Old Town Village Grapples with Structural Damage

Lida Behnam was livid when she received a bill for more than $15,000 from the Old Town Village condo association.

Her condo unit at 1300 Roundhouse Lane in Old Town was fully paid for. As a travel agent raising a young daughter on her own, she said there was no way she could foot the bill on her current income.

“I do not have any money to pay for this,” she said. Behnam, who has lived there since 1999, has been trying to sell her unit since last summer. She’s angry. But other owners stuck with hefty bills approached the situation differently.

The association sent substantial bills to all residents. It had to craft a way to pay its own $2 million bill to repair the building’s exterior façade and to repair property damage to “the common elements from water infiltration caused by rain,” according to a letter sent to owners.

After years of struggling with water damage and other problems, the condo owners had to face what to do with their building, which some residents told Patch was poorly constructed.

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Finally, they assessed residents a one-time fee ranging from $12,000 to near $20,000 depending on the size of a residence. Owners could also enter a monthly payment plan.

The 125 units were built in 1998 by Pulte Homes and well after the building’s warranty period had expired, water infiltration problems were noticed around 2008, according to condo board President Dan Hawkins.

Rain began leaking between the exterior wallboard and the vinyl siding, he explained.

At the time, Virginia building code, which Alexandria must follow, did not require a water barrier membrane such as Tyvek on new structures. That barrier became required about 2003, according to City of Alexandria Director of Code Administration John Catlett.

Catlett said that in the late 1990s, vinyl siding technology was known to be water-resistant but not watertight. There was no requirement for a water barrier on new construction at the time, leaving these new vinyl-sided structures open to these types of potential problems.

“I have not heard of similar, significant problems in Alexandria,” Catlett said, referring to those experienced by Old Town Village, but added that he’s seen them in other parts of the state.

When the leaking became a serious problem, the condo board brought in an engineering firm, which concluded that Pulte had done “less than stellar work,” according to Hawkins, but the building was up to code and Pulte had acted appropriately.

Pulte Homes, which is also building a large part of the new Potomac Yard residential development, told Patch it had no comment on the matter.

A second engineering firm was hired in 2010 by Old Town Village. It found “instances of broader problems” that could lead to major mold in the interior walls, according to Hawkins.

“We had to begin telling sellers and buyers,” he said. “Sales started dropping. We were in a situation where we had to take steps to protect our property.”

Soon, popular loans were being denied, said Hawkins, because of the condition of the building.

A third engineering firm was brought and it echoed concerns of the first two. Finally, the condo owners decided to take definitive action.

The condo owners took a vote and a couple of months ago, the majority decided to pony up the fees to preserve their homes.

Once the vote was taken, units started selling again.

“We have tried to be as transparent as we could…This community was going to go downhill and there would be no buyers,” he said.

The association decided to remove the structure’s siding, install a weatherproof membrane, properly install flashing and reinstall new siding “in a manner consistent with all relevant codes, standards and practices in effect at the time of repair,” reads the Old Town Village Condominium Unit Owners Association, special resolution Jan. 18, 2013.

“We were in an unfortunate, unique situation,” said resident Michelle Stark. She found out about the building’s troubles right after she and her husband moved in.

They had no equity in the home, but decided to borrow from retirement savings to pay their $15,600 to cover their part of the repairs.

“We love the community,” she said. “I was thinking if we had known about this ahead of time, maybe we would have thought twice about buying, but this project has brought a lot of people out, discussing and banding together.”

She said the building includes a lot of government employees and seniors. Many of whom are trying to figure out how to put together the financial package to stay in their homes in different ways. Many have moved.

The condo association has collected more than 70 percent of the fees so far, according to Hawkins.

The residences just began their reconstruction phase and work is going on this spring.