Condo Buyers Beware!

Not only are the cities and towns already out of snow removal funds, so are a lot of condo complexes.

If you are planning to purchase a condo, I would highly recommend making your offer contingent upon your satisfactory review of not only the condo docs, but also the condo financial statements. You want to see how much money the association has in reserves. If the reserves are not adequate, you may be hit with a special assessment.

A Special Assessment is an amount of money that the condo unit owners will each be required to pay to build up the condo reserves, or to pay expenses that have already accrued. If the snow removal expenses are beyond what the Association has in reserves, the amount of shortfall will be divided by the number of unit owners according to the square footage of the unit meaning 1 bedroom unit owners will pay less than 2 bedroom unit owners.

Even if they have adequate resrves to cover the costs there may still be a Special Assessment to build up the reserves again. Or, instead of a Special Assessment, the condo fee may be raised. Of course, the unit owners would need a majority vote to do either, but if the money is not there, there is no other choice.