Residents, city of Miami say Little Havana condos are uninhabitable

Ever get that sinking feeling? The residents of the Havana Palms complex in Little Havana know it all too well. Residents of the condominium development say their homes are sinking into the ground — and the city’s Department of Construction agrees.

A cave-in on Jan. 10 sent the Garcia family to a nearby rental, the Miami Herald reported.

“The building is uninhabitable,” Mariano Fernández, director of the Department of Construction, told the paper. “There are structural problems and health problems.”

While the owners, an LLC called only “Montara Land V,” were told to make repairs by the tenth of this month, the men behind the company, Anibal Duarte-Viera and Gabriel de la Campa, have said the unit owners are responsible for the repairs themselves.

“They knew that what they bought was not new construction but apartments in an old building,” Duarte-Viera told the Herald.

Owners say they cannot make repairs to homes that are uninhabitable.

“We’re afraid to walk in our own living rooms, to step into the bathroom, to gain weight, because our floors sink deeper every day,” Mario Pineda, a resident, told the Herald. [Miami Herald] –Guelda Voien