PICTURED: 'Accelerating' concrete damage in Miami condo tower just 36 HOURS before it collapsed as residents reveal they were hit with $15m repair bill in April and told deterioration was 'much worse'

Alex June 29, 2021

COST AND TIMELINE OF CHAMPLAIN TOWERS REPAIRS

2018 cost: $12million

That is the initial cost given by Frank Morabito, who was hired to conduct a review for the building's recertification process.

Morabito was rehired in 2019 and he conducted a more extensive review.

A committee was then formed to decide who was going to do the work

2021 cost: $16million

This was how much the work had increased by because the damage had become worse.

This figure also reflects the engineer's fee for doing it.

Cash on hand: $707,000

Cash needed: $15.5million

What each owner owed:

$80,000-$336,000 depending on apartment size

Owners were given until July 1 to decide how to pay

The work bids were due to end on June 1 but bids were still being taken for the concrete project

How to pay

Lump sum or in monthly installments of $500 or more for 15 years

Units in building: 136

A contractor photographed corroding rebar and cracked concrete in the parking garage of the Champlain Towers South complex on Tuesday, just 36 hours before the building collapsed, killing at least 11 people and just two months after the building's residents were told the damage was 'accelerating'.

The contractor, who has not been named, had been asked to survey the damage in the pool equipment room, which was in the southside of the underground parking garage, beneath the pool deck. He was putting together a bid to redo the pool and the pool equipment room but was struck by the damage, which he photographed.

He told The Miami Herald afterwards: 'There was standing water all over the parking garage...I thought to myself, that’s not normal.'

The damage had been identified in a 2018 report by engineer Frank Morabito. He found that there was a 'major error' in the building's construction which meant the pool was leaking onto the concrete slabs below.

In April, the condo board - which had been deliberating the repairs for two years, trying to come up with the money for them and organizing a committee to oversee them - sent a letter to residents telling them the damage was 'significantly worse' and 'accelerating'.

'Please note that the original scope of work in the 2018 report has expanded. The concrete deterioration is accelerating. The roof situation got much worse, so extensive roof repairs had to be incorporated.

'When you can visually see the concrete spalling , that means that the rebar holding it together is rusting and deteriorating beneath the surface.

'The concrete deterioration is accelerating. The roof situation got much worse, so extensive roof repairs had to be incorporated.

'Indeed the observable damage such as in the garage has gotten significantly worse since the initial inspection,' board president Jean Wodnicki said.

In that letter, she said they were still trying to finalize a loan from Valley bank to pay for the repairs (they tried to get a loan first from Banco Popular but the deal fell through) and that the total cost was more than $16million and the board had just $707,000 in cash reserves, leaving them with a bill for around $15million.

The owners of the building's 136 units would be responsible for repaying it and each was on the hook for a different amount depending on how big their unit was.

They were given until July 1 to decide if they were going to pay for it all up front or in monthly installments over 15 years.

A one-bedroom apartment owner, for example, was given a bill for $80,000 but someone in a four-bedroom penthouse was asked to fork out $336,000, residents told CNN. Some of the owners were elderly couples who'd bought their property to retire. They said the bill came as a surprise.

It's unclear why the board didn't tell the residents about the damage in 2018 or ask them to pay for it then.

'A lot of this work could have been done or planned for in years gone by but this is where we are now,' Wodnicki wrote in her letter.

'There are many moving parts to this project.

'We have covered so much ground already to get the project rolling, it’s not surprising everyone is still asking about those items. Everything reviewed in this letter has been publicly presented, discussed, and voted on as necessary.

'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 said.

Photos taken on Tuesday in the pool equipment room at Champlain Towers South, which is located in the basement parking garage, show extensive concrete spalling and corroded rebar. A contractor took these photos and noticed that in the actual parking garage, there were puddles of water which were in the direct spot beneath the leaking pool deck

The contractor photographed the pool deck which looked normal above ground but according to a 2018 report, was causing water to form on the lower level because it was leaking

This is a breakdown of the repairs that were needed to Champlain Towers South and how much they were going to cost residents. The most expensive item was a $4million facade, balcony and railing repair. Residents questioned much of the breakdown

The condo board only had $707,003 in cash from homeowners fees to pay for the repairs so it left a huge sum - $15.5million - that suddenly had to be covered. The board was in the process of securing a loan from the bank Valley to pay for it, and they were asking residents to repay them either in lump sums or over 15 years, in monthly payments, to pay it back. The first loan they'd tried to secure from Banco Popular fell through but they were trying to finalize it for months, the letter reveals

Wodnicki, the board president, wrote that 'a lot of this work could have been done or planned for in years gone by but this is where we are now'. There is no requirement to undergo repairs or reviews periodically aside from the 40-year recertification process and that is only in Miami Dade County, not the whole of Florida

Among the repairs listed was $722,077 on 'hallway repairs' that the residents questioned because it was so expensive. The 'hallway project' was in the works before the 2018 report shed light on other repairs that were needed

This is how bad the damage was in 2018, and since then it had become 'significantly worse'. The board warned residents in April this year that it was 'still accelerating' and that there was no telling how it actually was without ripping some of the building up

'We struggled with it and everything,' Isabel Aguero, who lives on the 11th floor with her husband and who is retired, told CNN.

