"Florida Condo Collapse: Takeaways for Building Owners," BUILDINGS Magazine

In an article published in BUILDINGS Magazine on July 2, 2021, Judah Lifschitz was quoted discussing the collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium building in Surfside, Florida, which has led to questions about the factors leading to the incident and how much warning stakeholders may have had.

While some lawsuits against the condominium association are already underway, there will likely be more court filings over the next few weeks. “The physical and personal tragedy and calamity that’s occurred here is enormous,” Lifschitz said. “When we get past this very painful process and it’s appropriate to start talking about liability, what we can figure out pretty quickly is that between the wrongful death actions and the property damage claims, etc., the dollars of loss and the dollars of potential damage will be huge. People who have been injured will be looking for as many possible defendants and insurance companies to be liable, at the end of the day.”

As for other buildings in similar situations, Lifschitz urges beachfront communities to conduct inspections immediately. “Those who have already had serious inspections and are delaying repairing the building need to get moving, start repairing the building and see if there are intermediate steps they need to do to make sure the building is safe,” Lifschitz continued.

To read the full article, click here.