2nd Floor Walkway In 15-Unit Building In Foreclosure Comes Crashing Down; Structure Condemned, Residents Forced Out

In Truro Township, Ohio, The Columbus Dispatch reports:

• After years of complaints about code violations and management problems at an apartment complex in Reynoldsburg, a second-story walkway there collapsed yesterday just as a construction crew prepared to fix it, Truro Township Fire Battalion Chief Allen Deaver said. The incident occurred at the White Birch Crescent Apartments. One woman suffered minor injuries. Nine families living in the 15-unit building [...] have been relocated, Deaver said.

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• "We'd come home every day, and you could see it just keep sagging and sagging," [one resident] said. "Then all of a sudden we heard this 'bam.'"[...] The building, one of 14 in the apartment complex, was condemned by the city's chief building officer [...] after the walkway fell.

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• White Birch Crescent Apartments was one of six complexes owned by Columbus Properties Limited Partnership that have been battling foreclosure. It was placed in [a receiver's] care by a federal court order until the original owners could find a responsible buyer.(1)

For the story, see 2nd-floor walkway caves during Reynoldsburg apartment building repair (15-unit building condemned; 1 woman hurt).

(1) While the building involved was a landlord-owned rental building, the incident could just as easily happen in a condominium. Given the financial problems many condo associations are having paying its bills (like the landlord in this story ) while its unit owners are suffering with foreclosure problems and maintenance fee delinquencies, one may want to think long and hard before buying a condo in a multi-story, decades-old building that may have hidden (or possibly not-so-hidden) deferred maintenance surprises.