Broward County officials have heard enough from condo residents complaining about broken elevators leaving them trapped in their upper-floor apartments for days or even weeks at a time.
On Tuesday, the County Commission voted unanimously to amend its local rules by requiring condo boards to develop and post a plan that tells its residents exactly how it will handle an outage.
Under current rules, condo associations are not required to tell their residents what will happen if their elevators go out of service. The Broward County Commission passed new rules that go into effect in two weeks.
Those rules require the condo associations not only to develop a plan disclosing the repair contractor, but also to have a back-up contractor ready to step in if the first contractor is unable to make the repair within 24 hours.
“If they don’t post a plan on day one, they can be fined $250. On day two, the fine is $500. And it is $500 a day until the plan is posted,” said County Mayor Mark Bogen.
No penalties are in place for failure to adhere to the posted plan, Bogen conceded, but the seriousness of the issue and its importance to vulnerable condo-dwellers make it all but certain the issue will be revisited by county government.
“People who live in condos have reported to us they’ve been stuck on their floor, could be weeks, months because the condo doesn’t fix it,” Bogen said. “They say they have a service contractor and they’re waiting for a part. We say, call another company that has the part!”
Bogen’s concern resonated with other members of the commission, all of whom supported the new rule.
“This is long overdue,” said Commissioner Nan Rich, who knew of a Sunrise building where a broken elevator was a problem for months. “It was ridiculous. Something has to be done to protect people who live in situations like that.”
Commissioner Hazelle Rogers suggested recruiting city governments to bring violations to the attention of the county government. “Cities should be the eyes and ears of the county if we can get them to agree to that,” she said.
The new rule was item 60 on the agenda of Tuesday’s meeting and is available online at the commission’s website Broward.org.
Rafael Olmeda can be reached at rolmeda@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4457.