CAI’s condo safety task force was formed after the Champlain Towers tragedy in 2021. Five years later, a member of the task force reflects on the progress made to improve maintenance, inspections, and financial accountability in community associations.
This week, the National Institute of Standards and Technology released its long-awaited findings on the partial collapse of Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Fla. We’ve learned a lot of lessons from Surfside over the past five years. CAI honors the victims and remains committed to condominium safety.
Four years ago, the tragic partial collapse of Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Fla., took 98 lives. The devastating event highlighted the critical need for proactive building maintenance, structural inspections, and financial preparedness to ensure condo safety. Over the past few years, CAI has educated community association residents, board members, community managers, business partners, legislators, and regulators about structurally sound and fiscally responsible communities.
Generating adequate reserve funding in your community can seem like a daunting task, but doing so is a necessary step in providing for ongoing preventative maintenance and structural inspections and repairs, and safeguarding your community’s future. An Iowa community association was forced to tackle their reserve funding head on when faced with severe maintenance challenges they couldn’t afford.
A carefully written investment policy should keep community associations on a straight and narrow path, say professionals who advise them. At Ford’s Colony Homeowners Association, a 2,600-home community in Williamsburg, Va., a finance committee of volunteers uses an investment policy to advise the board.
