Posted on 11/30/2024 7:13:08 AM PST by Angelino97
Condo residents in Florida are in uproar after being served a huge $21 million special assessment bill for repairs - just 16 years after construction.
Some residents of the two condo buildings in Brickell, Miami, face individual payments of more than $40,000, leaving them feeling blindsided and financially overwhelmed.
Some are even considering selling up as a result.
The condo board insists the repairs are urgent and required under law, and work is already underway on projects such as a roof replacement and a pool deck restoration.
But residents are questioning why, after construction finished less than two decades ago, this young building is in need of such dire repairs so quickly and with such a hefty bill attached...
It comes as condo owners in Florida are facing a perfect storm of rising homeowner's association (HOA) fees, natural disasters, increasing insurance costs and new regulations - which is forcing many to try and flee.
On November 13, the board at the Brickell condo approved the special assessment based on findings from a Structural Integrity Reserve Study, which highlighted immediate repair needs despite most systems being classified as 'generally serviceable,' CBS reported...
The Association's General Counsel, Marc Halpern, cited state laws put in place after the Surfside Champlain Towers collapse in 2021, which claimed the lives of 98 people, as justification for the board's actions.
'Florida law primarily is the justification,' Halpern told the outlet.
'The board is charged with the responsibility to adequately maintain and repair the common elements. If owners were to vote against that, you would be putting the building and the owners in danger.'
Halpern defended the board's decision, stating that owners were given opportunities to tour damaged areas and view the scope of repairs before the assessment was finalized.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Should have rented.
So, where have all the HOA fees they have collected over the past 16 years gone? I would think that a good portion of that money should have been banked for just such a situation as this.
Yeah, good luck with that! Who is going to buy a condo with a $40,000 fee attached to it for repairs.
We just had two family members flee Florida b/c they said their business and property taxes had risen so much.
I have a friend living in a condo at Panama City Beach and her fees are $700 a month. WTF??? The condo association says it’s mainly for grounds maintenance.
We owned a condo in WA state which was a stand alone house. It was great because outside maintenance was done by HOA and we were responsible only for repairs/improvements to our individual condo. It was constructed like any stand alone house.
For me it’s any condo or HOA
Check charges for condo management fees, building insurance, office supplies and postage, lawyer’s fees to collect unpaid HOA, etc. It is all part of your HOA fee.
In most cases, when increased fees came up (say a decade ago)to ‘up’ maintenance requirements....the condo owners went against it. So they were used to $200 to $300 fees, and maybe in the last year or two...it went to $500/$600. But there’s lots of catch-up going on.
One should add...insurance in the past 2 years, for everyone (condo-people, home-owners, apartment building owners) has gone up drastically.
For some....they will survive...pay the massive cost, and drain out what remains in their savings. But these are the hearty folks who want to remain in Florida for the lifestyle.
As a landlady, the only housing crisis I see is the lack of suitable tenants. They’ve all been lead to believe by Bi-Dung and Heels Up that housing (and student loans) should be free and is a human right. They all have terrible credit scores, whacked priorities (expensive tats, coiffures, manicures, menagerie of pets), bad previous landlord references, Emotional Support Animals, poor/shaky work history if any.
One of the nasty little secrets about homeowner association/condo fees is that if there are a lot of vacancies at some future point then the remaining residents get to make up the lost revenue with still higher fees.
That is how condos can go into a doom loop.
Umm, you expect planning and other aspects of logic to be part of the commie trash toolbox?
From Wikipedia:
This was the fourth sitcom to star McLean Stevenson since leaving M*A*S*H, all of them premiering while that series was still on.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condo_(TV_series)
Even “Hello Larry” lasted longer.
I worked on a condo that was very nice and maintained, the HOA fees were $3300 a month before all the issues arose.
Fees are now north of $7000 a month.
My HOA is great - all volunteer.
We pay $1,700 per year which includes:
Snow removal on 3 miles of roads
Road maintenance
A six year paving project (4 years into it, 2 miles of paving installed)
Insurance for the board
In two years the paving will be finished & yearly HOA fees will decrease to $500.
In the 32 years we have owned this property we are very happy with the HOA.
That’s rural Montana for ya’ll!
Feel bad for these Florida folks!
I’m always suspicious of Daily Mail stuff, but sometimes they beat our own local and mainstream media. A friend and neighbor moved to Florida about 10 years ago. After several storms with wind damage, and 2 hurricanes that flooded house and garage, ridiculous bugs and other critters, they came back two years ago just before another bad storm. Insurance through the roof, and not much help from FEMA. Florida is nice during the winter months after hurricane season and it cools down, the rest of the year sucks, imho.
Our HOA is $200 per year & its mainly for mowing and trimming of common areas but there was over $15,000 in non-payments that the management company started slapping liens on people’s properties. Just the threat knocked it down to $2-3,000.
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