LAKE MARY, Fla. — The Lake Mary apartment complex that had 85 units closed off due to safety concerns earlier this week is now facing 540 code violations after inspectors tore through the property, looking for unpermitted work.
Pebble Creek at Lake Mary was hit with 20 violations per building, ranging from work done without a permit to decaying staircases and other facility issues.
The violations came hours after engineers released a report claiming a fire weakened one building’s wall so badly that it was in danger of collapse. 53 staircases were deemed structurally unsound, and nearly every second-floor balcony and walkway was also flagged for a mound of deferred maintenance.
Engineers were seen combing through the buildings on Thursday, testing some of the stairs and inspecting walls for integrity issues.
The complex will have to wait for those reports to be completed before it can ask for permits from the county. Work cannot begin until those permits are approved.
Late Thursday, the complex sent tenants a text message notifying them that financial relief had been approved and would be distributed on Friday evening.
Some tenants, like Jennifer Falter, said they found new places to live – but couldn’t get their belongings.
“I’m going to move in with a blow-up mattress,” Falter said, noting that movers wouldn’t cross the caution tape to access her unit. “Unless I want to bounce up to the apartment or throw it all off of a balcony, through the screen, you can’t get my stuff.”
Records show the buildings were last inspected by a Fire Marshal in December, three months before the evacuation.
The inspector did not note any issues with the staircases or other parts of several buildings, one of which was evacuated completely.
Florida’s fire code mandates that stairs be present, sufficient to allow evacuations, and fire-resistant.
Structural integrity is determined by building inspectors, who are called when a permitted project is underway. Since 2020, the vast majority of projects at the complex were window replacements. No stair projects were filed with the county.
WFTV asked a spokesman who was responsible for flagging a staircase that was visibly rusted, separated from the wall, and wiggling when an inspector walked up it, even if it wasn’t strictly within their job description.
Spokesman Chris Patton wrote a lengthy response, which included:
Fire Prevention conducts annual fire safety inspections focused on life safety systems such as means of egress, alarms, and fire protection features. During prior inspections at this property, no conditions were identified that met the threshold of an imminent life safety hazard under the fire code.”
It’s important to distinguish between inspection roles. Fire inspections are not designed to serve as full structural evaluations, and structural issues may not always present as immediate fire code violations until further analysis is conducted.
To strengthen oversight in areas like this, Seminole County brought Code Enforcement operations back in-house this past fiscal year, including implementation of a Maintenance Code. This enhances the County’s ability to proactively identify and address property maintenance issues that may not fall squarely under fire or building inspections alone.
Property owners are responsible for maintaining their buildings in a safe condition and for obtaining proper permits when making repairs or modifications. Work performed without required permits can limit visibility and oversight, and may delay identification of underlying issues.
We continuously review our processes and coordination across departments and use situations like this to improve how we identify and address potential safety concerns.
Neither the property manager nor the building’s owner has responded to emailed questions asking what issues they knew about in advance, and when.
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