Article
Courtesy of The Sun Sentinel
By Joe
Kollin
Published December 9,
2008
Second
floor or sixth, your condo apartment could become a prison for weeks after
a hurricane, despite a state law designed to let you escape.
That law requires all residential buildings taller than 75 feet high, or
about seven stories, to have a generator to power at least one elevator
for an unspecified number of hours each day for five days following an
electrical disruption.
But some local and state officials say it should be rewritten to apply in
buildings as low as two floors.
"In reality, if you're in a wheelchair on the second floor, you have
just as much of a problem getting to the ground as if you're on the
seventh floor," said Vince Bonvento, an assistant county
administrator for Palm Beach County.
Rabbi Yossi Gansburg and his wife, Baila, saw that problem firsthand in
2005 as they knocked on doors offering water and food after Hurricanes
Katrina and Wilma. In a four-story building in Century Village in Boca
Raton, the Gansburgs found severely dehydrated residents trapped and
unable to call for help because phone service was out.
"If you know someone is up there, seven floors isn't a problem, but
if you don't, then even three floors is a problem," said Gansburg,
spiritual leader of the Chabad Lubavitch of Coconut Creek-Pompano Beach.
Legislators adopted the law in 2006 and gave building owners until last
week to comply. They came up with the seventh floor as a compromise,
experts said, because some associations were lobbying against any
requirement for generators while others were arguing for them.
Yet the lack of generators appears to be a bigger problem in low-rise
buildings.
The 26 high-rises in the Galt Mile Community Association in Fort
Lauderdale have generators, according to Pio Ieraci, chairman of its
Presidents' Council.
"The buildings on Galt Mile, for the most part, have complied for
years," he said.
The 10-story Runaway Bay on the 17th Street Causeway, also in Fort
Lauderdale, has a generator.
"We've had it since I can remember and we have it serviced every year
and checked every month," said Gladys Tendler, a resident since 1980.
The law requiring generators doesn't say who enforces it or what the
punishment is for not complying. The exception is in newly constructed
buildings taller than 75 feet that can be denied building permits or
certificates of occupancy.
"Why put a law on the books without enforcement?" asked Cecil
Howard, Tallahassee-based general counsel of the Florida Commission on
Human Relations. The commission enforces over-55 age restrictions but
wasn't given authority to enforce the generator law even though residents
older than 55 are most affected.
The law requires local building departments and county emergency
management agencies to review compliance but doesn't necessarily let them
enforce it.
The Broward County Emergency Management Agency has identified 481
residential buildings that may be 75 feet or higher, according to
spokesman Carl Fowler. Elevator inspectors also may try to enforce the
law. Sam Farkas, spokesman for the state department of Building &
Professional Regulation, which oversees the Bureau of Elevator Safety,
said its personnel will check for compliance during annual inspections. In
Broward, where the Building Code Services Division inspects elevators
rather than the state, similar attempts at enforcement are expected.
Q&A
Q. A couple bought a Cooper City house but never received
the homeowner association documents. They asked their association for a
copy but it wanted $27.50. Believing the association should supply
documents to buyers, the husband and wife ask exactly who is responsible
for providing them, sellers or associations?
A. Florida homeowner association law imposes no obligation on a seller to
provide a purchaser with free copies of the official records of the
association, says West Palm Beach attorney Mark G. Keegan. Similarly, he
says, Florida law does not require a homeowners' association to provide a
purchaser with free copies of its records. Associations may charge fees
that cover the costs, with 50 cents per page the maximum if copied on its
own photocopier. If the association doesn't have a photocopier, or if the
request is for more than 25 pages, the association may have copies made by
a vendor and charge the actual cost.
Condo law, which is different, says only that an association may charge
its actual costs for copying.
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