Article
Courtesy of First Coast News
By
Anne Schindler
Published February 19, 2022
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WATCH
VIDEO |
JACKSONVILLE — Twelve seconds. That’s how long it took to
turn a 40-year-old condo to dust, and claim the lives of nearly 100 people.
The Surfside tragedy horrified observers in a country where a building's
structural safety is rarely questioned. Many thought it would prompt Florida
lawmakers to take a fresh look at preventing – and punishing – construction
defects.
A bill moving quickly through the 2022 legislative
session tackles the issue of defective construction, but critics say it's
moving the state in the wrong direction.
Proposed by Northeast
Florida Sen. Travis Hudson (R-St. Augustine), Senate Bill
736 dramatically reduces the time a home builder is
responsible for construction defects. For single family
homes, it cuts that time in half – from 10 years to five. It
makes no exceptions for intentional fraud, or for violations
of building and fire safety codes.
“That will essentially make Florida the least
consumer-friendly state in the nation,” attorney Rick Nutter
told the Community Affairs Committee Wednesday morning.
“This type of five-year bar will absolutely prohibit a
homeowner from any recourse on what's typically their
largest investment.”
Hutson said his goal is to make the process of resolving
construction complaints easier, reducing the need for
litigation, and keeping insurance rates for builders and
developers from rising due to claims. The bill is backed the
state's powerful homebuilder and developer lobby. |
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Senator Travis Hutson
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Speaking on behalf of the Florida Home Builders
Association, attorney Kari Hebrank told committee members, “one of the
biggest problems that the industry is now facing is that subcontractors
cannot afford the rising costs of liability insurance as a result of Chapter
558 [construction defect] claims.”
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But Attorney Neil O’Brien said shortening the time to bring claims ignores
the fact that construction defects can take years to surface. “They're not
going to show up in four years," he told an earlier meeting of the Judiciary
Committee. "It's going to take 7, 8, 9, 10, maybe even 12 years in some
instances for these damages to show up.”
Though hidden, O'Brien said, the defects can be dangerous and expensive. “I
see these issues on a daily basis with builders who knowingly violate the
code, skip important steps in construction, steps that lead to catastrophic
structural damages," he said. "These structures will collapse if left
unattended, just like Surfside."
Under Hutson's bill, the clock to file claims would also start running
sooner. The window to file construction defect claims, known as the period
of repose, currently doesn’t open until the last of these events occurs:
Completion of the contract, possession by the owner, or the issuance of
certificate of occupancy. The new bill would start the clock when the first
one occurred.
In cases where a home isn’t immediately sold – a model home, or a cold real
estate market -- O’Brien said, “there's a possibility that their statute of
repose has expired before they've even moved into the house.”
Sen. Gary Farmer (D-Lighthouse Point) expressed his opposition to the bill
by holding up pictures of his own house, showing his colleagues extensive
wood rot from a design flaw.
“This is reality," he said, holding the pictures aloft. "This is what it
looks like. It's not often as severe as Surfside -- that's the worst
possible scenario. But why are we protecting people who do this, hide this?
And why are we punishing homeowners who are completely innocent? They didn't
know! That's why it's [called] a ‘latent’ defect.”
Martin Langesfeld, whose sister Nicole and brother-in-law Luis Sadovnic were
among the 98 people killed in the Surfside collapse, has been making the
trip from South Florida to Tallahassee since November to oppose Senate bill
736.
“She moved into that building two months before, ready to start her life. My
sister was crushed to death in a place she called home,” he said. “They took
everything from me.”
Langesfeld says the bill flies in the face of what surviving family members
deserve. “They're doing the exact opposite of what needs to be done,” he
said.
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Speaking at Wednesday’s committee meeting, he said, “instead of dropping
accountability from 10 years, why don't we instead work together and raise
accountability? So it doesn't occur again? The only ones benefiting from
this bill are developers and insurance companies.”
Hutson’s father is a prominent Northeast Florida home builder. The Hutson
Companies is currently building the massive SilverLeaf project in St. Johns
County, which is ultimately expected to have more than 16,000 homes and 45
acres of retail space. (According to the business' website, Sen. Hutson’s
job with the company includes leading the “companies' charitable and civic
activities.")
Hudson didn’t respond to a voicemail and email, but he has disputed the
Surfside connection.
“That situation is completely different than this,” he said at a November
meeting of the Judiciary Committee. “In terms of that particular incident,
you're talking about a building that is well beyond 10, 15, 20 years old.”
Jacksonville structural engineer Ron Woods says the condo collapse is an
extreme example, but construction defects can destabilize single family
homes, too.
“We're obligated to protect the health, safety and welfare of the public,”
he said. “This bill doesn't do that.”
Woods, who has 30 years of experience and has investigated hundreds of
construction defect claims, says many defects are well hidden. “Water
intrusion is very difficult to show up and can be insidious. It can be very
slow moving, and causing damage that takes a while to show up. And many
consumers don't know what to look for. Most consumers don't know what to
look for.”
Complicating that, Woods said, is the fact that wood rot and structural
failings can be masked by an immaculate exterior.
That was the case for Jose Gonzalez. He didn’t realize water was leaking
from a poorly installed second-story window until his home was on the brink
of collapse. “The window shattered,” he told First Coast News. “The roof was
caving in. So that's why the window broke. The window was holding the roof
up."
Gonzalez had to sue to get his builder to pay for the $60-thousand-dollar
repair. But because his home was eight years old at the time, the builder
would've had no obligation to pay under Hutson's proposed bill. “If that was
shortened to a four-year period, that would have all been just, 'Oh, tough.
Tough luck. Sorry.'”
(The bill was amended Wednesday, to change the proposed period of repose
from four to five years -- half the current standard.)
For Martin Langesfeld, the peril is real, and personal. “How many lives is
it going to take for legislators to do the right thing?” he asks. “I thought
98 lives was enough.”
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