Condo Association Management Blog

Strictly speaking, the assessment is payable by whomever owns the unit at the time the assessment is due. In some instances, the sale negotiations include part or all of the remaining assessment. If that doesn't happen, the new unit owner is responsible for the remainder of the assessment left outstanding on the date of the closing.

If the assessment was correctly issued, the charge would show up on the account and the seller would not have been able to get a clean 6D. The previous owner is responsible for this assessment unless they set out a payment plan with the buyer. Sometimes this works with an escrow account, sometimes they factor it into the sale.  
 
Even if a "dirty 6D" was issued, the buyer would have been made aware of the future assessments on the condominium questionnaire through the bank.

The special assessment is attached to a property, not to an individual. When the property ownership is transferred any obligations attached to the property become responsibility of the new owner. 
 
This is an issue between a buyer and a seller and they should negotiate who pays the assessment. As far as HOA is concerned you should get your money in either case.

If one person owned 6 units of 18 where a Quorum is 51%, a meeting would require 10 owners (including Proxies) to be legal. 
But the owner with 6 units would always out vote the other 4. 
It would take 13 of the 18 votes to be present to out vote the one owner. 
While it may be legal, it just doesn't seem Ethical! 
Any ideas?

What is unethical about it? Should the person not vote?  
 
You have allowed this situation to occur by not limiting number of units that can be owned by one owner (unless this is the original developer).  
 
You also have full control of the situation. All you need is to have 7 owners come to a meeting and vote together.

Deprending on provision instate condominium act the permitting of some unit owners to pay their assessment over time could be illegal.Check your state law.

There should be some information surrounding this in the bylaws of the HOA. Check there first, then check with a lawyer if things become messy.

Per the Board: 
 
 
 
We do not give a certiciate of resale until all Assessment fees are paid in full by the owner who is selling the unit. Why would the new owner be responsible for something they had nothing to do with.

A lot of thanks for all your valuable work on this article.

Hello, my question is if in my condo special assessment was issued in the sum of 2000$ but as a verbal agreement by 5 people on 13 units because the rest was on foreclosure, and now since all foreclosure apartments are occupied and banks payed special assessment they are all good but the rest 5 are not ok with that.did we have to sign anything that we are agreeing for special assessment or?please help.

Carol, what do your governing docs say about special assessments?  
 
There had to be dully called meeting with a quorum and this assessment had to be voted on. 
 
I am assuming that if 8 units were in foreclosure their voting rights were revoked at some point prior and so 5 remaining owners would constitute a quorum. 
 
Minutes had to be taken at that meeting and they had to be approved at the next meeting. This would the document to show that the vote was taken and that the assessment is valid.

what gov documents Jeff? Because when I first moved in here there was no spec.ass. then 5 people including management comp. because then we didnt have association, talked about special asesment only there was no signing anything or nothing else.now there is a conflict because I dont want to pay something i didnt agreed on.

Carol, I am confused. 
 
"we didn't have association". What does that mean? Is there an homeowners association or not? 
 
Your governing documents would be Article of Incorporation, Bylaws, CC&Rs, Rules and Regulations. 
 
If there was a proper vote on this special assessment it doesn't matter if you voted yes or no you would have to pay for it. 
 
If the vote was taken prior to you taking ownership of the property that it must have been disclosed to you by the seller and it could be negotiated as to how pays for it. If it wasn't - it's between you and the seller.

Jeff by saying there was no association I meant,at that time, due to so many apartments foreclosed there was only management company,and a lady who runs it made decision of special assessment.

When is a special assessment legal? I'm in NC and at the yearly meeting there was not a quorum of homeowners but the Board still passed a special assessment without a vote being taken. Also, the special assessment against the 1 bedroom units was higher than what was allowed in the regulations. Would this void just the assessment against the 1 bedroom units or void the assessment against all units, assuming that the vote itself was legal?

Check what your bylaws and your state condpminium act say about assessments. If the board action violates these provisions then send the board a registered return receipt letter advising them of their error and suggestion they take appropriate action to resolve.