Her son Alberto was visiting. He said he was angry when he found out the condo board knew about the necessary repairs in 2018 but hadn't started them yet.

'I was pretty angry at that point, angry that innocent lives had to be lost.'

Wodnicki, in her letter, admitted that some of the repairs could have been done earlier but 'this is where we are now', she said.

In the time between the first recommendation for repairs in 2018 and 2020, the cost of them jumped by around $3million because the damage had worsened.

'It is impossible to know the extent of the damage to the underlying rebar until the concrete is opened up. Oftentimes the damage is more extensive than can be determined by inspection of the surface.

Wodnicki concluded: 'A lot of this work could have been done or planned for in years gone by. But this is where we are now.

'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.'

Exposed portions of the building show a children's bedroom on the top floor of the building that was partially damaged alongside other parts that were ripped off. It's unclear if anyone was in these bedrooms when the building collapsed. 150 people remain missing - 11 are confirmed dead

Crews work in the rubble Champlain Towers South condo, Tuesday, June 29, 2021, in Surfside, Fla. Many people were still unaccounted for after Thursday's fatal collapse

Early morning scenes from Surfside where the Champlain Towers rescue efforts continue on Tuesday

Part of the damaged building on Tuesday morning as rescue team continued to work at the site looking for survivors

Men's shirts and women's heels are among the rubble of the site on Tuesday morning. Crews are still working to find any survivors six days after the collapse

Suitcases and other household items are scattered among collapsed wall and ceiling. Rescue teams have so far only found one person alive in the wreckage

Another view of the children's bunkbeds at the top of the building which was also damaged

Tributes on the beach next to the collapsed condo on Tuesday morning. There are fears for the two that are next to it and were built by the same developer

Search and rescue teams at dawn on Tuesday morning after working through the night to try to find survivors

The building from the water on Tuesday as search and rescue teams used cranes to try to find survivors. Only one part of the building remains in tact

This is the scale of the debris, shown overnight as search and rescue teams used cranes to sift through the rubble

'DEVASTATED' CONDO BOARD SAYS 'PERFECT STORM' LED TO REPAIR DELAYS

Nancy Kress Levin is still missing. She is one of the seven volunteers who serves on the condo association board. Nancy's 50-year-old son Frank Kleiman is among the dead. He lived in the building with his wife, Ana, and Ana's 26-year-old disabled son, both of whom are also dead. Her other son Jay was visiting for a funeral. He is missing

The condo board at Champlain Towers South that was tasked with organizing repairs was made up of just seven volunteer residents, one of whom is a Cuban immigrant grandmother who remains missing.

The board were all volunteers who agreed to serve before the building collapsed on Thursday at 1.30am. It's unclear if they got any form of payment for it.

They were in charge of recertifying the building, handling maintenance, and all other repairs. In 2018, they hired the engineer who produced a report detailing the repairs and they were in the process of trying to get loans to pay for the work and hire teams to actually do it when the building collapsed.

Nancy Kress Levin was one of the board members. She is among the people who remain missing in the rubble.

The other six made it out alive and are in a house together. Their lawyer Donna DiMaggio Berger told DailyMail.com they are 'just as devastated' as anyone else.

'They are devastated. The tears have not stopped. There's shock, disbelief, grief. This was a close knit community,' Berger said.

She also revealed that they hadn't secured a condo board hadn't yet secured a team to do the concrete repairs on the building that were required because there was a shortage in the number of available contractors thanks to other Miami buildings racing to update their sprinkler systems, a lawyer said.

Donna DiMaggio Berger, a lawyer for the board, told DailyMail.com that they were also racing against hurricane season which would hinder any work.

'I know there were concrete repairs that needed to take place which is very typical for a coastal property. The concrete work was out to bid. In Florida, boards are required to get competitive bids.

'That was still outstanding and those are still coming in they don't have a sufficient number of bids yet on that work... one of the other problems we have here is one we're in hurricane season, we have to get competitive bids, we now have a bunch of older high rises that are racing to comply with the deadline to install engineered life safety systems.

'They're looking for engineers right now to install sprinklers, the deadline is the end of 2023. We really do have a perfect storm going on right now,' she said.

She also suggested it wasn't fair to blame the condo board - a volunteer group of seven residents - for the collapse.

'There's entirely too much murkiness here. It's easy to take hands off approach but I don't think putting those kind of burdens on the shoulder of volunteer board members - people who are just living in the building like everybody else - who have stepped up and said OK I'll serve on the board...' she tailed off.