Article
Courtesy of The Miami Herald
By DONNA
GEHRKE-WHITE
Published June 3, 2007
Since Hurricane Wilma
blew through in 2005, thousands of South Florida condominium owners have
been caught in what seems like an endless financial whirlwind.
''I can give you a hundred
places'' with similar woes, says Florida's assistant condo
ombudsman, Bill Raphan.
And, as another hurricane season
begins, scores of condominiums are as unprepared as they
were for Wilma's onslaught. Strapped from huge rebuilding
costs, associations don't have the money to ensure every
unit has hurricane shutters. Most are leaving it up to
owners -- who are just as broke.
''There are a lot of people out there
really suffering,'' says Rocco Pisani, a Lauderdale Oaks
board member. "They're on a fixed income. I don't know
how they are going to survive.''
Wilma caused $3.2 billion in damage in
Miami-Dade and Broward. It hit central and northern Broward
especially hard. But throughout South Florida, residents in
older condo buildings -- many lower-income -- suffered
significant damage and are struggling to pay for repairs.
''We're still trying to clean up from
Wilma,'' says attorney Helio De La Torre, whose Coral Gables
firm represents 500 community associations.
Associations,
he adds, ''are not finished with the repairs; they're not
ready for the hurricane season and they're up to the
eyeballs in litigation'' -- from suing insurance |
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In
Miami Beach a worker installs a railing at King Cole Condominium,
which was hit by Hurricane Wilma in 2005.
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companies
over settlements to foreclosing on nonpayers to suing contractors over
shoddy work.
In Lauderhill, the 55-plus community of Environ
Condominium, Phase II, has finally started rebuilding. Its insurer, Poe
Financial Group's Southern Family, went bankrupt. The governing board was
forced to take out a $4.5 million loan for new roofs, glass and balconies.
''It's been a disaster,'' says Sandy Leitman,
co-president of the governing board.
The 408-unit, eight-building complex, built in the
early 1970s, finally obtained a $4 million insurance settlement and started
work.
But owners have to pay an average of $11,000 per unit,
in quarterly installments over 15 years. That's an average of $300 per
quarter in addition to their quarterly dues, which range from $929.45 for a
one-bedroom to $1,546.85 for a three-bedroom. And owners already paid an
average of $1,000 per unit to clean up after the storm.
The assessments aren't enough to pay for shutters or
hurricane-resistant windows. An owner who wants shutters has to buy them
himself, at a cost of about $3,000 for a one-bedroom unit in a high-rise.
Owners, many on fixed incomes, are barely scraping by.
Some can't pay, and their boards are trying to figure out how to help their
residents avoid losing their homes over unpaid assessments.
''We're like a family here,'' says board member Lin
Rosen.
In Miami Beach, the 285-unit King Cole Condominium --
which had dozens of windows broken during Wilma -- considered installing
impact-resistant windows.
Then owners found out the cost: about $35,000 per unit
in the mostly glass-paned building, says general manager Darlene Viverette.
Even shutters, at half the cost, were deemed too expensive.
PAYING EXTRA
Owners already have been paying extra -- an average
$300 a month over five years -- for the condo's $4 million concrete
restoration project.
That's a project most South Florida buildings need to
do at some point, especially buildings near the sea, to keep salt and
moisture from corroding concrete and the steel reinforced rods holding the
building together.
For now, most condo boards say they're focusing on
getting their buildings back to pre-Wilma condition. Many had no reserves
for repairs, and complexes have had to scrounge for work crews, paying more
and waiting longer than expected. While state law requires condo
associations to maintain reserve accounts for future maintenance, owners can
vote to waive reserves, and many do.
The boards have also had to contend with the higher
costs of rebuilding under tougher building codes. ''This was something that
no one anticipated -- that they would have to change everything and build
things up to current code,'' says assistant ombudsman Raphan.
Some condo associations have proceeded with expensive
restoration and repairs, but the cost is high. The 13-story Biltmore II in
Coral Gables has assessed each of the 232 units an average of $26,000 for
concrete restoration.
The board is also requiring its owners to install
shutters at their own expense, which will run thousands dollars per unit.
''It's not inexpensive, but it's the right thing to
do,'' says condo association manager Charles Larsen.
But those kinds of costs are way out of the reach of
many of the owners of South Florida's older condominium buildings.
In the 33313 Zip code that includes Lauderdale Oaks,
nearly 21 percent of households live below the poverty level, and the median
income is $36,103.
Many of Lauderdale Oaks' year-round owners live on
much less. Awais, who has heart problems, bought his one-bedroom condo for
$25,000 eight years ago. Since Wilma, the monthly maintenance fee on his
unit has jumped from $140 to $206.
''I don't receive enough to have a life, a dignified
life,'' says Awais, who has worked most of his life for barely above minimum
wage as a construction and retail worker.
Awais paid off a special assessment of about $2,200
for roof work by working as a lab worker for the state Department of
Agriculture at up to $15 per hour, the most he had ever earned. Once his
health improves, he hopes to get another job to pay for the next assessment.
REFINANCED CONDO
His neighbor, Blanca Terron, a 74-year-old widow who
receives $918 a month from Social Security, refinanced her condo to pay her
assessment.
Wes Ulett, a board member who is on disability, used
credit cards and bank loans to pay his $2,200. He'll have to borrow more to
pay upcoming assessments for fire alarm and elevator upgrades.
''I'm still paying on it,'' he says. "I'm
fortunate than most of the others because I had access to credit.''
In the Hawaiian Gardens condo complex across the
street from Lauderdale Oaks, Norma Pickersgill, a hotel receptionist,
doesn't have the money to fix her rail-less balcony, let alone buy hurricane
shutters. She lives with yellow tape where railings used to be.
But she counts herself lucky to be back home, after a
year and a half living first in a FEMA trailer and then with relatives after
her trailer was burglarized. She refinanced her two-bedroom unit to pay a
$5,000 special assessment for the building's new roof and other work.
''I thank God so much to sleep in my own bed,'' she
said.
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