Article Courtesy of The Miami Herald

By TANIA VALDEMORO AND EMILY VEITIA

Published June 24, 2007

Nearly two years after Hurricane Wilma tore out the windows at the GrandView Palace Condominium, residents last weekend staged a protest over what they say are unrepaired damages.

On June 16, 15 residents belonging to the GrandView Palace Homeowners Group gathered at the corner of Treasure Drive and the 79th Street Causeway, holding up signs with messages that included ''Victims of developer abuse'' and ``Honk if you hate slumlords.''

According to resident Todd Louis, the rally was meant to point out that state officials, who regulate condominiums, have not forced Charles C. Edwards and his son, James Edwards -- whose family-run development company owns about 90 units and controls the condo association board -- to fix anything.

''Either they can't or they won't intercede in what's going on,'' Louis said.

According to Sophie Lima, who owns three units in the 532-unit, 25-story building, water is still coming in through windows that were fixed after the storm, and there are still cracks underneath the second-floor pool. An electrician shut down the pool this week after he found water had corroded the electrical wiring on the pool decks, she said. Charles Edwards disagrees with the residents' claims.

''All hurricane damage, which cost several million dollars, [has] been repaired,'' he said.

The Edwards company purchased the building, at 7601 E. Treasure Dr., in the early 1990s and converted it from an apartment to condominium building in 2003.

The GrandView Palace Homeowners Group has been fighting with Edwards over the past few years. It says he has neglected to make necessary upgrades to the building before Hurricane Wilma. It also resents having to pay association fees to repair those problems.

The group sued Edwards in March to get back the money it has paid in maintenance fees since 2003. It says the developer should have paid out of his own pocket for the work.

Edwards said his attorneys advised him not to comment about the lawsuit.

He did say, however, that before the hurricane, the building's major problem has been cracks in the walls, which he plans to fix.

But residents point to other examples of what they call Edwards' pre-hurricane neglect: missing fire alarms in condo units and and four building elevators that continue to malfunction.

In November 2005, a month after Hurricane Wilma struck, North Bay Village Building Chief Paul Gioia took over the condominium, saying Edwards had refused to perform a long list of repairs before the storm.

Edwards sued to block the takeover, but Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Ronald Friedman later ordered a special master, Kenneth Marlin, to oversee the repairs.

In a status hearing last month, Friedman gave Edwards 45 days to repair all the hurricane damage and address all the building violations Gioia cited two years ago.

Edwards and his attorneys must report to Friedman about the status of the repairs in a hearing scheduled for Wednesday.