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LET’S NOT FOCUS ON BLAME – AND FOCUS ON CHANGE INSTEAD
By
Eric Glazer, Esq.
Published July 7, 2021
As they say…hindsight is 20/20. The tragedy in Surfside rips
your guts out. I had to go there and see it for myself. I
did. I then walked over to the memorial and saw pictures of the
victims, including little kids, entire families and you wonder
how anything like this could have possibly happened.
Immediately you want to blame someone. You want justice. You
want someone to pay for what happened here. It’s only natural
to feel that way. But we need to try to calm down and think
this out rationally.
It all starts with the fact that there has NEVER been a
building collapse like this that anyone is aware of, not only in
Florida, but anywhere in the entire country. Think about
that. This has never happened before. There is no precedence
for this disaster. Did the Board members have engineering
reports warning them that the concrete would deteriorate
exponentially if not replaced? Yes they did. Were they told
the building would collapse if they don’t immediately fix it?
No, they weren’t. In fact, it appears that the Chief Building
Official in Surfside actually attended a board meeting and told
the community that the building was fine and not in any danger.
The Board no doubt figured that this massive project needs an
intense amount of planning. The association needs to apply for a
loan. The board needs to prepare for a special assessment.
Engineers need to prepare a bid package. The right contractor
has to be chosen. This does not happen overnight and it appears
that the Board accomplished almost all of these things. Those
of you who live in condominiums also know that those board
members must have also been fighting intense pressure from many
unit owners not to pass a $15,000,000.00 special assessment in
the middle of the COVID pandemic no less! While I’m sure the
Board members knew that the more time it takes, the more damage
would occur and additional repairs would be needed, none of them
thought for a moment that delay would result in the collapse of
the building. If they did, some of them wouldn’t have been
there when the building collapsed. Had the Board members been
told by professionals that this building could collapse, then I
would change my tune. But there is no evidence that they were
told.
Going forward, rest assured that from now on when an engineer
inspects a condominium building and observes concrete spalling,
the report will indicate that the building may collapse if not
repaired promptly. There is nothing to lose by placing that in
a report from now on, but perhaps a lot to lose if you fail to
place that in a report.
We tend to forget that the average Joe or Sally on a Board of
Directors is not an engineer, general contractor or condominium
or construction attorney. Many of them have no experience
whatsoever in how buildings are constructed and maintained. All
they can do is rely on what their experts are telling them. I
don’t see any experts telling this board at the Champlain Towers
South that this building may collapse. How then can they be
expected to know that it would?
Again, this tragedy provokes an automatic impulse in all of us
that somebody must be held accountable here. Somebody must
pay. Some have even called for criminal prosecution of the
Board. As many of you know, being a board member is a thankless
job. On your best day, you are harassed, yelled and cursed at,
and always second guessed. It’s hard enough to get volunteers
to serve on the Board. If you are going to hold directors
individually or criminally liable when accidents happen, even
tragic accidents, that have never before happened anywhere in
any building you are headed down a very dangerous path where
it would not make sense for anyone to take the thankless board
member position out of fear of losing their money or even their
liberty. You would have to be nuts to volunteer.
So while we all want some justice here and some answers, I urge
everyone to take the focus off of the Board for a moment. They
are too easy a target and should not be made the scapegoat
here. Maybe we need to ask why buildings on the ocean don’t
have to pass an annual inspection every year by the county or
municipality. Maybe we need to ask if there should be stricter
scrutiny of buildings built before massive changes to the South
Florida Building Code were made after Hurricane Andrew, like the
Champlain Towers South. Maybe we need to ask why municipalities
are now asking their Building Departments to inspect tall
buildings, but never required it previously. Maybe we need to
find out why the elevators have to pass an annual inspection but
not the structure of the building itself. Maybe we need to find
out why the first time a building gets inspected is at the 40
year recertification requirement and why that is only a
requirement in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties. If you want to
find someone or something to blame for this catastrophe, this is
where I would start.
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About
HOA & Condo Blog
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Eric Glazer graduated
from the University of Miami School of Law in 1992 after
receiving a B.A. from NYU. He has practiced community
association law for three decades and is the owner of
Glazer and Sachs, P.A. a five attorney law firm with
offices in Fort Lauderdale and Orlando.
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Eric is Board Certified by The Florida Bar in
Condominium and Planned Development Law.
Since 2009, Eric has been the host of Condo Craze
and HOAs, a weekly one hour radio show that airs at 11:00 a.m.
each Sunday on 850 WFTL.
See:
www.condocrazeandhoas.com.
Eric is the first attorney in the State of
Florida that designed a course that certifies condominium and
HOA residents as eligible to serve on a Board of Directors and
has now certified more than 20,000 Floridians all across the
state. He is certified as a Circuit Court Mediator by The
Florida Supreme Court and has mediated dozens of disputes
between associations and unit owners. Eric also devotes
significant time to advancing legislation in the best interest
of Florida community association members.
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