Florida law provides condominium associations with a robust framework to recover damages from the developer and contractors for issues related to defective construction.  Chapter 558, also known as Florida’s Construction Defect Statute, aims to encourage settlement of construction-related claims without resorting to litigation. However, litigation is sometimes unavoidable.  Outlined herein are some of the essential documents all condominium associations must maintain and should be prepared to produce when construction litigation is on the horizon.

Maintenance and Repair Records

Undoubtably, the most important batch of documents all condominiums associations should keep are building maintenance contracts and records.  Some examples of these records include maintenance protocols, weekly or monthly logs, and documents that show when the windows were washed, how frequently the pool is inspected, and what chemical treatment and/or testing and balancing is performed for any HVAC equipment. In construction defect litigation, the two most common affirmative defenses that contractors assert in all construction defect-related cases are lack of maintenance and failure to mitigate damages.  If the association maintains good maintenance records that show all of the necessary maintenance was performed, the defendants’ affirmative defenses will be unlikely to succeed.

Meeting Minutes of the Board of Directors

This is, perhaps, a no-brainer, given that condominium association meeting minutes are already required to be kept pursuant to Florida Statutes, § 718.111(12)(a)(6).  That being said, producing the meeting minutes is a crucial step to demonstrate that the Association is satisfying its book keeping obligations, as well as the building’s maintenance obligations.

Budgets

Much in the same way the meetings minutes are a given, so too are the association’s budgets.  The developer and contractor defendants in a potential defect litigation will have the right to know what money was spent on maintenance and mitigation.  Often times, the budgets serve as the best evidence of an association’s intention to maintain the building.  If no money is set aside for the maintenance of a deteriorating aspect of the property, the conclusion will be that the association does not adequately maintain that portion of the property.  A responsible and robust budget will make clear that the association sets aside enough money to handle the inevitable and necessary maintenance and repairs.

Reserve Studies

Similarly to budgets, a condominium association’s reserve studies are prepared to predict how much money the association will need to spend in the future on certain integral – and costly – aspects of the building, such as structural repairs, elevator replacement, etc.

Unit Owner Complaints

Whether it be in the form of an email to the property manager, or a unit owner survey, the important thing is to log and store each unit owner complaint related to construction issues.  Whether the complaint is small like a scratch in the glazing or large like a crack in the balcony concrete slab, all complaints should be stored and ultimately, provided to the association’s engineer for review.  Each unit owner complaint is an arrow in your attorney’s quiver as he argues for full repair costs for each of the identified defects.

Maintenance Guidelines and/or Unit Owner Manuals  

In an ideal situation, each of the unit owners would receive a packet of materials explaining how frequently the unit’s components need to be inspected, repaired, and/or replaced to the extent those components fall within the owners’ responsibility.   The existence of this packet allows your attorney to argue that the unit owners were aware of and fulfilled the maintenance requirements for the unit’s components.  If your association does not have maintenance guidelines for unit-specific components, please consider engaging one of the many experienced attorneys at Haber Law to prepare owner’s manuals tailored specifically to your building’s unit components.

Other Documents

Every condominium has specific concerns unique to the building, unit owners, and construction defects.  There are perhaps documents that your association will need to produce that are not on this list; however, this list should provide a framework and starting point for your association’s document retention policy when facing potential 558 construction litigation.

To conclude, the documents your association maintains can potentially determine the success of the 558 litigation.  If your association maintains the records discussed in this blog post, you and your neighbors have taken a step in the right direction on the way to a successful lawsuit.