Miami-Dade County now leading
The aftermath of the Surfside Condo Tower Collapse, June 24, 2021. Courtesy, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue
The Florida Legislature has been criticized not just for failing to pass additional needed insurance consumer protection reforms in its regular session, but also high-rise building inspection reforms, too. Several bills were filed last session in the aftermath of the Champlain Towers South condominium collapse in Surfside that killed 98 people in June of 2021 – none won final approval. Several legislators and congressional members are asking Governor DeSantis to add this to the upcoming special session on property insurance.
Where the legislature has so far failed to act, Miami-Dade County is prepared to follow through. The county commission will hold its first public hearing this Wednesday (April 27) on a proposed new re-inspection schedule for high-rise buildings. It would require structures over three stories tall to be inspected and re-certified after 30 years, instead of the current 40 years, and require a two-year advance notice of the re-inspection be made to residents and local building officials. Champlain Towers had just begun initial repairs from its 40-year review when it collapsed.
The Miami Herald reports that “Some engineering experts, however, say the changes to the recertification standards aren’t enough to prevent another Champlain South, pointing out that they don’t demand that engineers look at a building’s original design plans, scan for proper placement of reinforcement or do other testing to ensure a building’s original design was adequate to withstand decades of environmental pressures.”
Credit: Miami-Dade Fire Rescue
The proposed Miami-Dade County measure also falls short of what the Florida Legislature’s failed building inspection bill would have done. It called for structural inspections on the 20th anniversary and every seven years afterward for buildings within three miles of a coast and on the 30th anniversary for all other buildings and every 10 years afterward. The bill mirrored some of the suggestions in a joint report by The Florida Engineering Society and the American Council of Engineering Companies of Florida, one of two reports produced in the aftermath of the Surfside tragedy.
Another bill addressed community association building safety regulation, establishing reserving requirements so that high-rise condominium buildings can fund needed engineering studies, maintenance, and repair that go into recertification. In the last week of the session, it was reported that the Senate could not go along with requiring condo residents to pay assessments for building repairs that they may not be able to afford. A federal report on the cause of the Surfside collapse isn’t expected for at least another year.
LMA Newsletter of 4-25-22
