Kings Point residents fight for repairs

Article Courtesy of The Palm Beach Post
By Meghan Meyer

Published February 19, 2007

 

Hurricane Wilma hit nearly a year and a half ago, but in Kings Point, it might as well have happened yesterday.

      

About 300 condominium units still need repairs in four sections of this retirement community west of Delray Beach. Inside the 1970s-era apartments, water pools on stripped floors and only metal studs remain where walls once stood.

As the Kings Point Community Association, an umbrella group that manages the Brittany, Flanders, Monaco and Tuscany sections, continues to fight for more money from its insurers, residents have grown so weary of inaction that they've talked of seceding.

"These are simple apartments," said Judy Ripps, who with her siblings owns two condos in the Brittany section. "We're not erecting the Taj Mahal here." Officials continue to promise to finish repairs "soon," but won't specify exactly how long "soon" means.

The state's assistant condo ombudsman, Bill Raphan, has worked with the residents on the problem.

Herb Potish walks through the damaged Tuscany section of Kings Point on Friday.

"I said, 'Are you talking about years?''" he recalled asking officials during a meeting last week. "And the frightening thing is, nobody said no."

Kings Point made its first critical misstep shortly after the hurricane, when the association board decided to wait for the insurance companies to cut a check rather than immediately taking out a loan to pay for repairs as other communities had done, Raphan said. This delayed repairs.

The board had already levied an assessment on residents to meet the $75,000-per-building insurance deductible, said Tuscany President Richard Price, who also serves on the board. Owners of two-bedroom apartments paid $1,265, and one-bedroom owners paid $1,057.

Many residents who have lived in Kings Point since it was built 30 years ago have outlived their savings. Frail and poor, they had trouble paying even that assessment. Another assessment to pay for further repairs would have proven too much, Price said.

"We had assessed people," Price said. "Now we gotta turn around and assess them again? You can only get so much out of somebody."

 Judy Ripps looks around her late parents' apartment in Kings Point on Friday. Ripps says she is upset that management wouldn't even allow her family to place a tarp over the place to stop further damage.

The board also feared the insurers might not pay if they saw the community had already completed repairs, Price said. The board hired Southern Construction, the only company big enough to do the job, said KPCA attorney Peter Sachs. Residents complained the board did not get competitive bids for the contract. The urgency of the situation made seeking bids impossible, Sachs said.

Southern agreed to do the work for the $3.3 million deductible, plus whatever the final claim turned out to be. The association had hoped for $21 million. It's still waiting.

The company tore down much of the damage, replaced some roofs, then stopped all work in September. Company officials did not return phone calls last week. The KPCA considers the contract canceled, Sachs said.

Residents take matters into own hands

As the work stalled, residents grew angrier. In the Tuscany section, about 20 stopped paying their assessments in protest, Price said.

"My parents are turning in their graves," Ripps said.

When their parents died, Ripps and her siblings inherited the second-floor apartment where the couple had lived for 35 years. Her brother lives there now, or did, before Wilma took the roof off. The roof went unrepaired for so long that black mold grew on the freshly painted walls of the downstairs apartment, which Ripps purchased only a few months before the storm.

At least 20 Tuscany residents have fixed damage on their own even though the association said not to and the county can order it ripped out if it's not done properly, Price said. His apartment is uninhabitable too. Like most of his dispossessed neighbors, he pays about $1,000 a month to rent a place to live, on top of a $368 maintenance fee for the Tuscany condo he can't use.

Secession from the community

Fed up with the association, Tuscany residents looked to the state condo ombudsman's office for help. Tuscany he state couldn't help, Raphan told them, because ceded its powers to the association when Tuscany was built. And the KPCA is set up as a private, not-for-profit corporation, not subject to rules governing condominium associations.

Price considered seceding from the KPCA, an idea he's dropped for the moment.

"Right now it would be foolish of us to break away," he said. "A lot of people are pushing because they're so disgusted."

If Tuscany broke away, it would have to find another management company and start over with the rebuilding project.

"If they all stay together," Raphan said, "they'll eventually get their roofs fixed."

For now, Price said, Tuscany has taken out a line of credit to pay for its repairs.

The lawyers have continued discussions with the insurance companies, whose adjusters had hit an impasse with the public adjusters hired by the KPCA, Sachs said. As many as five insurance companies are involved, and right now negotiations have focused on two of them, he said.

"We're back on the road to a resolution now," Sachs said.

Eventually, the discussions will include county building officials, he said.

"We have to decide what are we going to rebuild and how to rebuild it," Sachs said.

Kings Point was built inexpensively under 1970s building codes. It must be rebuilt up to today's standards. That will mean making some changes, but nothing dramatic, Sachs said. The board has formed a committee to hire a project manager because of the wide scope of the project.

Learning from their mistakes

Kings Point is not the only community still dealing with repairs from hurricane damage, said Sachs, who specializes in community associations.

"It's not unique," Sachs said. "Because of the size, because of the vulnerability of the residents, it's the most tragic."

The condos should have had money in reserve accounts to pay for repairs, he said. State law requires it, but owners can vote to waive the requirement. Raphan's office plans to propose legislation that will require, during votes, a notice that waiving reserves could result in a large special assessment to pay for hurricane damage.

Condominiums should do strategic planning for hurricanes, just as local governments do, Sachs said. That means installing shutters and special glass, keeping money in reserves, and having a file with names of adjusters and lenders with whom the association already has a good relationship.

"Be more proactive than reactive," he said.

Other communities can learn from Kings Point's hindsight, but it won't help fix condos in the immediate future, Raphan said.

"Fix these people's units," he said. "That's what it's all about."

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