Property owners have many rights. Chief among those is the right to not have their property damaged by others. If it is, they can make a legal claim for compensation. That is at the core of a construction dispute about debris-related damage in Biscayne Beach, Florida.
A lawsuit, filed by the Bayside Terrace condominium association on May 11 in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, alleges that Biscayne Miami Partners, Plaza Construction Group Florida, and a company called Baker Concrete Construction damaged the Bayside Terrace building exterior. They say that there are also damages to the property’s landscaping and to the cars of residents, all of which they attribute to construction debris for which the companies named are responsible.
Biscayne Miami Partners was formed as a team effort between Two Roads Development in West Palm Beach and GTIS Partners, which is based in New York. The companies, as Biscayne Miami Partners, are building a 52-story, 391-unit condominium tower which is located at 2900 Northeast 7th Avenue.
The attorney for the Bayside Terrace condominium association says that they tried to resolve the issues but wound up feeling that is was necessary to pursue litigation. The association claims that Biscayne Miami Partners and the two other companies named in the lawsuit failed to prevent construction materials, including debris, from affecting the Bayside Terrace site. Bayside Terrace, built in 1970, is a 36-story building.
The lawsuit claims that Bayside Terrace was affected by sprays of concrete and oversprays of paint and stucco from the construction process. It also claims that permanent construction debris caused damage. According to the Bayside Terrace condominium association, all of this was reasonably foreseeable since the affected property is in close proximity to the construction site.
Therefore, measures should have been taken to prevent what happened. The fact that the damage did happen, according to the lawsuit, is a direct result of Biscayne Miami, Plaza and Baker neglecting to give proper directions and supervision to the workers, the vendors, and the subcontractors who worked at the construction site. Two Roads, one of the partners in Biscayne Miami Partners, declined to comment because the litigation is pending. However, cases like this speak to the importance of honoring neighbors’ property rights because if they prove that you did not, it can cost you dearly.
Source: The Real Deal, “Biscayne Beach’s neighbors sue over debris-related damage during construction,” Francisco Alvarado, May 25, 2017
