Miami-Area Condo Board President Warned of Need for Repairs in April Letter

 

The president of the Champlain South Towers apartment association told residents in April their building was in desperate disrepair and urged them to pay the $15 million in assessments needed to repair structural problems, in a letter reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

The condo building collapsed into a pile of rubble Thursday, leaving at least eleven people dead and 150 unaccounted for, officials said. On Monday, rescue workers tunneled into the particles left by the fallen building, looking out for survivors, for the fifth day.

The apartment board president, Jean Wodnicki wrote that the concrete damage to the building would “multiply exponentially over the years, and certainly the observable damage such as in the garage has gotten significantly worse over the years.”

The reason of the letter, dated April 9, 2021, was to explain to residents the worthiness of the construction projects for the 40-year-old building in advance of the following week’s meeting about a proposed special assessment of $15 million to be paid with the aid of residents.

Florida buildings are required to be recertified for electrical and structural safety after forty years, and the building had begun that process.