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City officials will provide additional recertification notices to building owners
The Miami Beach City Commission voted unanimously on Wednesday to require multistory buildings of five stories and greater to submit annual maintenance logs on all routine structural repairs. The logs will be submitted to the Miami Beach Building Department to assist with the mandatory building recertification process and identify possible areas requiring further attention.
In approving the requirement, Miami Beach has codified Miami-Dade County’s grand jury recommendations stemming from the June 24, 2021 condominium collapse in nearby Surfside. City officials will also now expand the number of notices that building owners receive ahead of the recertification anniversary date upon which the process is based. The first notice will be sent at least two years prior to the anniversary date while a second notice will be sent at least one year prior to the date and a final notice will be sent at least 90 days before the anniversary date.
“This notice method will assist property owners to effectively conduct their recertification and hopefully provide additional building safety measures,” observed Miami Beach Commissioner Alex Fernandez, who sponsored the measure. “Condominium boards and management companies will now be better equipped to plan, prepare and execute accordingly.”
The log will be valuable in tracking repeated building maintenance issues and assisting engineers in performing the recertifications. City officials plan to compile the reports in a database that will act as a repository of information for each property. Buildings with fewer than five stories will be eligible to participate in an optional incentive program that rewards buildings for submitting logs. Smaller buildings will not be fined for noncompliance.
Buildings in compliance with the annual log will qualify for a cumulative 1.25% discount per year on their recertification fees up to 37.5% and 3.75% off per year for the 10-year recertification process up to 37.5% when submitted and completed within the 90-day notice period.
The Miami-Dade County Building Code requires buildings to obtain a recertification of its structural and electrical components from the date of initial occupancy. If a building recertification process has not been completed for a particular building within the maximum time limitations established by the county ordinance, a notice of violation shall be issued.
