Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava is delivering on her word to crack down on inspecting buildings over 40 years old since the Surfside condo collapse.
On Wednesday, an attorney representing a 52-year-old condo called the Royal Bahamian sat before county officials during a virtual hearing because the condo has not submitted for their latest recertification process to begin, even though the county has reached out to them since 2019 to get that done.
“Mr. Iglesias, did you hear the portion of the proposed agreement whereby your client would need to submit an engineering letter within the next five days attesting that the structure is sound if it intended to be occupied during the period of the 40-year recertification?” asked a county official during the hearing.
“I did hear that and I heard it from some of the previous cases,” responded David D. Iglesias, who represents the Royal Bahamian. “So I was prepared for that or at least knowing that was going to come today. But yes, we are prepared to do that.”
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In addition to getting an engineer to sign off that the building is safe within five days, the condo has 30 days to submit its recertification report.
Since the Surfside condo collapse and Miami-Dade's mayor announcing a building inspection audit in the county last month, several condos have been evacuated and deemed unsafe.
Royal Bahamian residents have not had to evacuate. But NBC 6 spoke to one man who lives at Royal Bahamian and who also questioned how someone can adequately check the condo to be safe within five days at a condo that has more than 160 units.
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“I don’t know where the hell they’re going find that,” said the resident, who did not want to be identified. “But I also have to tell you, I’ve been here for 40 years, you’re always going to find an engineer, maybe an architect who will, for whatever price, contend that everything is okay. But how did he do that in five days checking with the work that was done? How’s he going to verify?”
That resident does not believe there are any major structural issues with the building.
NBC 6 has reached out to the condo’s attorney for comment but has not received a response yet.
