On the eve of Hurricane Milton, our professional staff completes certification and testing hosted by the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation.
Inspections grow in importance to insurers, buyers, and owners
Starting in October 2024, Richard Thomas Reep Architect offers Milestone Inspections to homeowners, homeowners associations, and condominium owner associations in the State of Florida.
Anyone who's lived in Florida for more than a year generally knows the "Florida Condo" meme. It's supposed to connote a disheveled wood and concrete block structure with cracked stucco, peeling paint, and annoying HOA administrators who focus on the minutiae of how people park their cars or throw away their trash. It's a bastion of pettiness and smallness. Florida condos were made famous by the Surfside tragedy, where the HOA refused to initiate any maintenance whatsoever and the whole building ended up collapsing in on itself killing 98 people. The Milestone Inspection Program is intended to fix all of that.
The State of Florida mandates that condominium buildings 30+ years old must forward an inspection report to the Department of Real Estate by the end of the year. A certified Architect (or Engineer) may provide the report. In it, the report should first analyze the building to determine what's wrong with it, if anything, and what is needed to repair it.
What do we inspect? In a Phase 1, we conduct visual inspection only. Our professional team is able to distinguish between surface cracks and deeper structural issues, and we are able to analyze the building repair history and forecast costs and issues to address.
Then, the report enters controversial territory. The HOA is required to share with the Architect a reserves budget to show how much money is being set aside for repairs, and the report compares the cost of needed repairs to the budget. In the Surfside case, the report would have shown that Champlain Towers South's HOA did not budget for repairs despite clear evidence of cracks in the parking garage concrete deck.
Whether the report would have done any good or not is another matter. The fact remains that the state law now requires Milestone Inspection reports.
We have provided nearly every kind of building inspection report one can imagine, from due diligence reports to accessibility surveys to property condition assessments. We have served as expert witness on several disputes, typically representing the Owner who has a building that has - guess what - moisture intrusion, barriers, substandard construction and just plain deficiencies.
In a recent inspection, the Owner complained about water getting into his apartment units. When we got up on the lift and looked at the top of the third floor windows, we saw this, where flashing should have covered the top of the bricks. The entire wall cavity between the brick and the wood stud framing behind it was filling with water every time it rained. They wondered why. (Photo Richard Reep)
We've conducted design reviews, led public review committees, and orchestrated in-depth consultant analyses of the technical systems of buildings, domestically and internationally. We've worked with owners who want to repair their structures and owners who don't. One common thread throughout all of this is that buildings are hard to construct and hard to maintain, and the respect I have for the professionals involved throughout the process increases over time.
Our Milestone Inspection Services are available to you for your needs. If you have already procured a report and want to discuss the repairs needed, we'll listen with a smile and may help you if the project is interesting and we have the time. If not we can refer you to the right design professional for your needs.
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