Selling a town home? Who handles the repairs and how?

George,

These are questions I always ask when dealing with "any" home that has an HOA involved.  Whether it be a condo or single family home.  Even on the single family homes you could be talking about aspects of the curb appeal in that some HOA's will maintain the front yard completely.  So if a tree dies or storm damage happens your clients need to know how to turn in claims or repair request.

Great points George.  Most HOA's here don't handle single family lawn maintenance or exterior maintenance but the townhomes and condos seldom have HOA's that don't.  Getting repairs done in a timely manner can be a huge area of concern.

Clients need to understand that they are buying a share of an organization and are bound by decisions and contracts that organization enter into. For example, The board decides that the building needs to be painted and doesn't have funds set aside for that. The board then will assess each member for the cost of the painting. This recently happened to a 10 member condo association. Painting costs were $58,000 or $5,800 a piece.There was another case where the president of an association was draining the assoication reserves by funneling business to preferred landscapers and other tradespeople. The assoication didn't discover this until the president sold his unit and left the state.

It is always recommended that the clients get the details of the HOA or Condo early in the purchase process. In addition to the CCR's, they will want to see at least a years worth of meeting minutes. This will give them some insight into the health of the association, management style, current issues etc.  Above all if the association owns common property then they should have reserves. The actual amount of reserve is determined by a reserve study. The reserve study will inventory all the association assets, determine there age, replacement cost, ongoing maintenance costs and create a funding plan.

There is a good article on "inspecting" Home Owner Association Here

Inspecting your Prospective HOA

Pacific Crest Reserves

George, good questions to ask, saves a lot of headached towards the end. Also liked some of the comments.

Have a great weekend.