BY ANDRES VIGLUCCI
Article Courtesy of The Miami Herald
 
 

A few things got left out when Arvida, the big developer, built 458 condominiums at Lakes of the Meadow in western Miami-Dade County during the 1980s, private engineers and county inspectors say: Like requisite steel-and-concrete reinforcement inside the walls. And proper hurricane bracing under roofs and behind gable ends. And finished fireproof partitions between units. So pervasive are the defects that the county's Unsafe Structures Board last month condemned every one of the 115 buildings in Lakes of the Meadow's Village Homes as fire and hurricane hazards. Building officials say it's the largest wholesale condemnation of homes to occur in the county outside of Hurricane Andrew, which flattened the Arvida-built Country Walk subdivision -- rife with the same kinds of roofing and masonry problems found in the newly condemned condos.

QUALITY: Issues of construction quality at Village Homes in Lakes of the Meadow are discussed last August by, from left, Nasir Alam of the Pistorino and Alam engineering firm, Miami-Dade building inspector Julio Navarro and structural engineer Alfredo Arraut.

The condo owners are in an unenviable fix. They have a year to repair the moderately priced homes before the county orders them demolished. But few, if any, of the residents have the $50,000 or so that engineering consultants say it would take to fix each of the 458 units.

Insurance doesn't cover the repairs. And, so far, neither will Arvida or The Walt Disney Corp., which once owned the development company and built most of the Village Homes before selling out to another big developer, JMB of Chicago, nearly 15 years ago.

The homeowners' hopes now rest on a lawsuit against Arvida/JMB and Disney that has been dragging through the court system for seven years without a trial. Arvida/JMB and Disney have meanwhile countersued each other, each denying responsibility. A mediation session in the case is set for Aug. 8.

Arvida/JMB did settle with one of the nine condo associations in the Village Homes for a sum kept confidential. But officers at other associations say they've been told that the amount, agreed to before the extent of defects was known, won't cover the cost of repairs.

In the meantime, banks and insurance carriers for Village Homes owners are threatening to cancel loans and coverage. Condo sales are falling through because lenders are loath to approve mortgages on condemned property.

And residents are under orders to evacuate their homes in the event of a hurricane watch. Even minimal hurricane-force winds could tear off roofs and topple walls, Miami-Dade officials say.

''The situation is grave,'' said Village Homes resident Aixa Pérez, who shares a two-story unit with her daughter, a condo association officer also named Aixa Pérez. ``Many people here don't want to understand how grave. But it's ugly. And I don't know what's going to happen to us.''

The condos are part of the sprawling Lakes of the Meadow complex north of Miller Drive (Southwest 56th Street) and west of 147th Avenue -- a neighborhood that includes single-family units and an elementary school in addition to the condos.

Some residents can't decide whether they are angrier at Arvida and Disney or at Miami-Dade County, whose inspectors approved the work on the condos in spite of what building officials now say are glaring construction deficiencies.

''I was cheated when I bought here,'' said José Alvarado, a 76-year-old widower who bought a Village Homes condo in January -- after, he said, the seller failed to tell him of the problems. ``And where were the inspectors when they built this place? At a party? Or sitting at home instead of working?''

Every Village Homes building has one or more of the following problems, according to extensive inspections by three independent engineering firms hired by condo owners and the county:

• Firewalls that don't reach all the way to the roofs, a defect that would allow smoke and flames to spread quickly from one adjoining unit to another.

• Steel beams that should be covered in fire-retardant material but aren't.

• Staples that went through the plywood sheathing on the roofs but missed the support trusses they are supposed to attach to.

• Bracing meant to support the trusses and gable-ends against hurricane-force winds that was improperly installed or is missing.

• Exterior concrete-block walls missing either the required reinforcing steel rebars, the reinforcing poured concrete, or both.

Condo owners and their attorneys at the Miami firm of Duane Morris say the defects are so extensive that they could be the result of only gross negligence or a crass plan to save money.

