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Sharing in the American Dream ain't easy if your condo developer is sleazy.
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- The Woodlawn Wonder
- Urban pioneer and frustrated condo owner who wants to experience most of what Chicago has to offer. This is my tale of woe as my neighbors and I deal with the business of running a condo association that has been left in a shambles by our developer.
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6 comments:
These porches look unsafe.
This sort of thing was too common in the real estate hysteria. Building codes were tossed to the wind. It looks to me like every project just got rubberstamped through.... provided, of course, the developer had made his contributions to his local aldercreature.
Northy,
These porches are a little less than 18 months old. Go back in the blog to the end of '05---beginning of '06 to read the tales. In fact the porches (for now) look (and feel) good. I'm just worried about 5 years down the line. We didn't pay $90K for this type of quality.
Woody, I remember your post about the porches you finally got after wrangling with the developer.
I mean it- the quality of building over the past five years has gone from sad to really, really bad. There's nothing that scares me like "new construction" except for "gut rehab". I think, God knows what they did and covered up, and they won't still be in business by the time I find out about it.
It's an ongoing and forever unfolding horror show. Many people will never get remedy for the really serious flaws. Remember the lofts at the old phone company bldg downtown? These places cost $300K +, and most people buying were leveredged to their eyeballs. Well, the spiral staircases immediately began showing rust. Worse, the insulation was emitting toxic fumes, and worst of all, there was a major mold problem.
And that's just one tale.
I'm glad this lunacy is over. I'm sitting here wondering how many houses are literally going to fall down over the next five years.
What I really wonder is where are the people who are supposed to protect us from this crap? Somehow, they fail to notice a rehab needs tuckpointing or new porches or new drain stacks until AFTER the places have been foisted on unsuspecting buyers, who have no warning because the place passed city inspection. Then, 2 years later, the unsuspecting owner gets a notice from the city about the problem.
On top of everything, so many overeager buyers were so eager to get into some overpriced place that not only did they assume "suicide" ARM loans to get them, they WAIVED INSPECTION. That is the worst thing you can do, because you give up all rights to remedy. Yet many less ethical sellers and agents pressured people into buying without a thorough pre-sale inspection by an independent, certified service. "It's a brand-new rehab. Why do you need inspection", buyers would be asked.
Between all the oversized "suicide" loans and the sheer weight of all the bad building that was done, we are going to be many years recovering from this last binge of financial mania. May we never, ever again see a housing market like that of 2001-2006.
Also, Woodie, I don't think you have 5 years to reinforce those porches.
What worries me are the gaps at the joints that I see. The railings look like they are pulling away from the posts. These porches could now be getting very weak. This is awfully soon for these porches to be showing signs of stress. Another year and another winter could make the weakness critical.
But I'm no expert.
PLEASE PLEASE have a good, qualified independent inspection service come out and look at your porches right away. Maybe you can use metal braces for reinforcement.
Ugh. I'm sorry to see that your saga will never end. It does give you great material to keep us entertained, although I know that it's hardly the point. I hope Jesus has a big reward coming up for you.
Woodie, I could add that when a structure has a serious flaw, it usually doesn't take long for the flaw to become very critical.
I was thinking about you and your situation this week after I commented last week, and I'm very, very worried about your porch. Remember we had a porch with a serious structural problem that killed over a dozen people not long ago.
PLEASE GET IT INSPECTED RIGHT NOW, and try to stay off it until you know for a fact it is solid. Get a good, independent inspection service, or even 2 of them, to examine this structure IMMEDIATELY.
Lives are at stake, specifically those of you and your neighbors.
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