“Did ANYONE have an obligation to report the problems to the city (like maybe the engineer)?”
Good question. Can anyone who is a Florida Licensed Professional Engineer speak to this? Common sense would suggest that if a structural engineer found items that threatened collapse, that the engineer would copy his report to the Chief Building Official, for CYA if nothing else.
In the unconfirmed story category — a youtube news report claims a structural repair project was about to begin. Give the complexity of what likely went wrong here, it is believable that it would take years from observing the external signs to a deeper investigation, to designing a feasible repair concept, to getting it developed and approved, to bidding, contracting and performing the repairs — with additional time added to get the condo owners to agree and put up the money. The building should have been evacuated long ago. That idea was probably not received happily by the owners.
Yes, exactly.
In a world where people presume things happen instantly, a major structural repair such as this would have taken years to identify, plan, fund, and execute.