''The more I learn about this, the more I think it's a gross travesty,'' said William Aylsworth, a Village Homes resident and association officer. ``There should be some punitive damages involved in this. It was a very, very, very sloppy job.''

County building director Charles Danger said he sympathizes with homeowners, and noted that public officials have been flexible in averting any immediate evictions. But he said ultimate responsibility lies with the developers, who he contends failed in their legal duty to ensure that the buildings met safety codes.

HURRICANE ANDREW 

Until Hurricane Andrew in 1992 exposed widespread shoddy home construction in South Miami-Dade, Danger said, county inspectors weren't trained or required to look out for many of the defects found in Country Walk and Lakes of the Meadow's condos.

Built about the same time as Country Walk, Lakes of the Meadows' Village Homes escaped heavy damage during Andrew only because strong winds did not reach it, say Danger and condo owners.

''Andrew didn't come this way; otherwise it would have been like Country Walk,'' said 18-year Village Homes resident Zaida Reyes, whose daughter's Country Walk home was destroyed in the hurricane.

Condo owners learned of the deficiencies after Andrew, when they hired an engineering firm that had investigated the causes of damage at Country Walk, Pistorino and Alam, to inspect Village Homes. They sued Disney and Arvida/JMB in 1995, but didn't notify the county until last August, hoping for a settlement and knowing the problems could result in condemnation.

''It's a shame this is happening to these people,'' Danger said. ``This is typical of the construction that happened in the 1980s. I think these people didn't give a damn. It was all cut corners and sell, sell, sell.''

William Burd, a Miami attorney for Disney, declined to comment.

''I don't care to, nor does my client want me to,'' Burd said.

In court papers, Disney -- while not acknowledging the existence of any construction defects -- has denied all responsibility, saying that county inspectors approved the plans and construction. Any problems, Disney contends, were the fault of contractors or caused later by Hurricane Andrew. And if defects were obvious, Disney argues, Arvida/JMB should have fixed them after it took over the project.

Like Disney, Arvida/JMB won't acknowledge defects. But its Miami lawyer, John Atkinson, says the company has repeatedly offered to discuss a settlement with condo owners, only to be ignored or rebuffed.

''We've always been willing to talk to the homeowners, to look at claims of any deficiencies,'' Atkinson said. ``We have never been able to get any substantive response. We still are today willing to meet any time, any day, any place.''

RESPONSIBILITY DENIED 

Still, Arvida/JMB insists any problems aren't its responsibility for a few reasons:

First, because Disney indemnified Arvida/JMB against any liabilities when the Chicago company bought Arvida's assets in September 1987.

Second, because the Disney-owned Arvida drew up the plans for all the Village Homes and completed construction on all but a relative handful before turning over the project to Arvida/JMB.

And, third, because eight of the nine condo associations had by 1990 signed forms releasing Arvida/JMB from responsibility for any construction defects, known or unknown. The company requested the releases in exchange for completing a list of repairs requested by the associations, Atkinson said.

The condo owners have challenged the validity of the releases in court, however. They claim Arvida/JMB officials obtained them under false pretenses -- by telling officers they had to sign them before the developer would turn over control of the condo associations to them. Under Florida law, condo owners don't have to sign any such releases to gain control of the development.

Moreover, their lawyers have filed affidavits in court alleging that at least one officer's signature was forged, and that at least two people whose signatures appear on the releases were not association officers at the time.

Several others say they don't remember signing any such forms.

And even if they did sign them, their lawyers say in court papers, the releases were never meant to cover all construction defects, but only the ''punch-list'' of routine repair items.

In reinstating the suit after it was dismissed by a trial judge, the Third District Court of Appeal hinted that the condo owners might have a point. Its decision called the releases ''ambiguous,'' and suggested they might indeed be limited to punch-list repair items.

That issue, the court said, should be explored in a trial, along with the question of whether any signatures were forged or condo officers misled by Arvida/JMB.

The developer's lawyer said there is nothing to the fraud allegations.

''When everything does settle out, I am confident that those releases are very much effective releases,'' Atkinson said.