Not having sufficient reserves is disaster waiting to happen.

There were 19 condo buildings in the association. They would put 1 new roof on every year that came out of that fund. Oldest roof would never be over 20 years old. It worked well.

Not enough reserves I guess but they are saving up for pool repairs so I got that going for me.:evilb:


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Apparently they are only having the owners in the 2 buildings/19 units foot the bill for the new roofs, which is also crazy to me. In my complex, everything for every repair, no matter what building or dock, is assessed evenly on per sq ft basis. There has NEVER been a special assessment at our complex since it was built in the mid 80's.

A friend bought a new unit in a big complex at LOTO years ago...probably around 2006 ish. He had $24,000 over 3 special assessments in the first 2 years of ownership!! New complex and decks were rotting off because they did not use treated lumber and had concrete decking, sewage treatment plant had problems and a couple docks had huge problems.
I don't think I could ever own a condo again and deal with an HOA....the fees are ridiculous!

One has to look at the HOA annual minutes and accts prior to purchasing. It is call due diligence. There are MANY associations that are ran well, and unfortunately a number that are not.

I would like to see what your friend really had to deal with, my guess being called new was subjective rather than actual. Granted bad lumber will rot faster, If they didn't maintain anything that too will always lead to issues at a faster pace. but it still would take a number of years before it is an issue.

Now all that being said.... There was a complex that had REAL legal issues due to decks being under engineered and it took a number of law suits to get those resolved but EVERYONE knew about it if they did just a single google search.

Again..... Make sure you look at the HOA history (I always recommend at least last 3 years) prior to purchasing, and then once you own there show up for the meetings at the VERY least the annual meeting when all the big items are voted on and there will not be any surprises.

I spoke with someone from the Association.
After asking why there isn`t any larger reserves and some other concerns I had I was told that the last board was $hit and that there is a new board in 2024 who should be managing things better .
I mean at least they were honest .

Closing this thursday .:evilb:

Condo Boards are all chit, condo management companies are chit, cheap azz condo owners are chit .Dum azzes have no experience with useful life and replacement costs, our condo association will let the columns of our carports rust out and collapse and than remove them before they will acknowledge the corrosion and repair them. Just Dumb.

We have a very good HOA Board NOW and most owners are very happy with our mgmt company NOW (Professional Services)

Our board and mgmt company(Mikat) were not good a few years ago.

Ya, I deal with a lot of condo boards in my business.
It`s mostly the old cranky a holes that have nothing better to do but try and make everyone elses lives as miserable as theirs.