits, specifically against the owners and developer and general contractor of 87 Park. It also falls within the statue of limitations as that is a new building and the residents have been complaining about vibration, cracks, and damage for years during construction. They better lawyer up.

I also want to know who the original architect of Champlain Towers was, what other building they designed, who the general contractor from 1981 was, and what other buildings did they work on. This may be found in the Miami-Dade public records but after 40 years will be a grind to track down. There's no legal liability. Statue of limitations is gone but if the chemical analysis of the concrete shows a lot of abnormalities associated with beach sand or other adulteration then people need to know what other buildings are ticking time bombs.

I think the residents and families are going to want to get money and now there properties are worthless and there's not a lot of public sympathy for the government to reimburse millionaires in their beach condos. There will probably be a fight for years about whether the board was grossly negligent in maintaining the building. This is going to be a $100+ Million insurance claim and the insurer will fight and drag it out.

Razing the building and selling the land to a luxury developer may be the only way the families can get money quickly without years of litigation. I imagine they can come to an agreement with the developer for a respectful tower set back to a small public park and memorial.

Originally Posted by City Guy997S

Obviously you have never lived in a condo association. The association is generally residents elected to a board of directors and they vote on small issues but usually need the residents to vote on larger issues (particularly if it involves big spending). So everyone on that association board is an owner of a unit in the building.

Jail time............no chance, building stood for 40 years if it was defective it would have fallen down sooner. Likely the issue occurred due to settling or something that was not due to the original build.

Lawsuits............once the buildings insurance hits the max limit then it will be really tough to collect. Sure the lot is worth something but each owner owns 1/130 of that so you are essentially suing your neighbor and diluting your share value.

If 99 people really died there (using the published count), they will not want to rebuild on that site, likely it will become a park or something. This is going to be a sticky situation even if the insurance companies settle with everyone, write the checks that is then going to be their land, worth several million dollars and they will want to unload it to recoup some of their money.

Sadly whoever that roofing company was, they are likely going to be added to every lawsuit as a party and the legal fees will put them out of business very quickly. The building is going to sit for years until everyone has investigated everything, the owners are going to go through hell trying to get sorted out. The insurance companies are not going to sit back and write checks to everyone. How do you value your furniture/possessions that are likely fine sitting in the building but since the building is condemned then you can't access them.

Think about the people that escaped. They now own whatever they were wearing that night, whatever they carried out of the building with them. The people who didn't escape of course have it far worse.