Bel Air condominium owners on South Congress won’t have to pay for expensive repairs.
They agree to temporary structural repairs to prevent costly permanent fixes forced by the city.
The owners of the problem-plagued Bel Air condominiums on South Congress Avenue agreed to temporary structural repairs to their units to avoid a city commission forcing them to pay for more expensive, permanent fixes.
The city’s Building and Standards Commission voted Wednesday evening to let the homeowners make tem- porary repairs at a cost of $2,000 to $3,000 per unit. The owners would have nearly three months to make these repairs before a fine of $10 per unit per month kicks in.
Back in March, the commission had considered forcing the condo owners to make permanent repairs at a cost of $110,000 to $125,000 per unit because the substandard construction potentially posed an immediate safety hazard.
A report by Datum Engineering said the structural problems include “significant deficiencies in missing reinforcing steel and grout,” as well as defective or missing bolts, which are used to hold up the roof, floors and stairwell.
But condo owners balked at this repair mandate, saying they shouldn’t be held liable for fixing shoddy construction work, and were in the midst of a legal battle against the builders. The industrial-style condos were built in 2006 and are home to many
first-time homebuyers with units ranging from 900 square feet to nearly 1,500 square feet.
At one time the condos were priced between $273,000 and $399,900, the American-Statesman reported in 2009, when the remaining units were sold at auction. Now it’s unclear what their value is, with the Travis Central Appraisal District appraising one unit at less than $3,000 and others at closer to $200,000.
The commission had voted in March to give the owners more time to figure out which units were actually structurally deficient and posed immediate safety hazards and to come back in May with answers.
An engineer’s report, paid for by the homeowners association and given to the city on May 18, said the structural issues posed a safety threat to all the units but that the temporary repairs and the owner’s agreement to limit how many people were allowed in each unit would make the units safe to live in.
The Wednesday hearing was packed with owners who live in or own units at Bel Air. Though this hearing was less emotional than the one held in March, homeowners said they were frustrated with how the city has handled this case, blaming the city for not catching these construction problems in the first place.
“We have been trying to fix this problem for five years, so don’t punish us,” said owner Melissa Sinclair-Stevens.
In 2010, the homeowners association filed a lawsuit against the condo builders, EBCO Advanced Building Systems and Structura Inc. Part of that lawsuit produced a report by Datum Engineering documenting the problems, and that was turned over to the city.
The city then “yellow-tagged” the entire building, which means it was built with substandard construction that didn’t meet city code. After stalling for months to give the lawsuit time to settle, the city then took the issue to the Building and Standards Commission to consider forcing the homeowners as- sociation to make repairs to meet the code’s safety requirements.
The lawsuit against one of the contractors is now set for trial in September.