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This has given me serious pause on buying a condo. If I rent the moment I have unfixed issues I can leave ( breaking a lease is pretty easy in my experience).

by 41209 5y ago

This has given me serious pause on buying a condo. If I rent the moment I have unfixed issues I can leave ( breaking a lease is pretty easy in my experience). But I'd hate to buy and then deal with bad neighbors or building issues

seibelj 5y ago
The same issue is with houses, and the bigger the house the bigger the issues can be. For a big condo complex, if a problem is truly big, the association can do a bond offering that can be paid off over a very long time (decades).
- MattGaiser 5y ago
  You don't need your neighbours approval to be pro-active about repairs.
- bluGill 5y ago
  When it is my home I can make decisions. I can decide the pool isn't worth it and tear it out, or fix it. I can notice leaks before they cause structure problems (or choose not to fix them and face the more expensive bills). With a condo those choices are not yours, and the decisions might not be yours either.
ocdtrekkie 5y ago
I would strongly advise against buying a condo in the current environment. I am fighting to have structural issues with a building I own a unit in dealt with, and it's quite the thing. One of the things I find amazing is how unclear the declarations of responsibility are. For instance, there's common elements, which the association is responsible for, and limited common elements, which are elements that you are responsible for, but the association can demand you fix as needed for the benefit of the building whole. I think there's a third category of building limited common elements. Also, I have a garage, but it's not actually mine, I own the right to exclusive use of it, but not the garage itself, but I also end up on the hook for repairs when it breaks... What's fun about that is associations basically place the unit owner responsible for all the likely-to-need-work elements that are exterior. Like windows and the balcony, despite both being exterior building elements, the latter made of the same structural concrete as the rest of the building. But if they need to resurface the balcony, you're going to pay for it, and they're just going to tell you how much you have to pay, or else. (I believe my grandmother once got a $15,000 bill for the balcony at her place, and that's just a mandatory special assessment the association can decide to employ. Good luck if you're living paycheck-to-paycheck.) And then there's just stuff that's completely unlisted in the terms: Building structure is the association's problem, the drywall is generally defined as a unit owner's problem. You know what isn't mentioned at all: Insulation, which is outside the drywall, but not structural. The building can probably refuse to deal with it, and your insurance company can probably refuse to cover it.

by 41209 5y ago

seibelj 5y ago

The same issue is with houses, and the bigger the house the bigger the issues can be. For a big condo complex, if a problem is truly big, the association can do a bond offering that can be paid off over a very long time (decades).

MattGaiser 5y ago
You don't need your neighbours approval to be pro-active about repairs.
bluGill 5y ago
When it is my home I can make decisions. I can decide the pool isn't worth it and tear it out, or fix it. I can notice leaks before they cause structure problems (or choose not to fix them and face the more expensive bills). With a condo those choices are not yours, and the decisions might not be yours either.

ocdtrekkie 5y ago

I would strongly advise against buying a condo in the current environment. I am fighting to have structural issues with a building I own a unit in dealt with, and it's quite the thing. One of the things I find amazing is how unclear the declarations of responsibility are. For instance, there's common elements, which the association is responsible for, and limited common elements, which are elements that you are responsible for, but the association can demand you fix as needed for the benefit of the building whole. I think there's a third category of building limited common elements. Also, I have a garage, but it's not actually mine, I own the right to exclusive use of it, but not the garage itself, but I also end up on the hook for repairs when it breaks... What's fun about that is associations basically place the unit owner responsible for all the likely-to-need-work elements that are exterior. Like windows and the balcony, despite both being exterior building elements, the latter made of the same structural concrete as the rest of the building. But if they need to resurface the balcony, you're going to pay for it, and they're just going to tell you how much you have to pay, or else. (I believe my grandmother once got a $15,000 bill for the balcony at her place, and that's just a mandatory special assessment the association can decide to employ. Good luck if you're living paycheck-to-paycheck.) And then there's just stuff that's completely unlisted in the terms: Building structure is the association's problem, the drywall is generally defined as a unit owner's problem. You know what isn't mentioned at all: Insulation, which is outside the drywall, but not structural. The building can probably refuse to deal with it, and your insurance company can probably refuse to cover it.