Condo owners hit with $100,000 assessments!
 

Florida condo owners are getting hammered with huge maintenance assessments!

They should have bought in the Villages.

I just looked at the Villages’ website. There are a couple of hundred brand new homes for under $400,000.

A reckoning is coming for Florida's condo owners as buildings face millions in repairs

There been few hammer’s used around here?

Due Diligence....

Good grief

HOAs are maintenance nightmares because of the fact that they are HOAs with socialism fees.. .

Condos are basically designed to socialize expenses,(pay in and someone else does the work) and asking people who love socialization mentality to now spend money on maintenance, runs counter to their spending styles as well as tendency towards maintenance ineptness in the first place.

Condos are huge cluster fusses. . as well as located in places where maintenance is higher than normal, (mostly near the ocean where the salt in the air and the sandy soil creates a lot of potential erosion and instability)

Not uncommon for Beach properties here. The rerbar and concrete rots over 20-30 years.

Add beach erosion adding to the deterioration of some beach side cities like Daytona.

What due diligence should they have done?

The law was passed after many people bought their condos.

Surfside
 

98 people died after the horrible tragedy at Surfside, something had to be done, and it does cost money. The owners need to pay the expenses that make things right. That includes the mandatory annual inspections and the funds set aside for possible repair issues. The front loaded financial shock should settle in a few years. Hey we pay a bond, they have to pay a similar cost for the structure they live on and in.

Before my lifestyle visit to The Villages, I contemplated maybe retiring to a condo community in SE Florida, to be close to the beach and warmer winters. So glad I didn’t end up making that retirement choice! My heart goes out to the many retirees that are being hit with skyrocketing HOA increases as well as astronomical assessments. We are fortunate here in The Villages not having to endure those issues.

New Builds
 

If you buy new construction, the cost structure and amounts are remarkably similar to your 50k bond, maintenance fees and amenities. I imagine some condo owners are financing the larger fees just like bond owners here.

A lot of retirees do not have an extra $100,000 lying around to pay an assessment. In the past week, people here were complaining about a 56% hike in district 14. As far as I can tell, no one had a $1000 increase.

And the highest bond I have seen here is under $75,000 which is payable over 30 years. It is unclear whether the condo assessments in the article can be paid over 30 years.

Agree
 

I agree, and the bond new buyers get here is pre announced before a financial decision is made. These condo owners are getting blindsided by the announcement and it’s financial impact.

A key difference is the bond is against the property and not a personal debt. You don't have to pay it off when selling the property.

When buying a condo, due diligence includes looking at the condo association's financial reports to be certain that there is a large reserve for future big maintenance items.

Many condo owners prefer low maintenance fees instead of having a sufficient reserve. But the day always comes that something big needs attention.

After we got married, spouse and I owned a condo for around 12 years. We had no amenities at all, not even an HOA meeting hall. The board met at the board president's living room once a month. But all our landscaping, snow removal, and roof repair was taken care of by the HOA. Painting the porches was our responsibility. Our condo fee was made higher when the developer - which owned and rented out around half of the properties - was given as many votes as units he owned. So he got to set the rules. He decided that property owners only had to pay one HOA fee per owner, rather than per unit. So he only paid $300/month, just like everyone else - even though he owned almost half the units in the community.

We eventually bought a freestanding house in the next town, a modest but lovely walkable area behind the main road. I was able to walk to the supermarket on nice days if I didn't have too much to pick up, or ride my bike to a dental appointment, and enjoy the old fashioned New England town green environment with no HOA at all.