The Champlain Towers South condo association approved the assessment in April. It was planned to complete the repairs according to the county’s 40-year certification process, stated a document by CNN. The document states that the organization had already begun the assessment process 2 years after an engineering consultant discovered "major structural damage" in 2018. The engineer's findings were released in documents by the town of Surfside in Florida.

The document that was sent to residents of the building explained the cost of the assessment, saying it would range from $80,190 to $336,135 depending on the size of the condo, CNN reported. It included fixing some issues that the engineering discovered in his 2018 report such as new pavers and planter landscape.

“This is a highly unusual [progressive] collapse, the first being the extent of it,” says Glenn Bell, a forensic structural engineer and director of Collaborative Reporting for Safer Structures (CROSS-US), a division of the American Society of Civil Engineers Structural Engineering Institute. The building pancaked "very quickly," adds Bell.

Champlain Towers residents started sending payments

Several building owners started sending paperwork to start the payments a day before the tower collapsed. There is no information if the same issues that the engineering discovered in 2018 resulted in the collapse. However, experts believe that a structural failure at the bottom of the building has contributed to the disastrous collapse.

Furthermore, a pool contractor who visited the Champlain Towers South two days ahead of the collapse stated that there was unusual water damage in the building’s garage. He added that a staff member told him that he thought its a waterproofing issue. 

The 2018 report said the building's design was flawed and didn't have proper pool-deck drainage.