Lanikea at Waikiki is an upscale high rise residential building, which was completed in 2005. It has two elevators, which frequently break down and the residents experience the inconvenience of having only one elevator servicing the entire building. In at least one instance, both elevators were non-operational at the same time.Due to the building design flaw, the elevators were exposed to the weather elements, including heavy rains, until the developer and its builder enclosed the area in the upper deck garage. Lanikea Association of Apartment Owners (AOAO) Directors and Owners did informal walk-through inspections in 2010 and 2011 and discovered that the elevator systems showed signs of corrosion (see the enclosed picture).
Lanikea is a new building and the elevators should be fully operational and under builder's warranty. Yet Lanikea owners, through Lanikea AOAO, had already paid tens of thousands of dollars for repairing the elevators. As a result of these and other expensive repairs, Lanikea Homeowner Dues are almost $1,000 a month, which is outrageous. Replacing defective elevators in a high rise building is expensive. It can cost hundreds of thousands, and in some cases, millions of dollars. Who is going to fix and pay for Lanikea elevators?
