The Attorney's Responsiblities in a New Condo Association or HOA
If the condo transition or advisory committee retained an attorney before the developer transition and is satisfied with the attorney's work, the condo board may want to continue that relationship. The difference now is that the attorney's fee can be paid from condo association reserves rather than from the condo owners' pockets. If the deveoper transition committee has not actually hired an attorney, it should have done enough preliminary research to enable the condo board to make the selection quickly.
The attorney should review the condo association declaration and governing condo documents to make sure they comply with applicable laws, and should review pre-transition decisions made and condo rules and regulations established by the condo developer and the developer's board to ensure that they, too, are consistent with the governing condo documents and applicable real estate laws and regulations. The attorney is looking for anything the condo developer may have overlooked, done incorrectly, or failed to do that could create problems or potential liability for the condo association. The attorney should also review the condo by-laws and condo rules and regulations to make sure they cover effectively all the major issues the condo association will want to address. Ideally, the developer transition committee will have undertaken an initial review of the governing condo documents. Condo board members who have not already done so should immediately familiarize themselves with these condo documents. One of the most important first steps for the new condo board should be assessing whether the boilerplate condo rules and regulations the developer put in place represent a good match for the condo association. The condo board should solicit feedback on this question from condo owners (a good chance to them involve din the decision-making process early on), and then work with the attorney to revise or eliminate any undesirable condo rules and adopt new ones.
