Long before the Champlain Towers South Condominium collapsed, the owners and the complex's board of directors spent years clashing over the cost and extent of safety and structural repairs for the 12-story building near Miami.
"Why is all of this so complicated and expensive?" read the question that topped the board's meeting minutes over a list of major structural problems last October as the deadline for a state-required recertification of the Surfside, Florida building approached.
On April 9, Jean Wodnicki, president of the Champlain Towers South board, warned in a
letter to owners that the problems had worsened. “We have discussed, debated, and argued for years now, and will continue to do so for years to come as different items come into play,” she wrote.
"A lot of the work could have been done or planned for in years gone by. But this is where we are now," added Wodnicki.
The disagreements represent an extreme but familiar version of the infighting and financial planning battles that play out across the nation in condos, homeowner associations and co-ops — roughly 380,000 community associations in all. Owners or shareholders of the associations square off with volunteer and sometimes inexperienced board members elected to oversee the complexes in a struggle to maintain aging buildings while keeping monthly fees low and enticing new buyers.
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the Champlain Towers South Board "was struggling and struggling and struggling" for years to gain approval from unit owners to fund costly repair work, and "finally got it over the line" shortly before the collapse.