Condo Association Management Blog

You've raised a serious legal question. I can only suggest you should consider retaining a lawyer whose practise is real estate law.

Let's see. new Owners don't do due diligence. Buy property at fire sale "as is" price. New owners now want their neighbors (Condo Assn)to pay to bring property up to standards. Wow! That's creative.  
 
Condo Assn. may not be legal. Check docs for requirements to turn over.

When buying a condo being built by a contractor that is now long gone, I would have to think is the new owners responsibility. When you buy a car "as is" you the new owner is responsible for the repairs. When buying a regular home not in an association you are responsible for the fixing up, "NOT THE FORMER OWNERS" Now to find out the truth about this I would get myself a good laywer and  
 
find out who does what. As a member of an association if we all took a vote before the board I am sure I would be getting 100% to NO the association is not responsible. 
 
"AS Is" is basically what it means and these new owners should have known this before buying into something that should have been answered before moving forward. I am in no means a laywer, but I will bet you as a member of the association I would fight to not pay for this. Now after all has been fixed and fixed correctly, then I would think the association would have to abid by the rules and fix whatever in the future. I would like to know the outcome of this ordeal. Good Luck

Charles is spot on. This will only be resolved in court so you should discuss this with a qualified attorney who does condo construction defect litigation. You may get lucky and the builder may have had insurance at the time of grading and it could be covered by that insurance. Otherwise, you'll have to sue the bank who foreclosed and there's likely not much you'll get out of them when they disclaimed it being sold "as is." Who knows, perhaps you'll get lucky and the bank will agree to take care of part of the bill... 
 
Otherwise, I think the owners are going to be stuck with is. Before you through in the towel, talk with the construction defect attorney, he or she may know something unique about your state or locality. 
 
Darron

Response to above - Is Association legal? 
 
Attorney was invloved and legal papers were signed by the Developer and single owner (while he still had the development), to transfer association manangement and control of the Association, then outside board memebrs brought in to help and additional new condo owners now on board.

Please obtain an attorney who specializes in defect litigation. I'm from California. Defect litigation is unfortunately quite common our here due to all the building that takes place. Do not rely on your CC&R's for this or the idea of "Sold As Is.' This requires a thorough review by a qualified defect litigation attorney. I hope you'll make the call today. You and the other homeowners deserve much more than you're getting.

When an individual purchases a property in "AS Is" condition, they usually get a bargain deal on the property and are expected to fix any defaults that may exist. If the bank took the property over from the builder/declarent then they would be responsible for the builder's obligation to the HOA as they have taken over his position. If the bank sells the property "as is" to an individual, the individual would be responsible for finishing the job. Once the job is finished the HOA would take over the maintenance of the common area only.

The drainage problem is not on the new owners property but located within the common elements and therefore the new owner must have permission from the association to do anything that changes this common element.  
 
 
 
\If the association has properly accepted the turnover of the association from the Bank who was the owner when the association was turned over, then it is the association's responsibility. If the association was not properly turned over then it is a defect that the Bank who is the predisessor to the developer.