EC for Condo

Yes, You have to treat the building as a whole. Water does not care who owns what. You can make notes that the owner owns x unit located on the 3rd floor.

Con - Together with.
Dominium - Right of ownership.

The owner of a condominium unit has full title to their unit and an undivided interest in the common areas with the other unit owners. So 'technically" there is no limiting of ownership to just the unit.

This is why E&O companies (if they are doing their job diligently) want to know what percentage of your design work is on condominium projects...because when "you know what" hits the fan down the road because of a design problem (say in the storm water management design) there are substantially more people who have standing to sue you.

A condo developer client once told me that his sales prices build in the cost of defending the lawsuit that inevitably arises just prior to the expiration of the 10-year California statute of limitations on construction defects. For the project I was working on at the time, that price bump was $40k per unit.

I understand why you are asking. Common sense and government bureaucracy aren't normally used in the same sentence.

The insurance industry amazes me at times. In the case of a condominium would their policy only apply to the unit number involved and not in any way apply to damage to the common ownership sections of the structure? Or do such policies address both but with a far lower premium for those on higher floors? Some condominiums are all on the same level. Either way, once damage occurs at the lowest level there is a problem for everyone.

Great question. Thanks for bringing this topic to the surface.

I'm glad I'm on the same page as you guys. After more research, this guy owns one second floor unit in a four unit building. His insurance company told him they will only insure his unit and use the second floor elevation to rate it. I called him back and told him that I would have to do the EC for the entire building and the cost would be higher than if it was just a simple single-family residence. He was polite but said other surveyors/engineers he contacted would be willing to do just one unit on the EC for the same price as a single-family residence, so I passed on the work.

This got me to thinking, so if I did do the EC for the entire building, but the insurance companies only insure one unit, how would I handle the multiple AC units servicing the building? List the elevation of the lowest AC on the form, but in the comments put the elevations of each AC and their corresponding unit number? Because in theory this one EC should be valid for the entire building. Hmmm...

The second floor condo unit is useless if the first floor fails underneath it.

One must be careful in that utilities that serve upper floors quite often originate at lower levels. The second floor will be without power when the electric meter is under water.

One thing to consider is that the second floor may be well above the flood elevation but the owner does not have unflooded access. Usability implies ingress and egress. Are you in turn liable for not informing the client of access problems?

You may also have to consider if the first floor whether habitable or not has flood vents and/or flow through/blowout walls.

Paul in PA

That was precisely my thinking as well Paul. Although I shouldn't be, I am surprised that other surveyors / engineers would agreed to treat a single unit as a stand-alone structure.

Following up on the question regarding multiple AC units. The EC form is geared toward a single owner building. From an insurance rating standpoint however, I would think elevations specific to the unit being insured would also be appropriate. This building has four units each owned separately. The EC form should show the overall lowest of the bottom floor, second floor, and equipment elevations. What if the first (or second) floor elevations are more than 0.1' different between units? Should you complete 4 separate forms, all with the same elevations in Section C, but unit specific elevations in the comments for each one? Or, one EC considering elevations for the entire building, insurance be damned (treat as entire building being insured as a whole)?

andrewm, post: 410169, member: 10888 wrote: That was precisely my thinking as well Paul. Although I shouldn't be, I am surprised that other surveyors / engineers would agreed to treat a single unit as a stand-alone structure.

As with many things in our world, just because somebody else would do it, doesn't mean you have to.

Interesting post. I have a condo in New Smyrna Beach directly on the Ocean, the whole complex is in Zone "X". Go figure. 😎

Potential clients will tell you anything that might work to their advantage. I would bet you are the only person he had contacted.

I'm not sure how they write condo policies, but it would seem to me that there would only need to be one Elevation Certificate for the particular building the condo is in. Then wouldn't the condo association have fees to cover the flood insurance for the building?

Certainly for the common area structural elements. The units are contained within that framework. Association dues for coverage. Contents are individual responsibility.

In Fla a Condo in a flood zone must by law provide FEMA flood insurance for the structure and common elements the cost in in your dues. Unit owners can opt for FEMA insurance for contents , there was specific list supplied by insurance co as to what was covered by each policy. Our place was identified on map as an AE 11.00 zone but an investigation found we were @ 13.00+ so we got a LOMA and dropped insurance.

Mother Nature does not read FEMA maps to figure out when to stop raining. There are many horror stories that can be told.

Precisely. That's why I consult my clients eligible for a LOMA/LOMR-F to keep their flood insurance, just pay a reduced premium for now being in Zone X.

Our most recent big event was in 2007. Our county seat town experienced what happens when the actual flood level exceeds what the map says by two feet. The next county seat town to the west discovered what nine feet over the map numbers can do.

If I had a dollar every time I heard the phrase "but my house had never flooded" since August 2016, I would be on a beach in the Caribbean right now.

That includes the house I grew up in. Water was in the yard for the previous record flood in 1983. Got 6 feet inside the house this time around. I'll never say never again.