After listening to numerous building construction experts, evaluative panels and involved individuals, the Grand Jury came to a strong conclusion: save lives, not just money; saving lives should always be our pre-eminent concern. They hope this report provides an effective pathway to do that.
The Grand
Jury concluded that over the 40-year lifespan of the
Champlain Towers South building, steps could have and should
have been taken in a timely manner to ensure the structural
integrity of the building. The deaths of 98 people are too
high a price to pay to learn 4 very serious lessons:
-
that the statute
overseeing condominiums, the Florida Condominium Act,
desperately needs serious revisions;
-
that state and local
governments need to focus more attention on preventing
Florida’s 1.5 million condominium units from structural
deterioration that may endanger lives;
-
that Florida’s
condominium boards recognize the very serious
responsibilities they have in preserving the structural
life of their buildings and the lives of individual
residents;
-
and that the Florida
Department of Business and Regulation (DBPR), which
supervises condominium associations, be seriously
restructured so that it may finally play a seriously
constructive role in overseeing condominium governance.
Three and a
half million Floridians live in condominiums, but only in
South Florida have steps been taken to help safeguard the
structural integrity of condominium buildings, and those
procedures are undergoing intensive revamping. All
Floridians, everywhere in the state, deserve to know that
their condominium homes are, and will remain, safe.
Below is a
link to the Miami-Dade Grand Jury 2021 Spring Term Report
entitled “Surfside Condo Collapse: Recommendations to Make
Buildings Safer”:
..\PDF\GRANDJURYREP.pdf
Sincerely,
Kathy