Don’t wait to check hazardous buildings

Champlain Towers South was so “neglected and inadequately maintained” leading up to its 40-year mandatory inspection, that the price tag to get it up to standard ran upwards of $14 million, according to a grand jury report released recently.

The Surfside collapse killed 98 people and exposed that even though Miami-Dade County is ahead of the state on building regulations — it’s one of two counties in Florida, along with Broward, that require periodic re-certifications — perhaps that’s not enough.

Six months after the tragedy, three independent groups tasked with looking into condo safety concluded that waiting 40 years to ensure buildings are safe is too long. The Miami-Dade grand jury released a 43-page report recommending that window be shortened.

The Miami-Dade County Commission appears to agree and is expected to hear legislation in January to require inspections every 30 years instead of 40, Commissioner Raquel Regalado told the Herald Editorial Board.

Some might call that change the low-hanging fruit, easily fixed with a stroke of a pen. But not so fast.

Florida has 912,000 condo units that are at least 30 years old; 40% of those are in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, according to the grand jury report.

Imagine if thousands of those suddenly had to undergo inspections and the needed maintenance? Would there be enough engineers to conduct them, contractors to do repairs, city and county staff to issue permits and review paperwork? Would affluent condos monopolize all the needed labor and drive costs up, while low- and fixed-income residents were priced out of their homes?

“It’s done with the best intentions, but we have to be pragmatic,” Regalado said.

Regalado said she plans to request money in the next county budget to hire more staff to oversee the process and that municipalities must also weigh in on how the change would affect their ability to conduct re-certifications.

Few Miami-Dade condo owners can afford to share the $14 million maintenance bill the high-end Champlain tower faced. Low-interest loans might help them. The question is, who will provide them? If it’s the state government, Regalado said she’s been told the money would come from affordable-housing funds — robbing Peter to pay Paul. The best option appears to be to get the federal government to subsidize the loans. U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott and the Florida congressional delegation must help.

A yet-to-be filed bill related to Surfside is expected to be discussed in the legislative session starting in January, and Regalado believes it might only address Miami-Dade and Broward. That’s despite the fact that 40% of Florida’s 1.5 million condo units are outside of South Florida, many of those on coastal areas where construction deteriorates faster.

The balance between protecting life and the bottom lines is difficult to strike, but since Surfside we now know Florida’s lax regulations allow condo associations to kick the maintenance can down the road for too long. We don’t know whether improper maintenance was behind the Surfside collapse and an investigation is under way. A Miami Herald analysis found that the Champlain Towers South was poorly designed.

Buildings with less than 30% occupancy by owners are farther behind on repairs, according Regalado, who chairs a county subcommittee looking into building safety. She said she will co-sponsor a “tenants’ bill of rights” with Commissioner Jean Monestime to require landlords to provide periodic maintenance updates.

Commissioners approved a resolution in October requesting the property appraiser’s website provide links to a building’s 40-year re-certification reports. Regalado said that information will become available around April.

This was a necessary, albeit small, step. The far-reaching reforms will be more difficult on which to get consensus and are a minefield of unintended consequences.

However, that cannot be an excuse for inaction.