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Article Courtesy of The Palm
Beach Post
By JANE MUSGRAVE
Published July 28, 2008
When Lenny Maites and his wife, Blanche,
needed a place to live after hurricanes devastated the Tiara condominium
in 2004, he scoffed at her insistence that they sign a one-year lease.
''What are you, nuts? We'll be back in here
in a couple of months,'' he told her.
They're still waiting.
But after years of frustration, litigation
and false starts, things finally are looking up for owners of the 320-unit
Singer Island high-rise.
SOARING COSTS
And for a change, it's not just the soaring
costs of repairing the 42-story oceanfront tower that became of symbol of
the perils of coastal living.
If all goes as planned -- and ifs have been
a way of life at the Tiara -- final building inspections will begin next
week, and residents should be able to begin moving back into their
long-abandoned homes Aug. 8.
''To me it's going to feel like I have my
life back,'' said J.B. Dixson, who had just renovated her two units when
the first of two hurricanes walloped the high-rise in the fall of 2004 to
be followed by Hurricane Wilma a year later.
''I have felt an unreal sense of just
drifting for four years,'' she said.
Other owners share Dixson's feelings.
''We've moved five times in the last four
years,'' said Blanche Maites.
And with family photos and keepsakes in
storage, no place felt like home.
''It's like being homeless,'' said Carol
Dubinsky, who had lived on the 39th floor of the Tiara for 20 years.
"You feel like your identity's been misplaced.''
The cost to residents has been substantial.
For the roughly three dozen residents who
had no other home, there was the cost of rent. For most, there was also
the $300-a-month-plus cost of storing what they managed to salvage from
their windswept, rain-soaked homes.
Further, even though they could not live in
their condos, they had to continue to pay taxes and maintenance fees,
which added at least $10,000 a year to their seemingly unending bills.
THE ASSESSMENTS
Then came the assessments. With only $88
million of the roughly $140 million renovation project covered by
insurance, each resident had to kick in between $110,000 and $150,000
toward construction expenses.
The condo board is still trying to figure
out how to pay for an estimated $4 million of other improvements, such as
rebuilding the tennis courts, garage roof and gazebo, without socking
residents with yet another assessment.
There is a chance Tiara residents could
recover some money in pending litigation against the original construction
company, their insurance agent or their public adjuster. There is also a
chance that years of litigation will be for naught.
Already, they lost a $1.4 million lawsuit
against their public adjuster.
A federal jury last year ruled that Goodman
Gable Gould/Adjusters International did its job properly. The verdict has
been appealed.
If they lose the lawsuit against Southern
Construction, which walked off the job in February 2006, saying it had not
been paid, they could be forced to pay $23 million. So far, mediation has
been unsuccessful.
Another lawsuit, claiming Marsh &
McLennan Companies underinsured the building, is scheduled to go to trial
in federal court in November.
Lawsuits are the least of residents'
concerns.
All thoughts are on city building
inspectors and the move, which features logistical problems that rival a
military operation.
If inspectors give the building their seal
of approval, movers will begin descending on the building.
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