Article
Courtesy of The Miami Herald
By Nicholas
Behamas
Published May 25, 2015
A luxury condo tower in Brickell has found defective
Chinese drywall in 29 of its units — and will have to pay $3.3 million to
have it removed and replaced.
Defective drywall is strongly associated with the release of foul-smelling
sulfurous gases that damage building materials, appliances, pipes and other
equipment, according to the federal government.
In a letter to condo owners, the 500
Brickell East condominium association wrote that “evidence
of some of these effects have been detected” in the
building. The association hired an engineering firm to
confirm the presence of the imported drywall through x-ray
analysis and laboratory testing.
The discovery could have a chilling effect on prices at the
luxury tower on Brickell Avenue, which was built by the
Related Group between 2005 and 2008 and contains 321 units.
Units currently listed for sale run from about $300,000 to
more than $1 million.
“When buyers hear the term ‘Chinese drywall,’ they run in
the opposite direction,” said Michael Light, a broker at
Miami Luxury Homes. “With sellers trying to unload their
units and buyers staying away, it will cause a low-demand,
high-supply situation driving prices down.”
No defective drywall was found in the complex’s second
tower, 500 Brickell West.
During the pre-recession construction boom, builders
responded to a national shortage of drywall by turning to
manufacturers in foreign countries such as China. Some of
the imported material turned out to be defective, leading to
Congressional action and lawsuits around the country.
The Centers for Disease Control and Infection has said there
is currently not enough information to determine if
breathing the resulting gases poses a health risk for
residents. But Chinese drywall has been linked to short-term
side effects including itchy eyes, recurrent headaches and
breathing problems. |
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A tower at the 500 Brickell complex. It’s one of two
buildings that are part of the 500 Brickell complex. Defective
drywall was only found in the east tower.
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“Depending on the extent of the problem, the association will have to
displace the people living in those units while they remove the drywall,”
said Victor Diaz, an attorney based in Miami Beach who has represented
hundreds of plaintiffs in lawsuits over drywall. “It’s an extremely
complicated process.”
Diaz said many people don’t realize the problems they are seeing in their
homes are related to defective drywall.
“They think their televisions or computers are malfunctioning, or that
there’s something wrong with the water heater or the air conditioning unit,
or that their faucets are defective,” Diaz said. “But it’s all related to
these gases.”
The condo association filed a lawsuit last year seeking damages against the
contractors who installed the drywall, Facchina McGaughan LLC, and Caceres
Drywall Corp.
But in the letter to homeowners, the association said it could not afford to
wait for the litigation to be resolved but needed to act now to prevent
further price depreciation and physical damage to the units.
The association will meet on June 3 to vote on taking out a line of credit
to pay for the replacement of the drywall. If the lawsuit against the
contractors fails, the association would have to raise monthly maintenance
fees by 25 percent to pay back the loan, it wrote in the letter.
The building sat largely empty during the recession as the the Related
Group, one of South Florida’s premier condo developers, desperately tried to
sell units, at one point offering a one-year lease of a Mini Cooper to
buyers.
Related did not respond to a request for comment. It is not listed as a
party in the lawsuit, according to county court records.
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