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Comment by hugh-avherald | Hacker News Reader

What is absent from coverage and what I want to know is how typical these warnings are. If every building inspection of nearly every apartment block gives a warning like this, either more apartments are at risk of collapse or the delay was justified.

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So true. The first time I saw a California prop 65 cancer warning label, I panicked. Now, I just don’t care anymore. Obviously, everything can cause cancer in CA.

I certainly didn't panic, but I did laugh. I think my first encounter was a cup of coffee. My car also had a sticker on it.

Disneyland has warnings posted outside. Prop 65 is idiotic.

I figure it is safe as long as you use the products outside of CA's borders.

I’ve tried to find numbers, but my general feeling from condo shopping is that many concrete high rises from the 1980s skimped on sealant and now have lots of water damage. I regularly saw similar assessment letters around underground garages along with slow movement due to high costs and continued discovery of more issues.

When shopping, the potential unknown around future assessments scared me off. Now I would be even more terrified.

Concrete sealant has to be maintained in general. I'm not sure what waterproofing means in general for hidden slabs or under pool slabs but I imagine chlorinated water and just water over time would necessitate frequent sealant maintenance.

> If every building inspection of nearly every apartment block gives a warning like this, either more apartments are at risk of collapse or the delay was justified.

No, this is precisely the logic that lead to the O-ring failure on the space shuttle.

It even has a name now: The Normalisaton of Deviance

In my country it's common, when buying a home, to get a 'survey' performed. The surveyors can't look at everything, and naturally don't want to be professionally negligent, so they tend to produce reports full of boilerplate warnings.

For example, I have a report advising me, as a matter of the utmost urgency, that the fact the windows can be opened may pose a risk of falling.

If your country's inspection regimes don't produce such boilerplate warnings when no action is needed, consider yourself lucky!

Yea, maybe such warnings about every complex should be kept in a publicly accessible location so buyers are aware of it and owners would be incentivized to take care of issues to keep their property prices stable.

Or, just an idea, it shouldn't be on buyers to ensure that the building they buy won't crash down on them. It should be on the government requiring companies to build things up to code.

Even buildings that are built to code can deteriorate or suffer unexpected damage.

Sure, but that moves responsibility from consumers to big business and might impact profits. So we all know that probably won't happen in the US.

Apparently there was a government official at the meeting where the 2018 report was discussed, and he told the audience that everything was just fine, because home values.

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