A town inspector reassured residents in 2018 that the building that collapsed near Miami last week was in "very good shape," just a month after an engineer warned that the high-rise had suffered major structural damage that required repair, US media has reported.
The 12-storey Champlain Towers South in Surfside partially collapsed early on Thursday as residents slept.
Another body has been recovered from the debris today bringing the confirmed death toll to 10, with another 151 people still unaccounted for, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said.
"This morning we did recover another body. That brings the count to 10. The total number of those accounted for is now 135. And the total unaccounted for, 151," Ms Levine Cava told a press conference at the scene in Surfside, near Miami Beach.
"Our detectives are working right now, in real time, to audit this list," Ms Levine Cava said, adding that the numbers were still "very fluid, and they will continue to change".
Rescue crews are working around the clock, sifting through the rubble for signs of life even as hopes of finding more survivors grow dimmer by the hour.
The 2018 report prepared by an engineering firm for the condominium building found serious concrete deterioration in the underground parking garage as well as major structural damage in the concrete slab beneath the pool deck.
The engineer, Frank Morabito, reported the deterioration would "expand exponentially" if it was not repaired in the near future.
But Ross Prieto, a Surfside inspector who had reviewed the report, met residents the following month and assured them the building was safe, according to minutes of the meeting first obtained by NPR.
Mr Prieto is no longer employed by Surfside, according to NPR. Reuters was unable to reach him but he told the Miami Herald newspaper he did not remember getting the report.
In an email to the town manager the morning after the 2018 meeting, Mr Prieto said it had gone "very well" and that the response from residents was "positive".
The cause of the collapse remains under investigation.
Rescue workers were culling through the top of the rubble pile today, both on foot and with a crane, aided by clear skies, though the forecast called for chance thunderstorms.
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue's Maggie Castro told CNN this morning that the effort was still a rescue mission.
"We are still attempting to find void spaces. We know that time is of the essence," she said. "But, as you can imagine, it's going to be less likely that we are going to be finding survivors."
The teams included experts sent by Israel and Mexico to assist in the search.
Some relatives of those missing have provided DNA samples to officials, and family members were permitted to pay a private visit to the site by special arrangement yesterday, Ms Levine Cava said.
Police released the names of four victims who ranged in age from 54 to 83 - a couple married for 58 years, a volunteer Little League baseball coach and the mother of a 15-year-old boy who was pulled alive from the rubble shortly after the collapse.
Among those who have been identified were Luis Andres Bermudez, 26, and his mother Ana Ortiz, 46, whose bodies were recovered on Saturday.
