MIAMI GARDENS – A
meeting inside a temporary shelter got heated Monday
morning, two days after a fire erupted inside a condominium
building in Miami Gardens, displacing dozens of residents.
“They don’t care! They raised my motherf***ing rent -- I
don’t appreciate that!” one resident said. “So what the hell
she mean? I don’t know about any damn assessment!”
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That decision, she says, was made by the
building’s board of directors who supposedly notified owners
in a letter.
But some residents — including those who rent — say they
never received it.
“Once you pay your HOA fees, insurance is included in the
HOA fees,” resident Cordinal Andrews said. “OK, and we
didn’t have any insurance. We’re not responsible for that,
she’s responsible for that.”
“I’m so angry -- we’re angry!” another resident, Valerie
Hunter, added.
Hunter and other residents say they were paying assessment
fees, most recently to complete repairs to the building’s
roof.
“That’s when we find out we cannot sell,” Hunter said. “We
don’t have any insurance on the building for months, for
years -- she doesn’t tell us anything!”
Following a tense back-and-forth, the property manager left
the meeting and did not want to speak to Local 10 News.
“She is saying that she’s been trying to get the owners to
pay different assessment fees, and the owners rejected it,”
Andrews said. “But the owners have no control over that --
she is the one responsible for managing.”
According to Miami-Dade Fire Rescue officials, 75 units
inside the building were affected.
“Of those 75, we’re projecting approximately half were
destroyed as a result of the partial collapse of the roof,
coupled with water damage and smoke and fire damage,”
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Chief Ray Jadallah said.
The American Red Cross and the Global Empowerment Mission
are assisting those who have been displaced.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.