Florida law calls for reviews of older condominium buildings in the state, but as the buildings' board associations set the "laws" for those structures, that makes it difficult for the federal government to step in and do something in the wake of the deadly building collapse in Surfside last week, Rep. Byron Donalds told Newsmax Tuesday.
"People need to understand that condominium associations really operate under their own laws," the Florida Republican said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "When people sign up to live in a condominium, frankly, the people who lived there in a condo board association, they are the government in those buildings and those structures."
As a result, it will be "very difficult for the federal government to step in and do something," Donalds, whose district serves most of southwest Florida, including Fort Myers and Naples, said.
Donalds' comments come as the search for victims in the remnants of the building reached a sixth day. Two additional bodies were found Monday, raising the count of confirmed dead to 11, but 150 people are still unaccounted for in Surfside, which is located just outside Miami.
He noted that an engineering review was conducted of the building in 2018. According to The Washington Post, an engineer warned then that he discovered "major structural damage" to a concrete slab below the pool deck in the section of the Champlain Towers South condominium building that collapsed, and that waterproofing below the pool deck and entrance drive failed and allowed damaging leaks.
"We don't know that to this point why it took so long for the repairs of the building that needed to occur to be scheduled," said Donalds. "They were scheduled for later this year. Unfortunately, with this tragedy, the work was never able to get started. But I think what it is going to do is be a real of a tragic wake-up call for so many condominiums that do need these repairs to not kick that can down the road to get his scheduled and get it done as quickly as possible."
Meanwhile, Donalds said the work to dig through the rubble left by the building's collapse is painstaking, and he understands that families want the work to be done quickly but it's also important to trust the professionals who are at the site around the clock every day.
"It's going to take a little bit of time to sift through this," said Donalds.
We want to make sure it's done up right inappropriately because we're trying to save as many lives as we can."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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