Collapsed Florida building was in 'good shape', official told residents

Residents in a collapsed apartment block in Florida were reassured by a town inspector the building was in "very good shape" in 2018, despite an engineer warning major repairs were needed.

At least ten people have been killed, with more than 151 still unaccounted for after the 12-storey building in Surfside, just north of Miami, partially collapsed early on Thursday.

The Champlain Towers building association was informed in 2018 by engineer Frank Morabito that there was major structural damage to the apartment complex, including serious concrete deterioration in the underground parking garage and beneath the pool deck.

Mr Morabito warned the deterioration would "expand exponentially" if repair work was not carried out in the near future.

But Ross Prieto, a Surfside inspector who had reviewed the report, met residents five weeks later and assured them the building was safe, according to minutes of the meeting obtained by NPR.

Mr Prieto is no longer employed by Surfside, according to NPR. Attempts to reach him were unsuccessful.

Mr Morabito's company, Morabito Consultants, were hired by the building's association 18 months later to prepare detailed repair plans.

Rescue teams are working 24-hour rotations to continue to search for survivors, but hopes are fading.

One resident, Susana Alvarez, said she attended the November 2018 meeting when residents were reassured about the building's safety.

"The town of Surfside said to us that the building was not in bad shape. That is what they said, okay," she told NPR.

"The structural engineer has been around for a while," she added.

Ms Alvarez said the building association took out $15 million to carry out the repairs on the engineer's advice, but insisted: "No one ever, ever, ever told us that that building was in such bad shape."

Surfside's mayor, Charles Burkett, said he had seen the "disturbing" reports that town officials had reassured residents over the safety of the building. "We will get to the bottom of it," he said.

It has emerged that home owners in the apartment block were just days away from paying for the major repairs that had been recommended three years ago.

Owners of the 136 units were facing payments of anywhere from $80,000 for a one-bedroom unit to $330,000 or so for a penthouse, to be in installments or all at once. Their first payment deadline was July 1.

One resident whose apartment was spared, Adalberto Aguero, had just taken out a loan to cover his $80,000 bill.

“I figured I would pay it off after they fixed the building,” he said, adding that he pulled the loan a day after the collapse.