RORY SALAZAR | Finance | Contact
Living in a strata title complex has many benefits, but it also requires laws to define ownership and responsibility. This is something that new apartment owners, Joey and Michaela Latorre, have learned a lot about since last week’s torrential downpour.
The luxury, brand-new six-storey apartment building that the Latorres recently bought into was marketed as top quality. Their $829,000, 3-bedroom slice of property market heaven was said to be structurally sound, and promised a stress-free and stylish modern lifestyle that others would envy.
However, it appears the glossy marketing campaign may have been exaggerating slightly, mainly because as soon as the Latorres moved in, they couldn’t help but notice dark blue veins of water trickling down all four walls in the living room during the recent rain event.
“It sounded like a waterfall inside the house,” Joey told the Advocate from inside his super damp and smelly French Quarter abode. “Just look at the carpets.” Our reporter looked at the carpets and unintentionally let out a quiet ‘yuck’ sound before quickly changing the subject and asking whether the developer was fixing this structural issue.
“Well, apparently the developer is responsible, but we looked, and the development company that built this went into administration about a month ago, so they’re not responsible any longer. Legally, they don’t even exist anymore,” Michaela listened on while looking around at the patches of black mould growing on their home’s walls.
“The strata by-laws say landowners are responsible for maintaining and repairing any damages not only to our home but the whole building,” Joey continued dejectedly.
After hearing this story a thousand times over the last 10 years from other Betootians who had made the simple mistake of buying an apartment built after 1995, the Advocate understood that the Latorres were now properly affected. The rest of their miserable lives would see them forking out hundreds of thousands to continuously pay for damages that would reoccur after every downpour.
The Advocate ended the interview right there because our skin was shriveling up with all the moisture in the apartment’s funky air.
More to come.
