What to consider before buying a condo

Listen up, if you live in a condo, if you bought a condo, if you're thinking about buying a condo, okay, when it comes to buying one, there are a lot of expenses that come along with it. Some you might not be thinking about at the time of purchase, dues, special assessments. There's a lot of fees that come along with it. And what if you don't have the money to pay them, or you didn't factor that into your budget before you bought it? Because sometimes it's a surprise. Of course, our legal expert from Great Lakes Legal Group, Jehan Crump Gibson is here. First of all, She's an actual lawyer, and I dig you for that. I am an actual lawyer. You are. Thank you. You don't just play with the TV. Mom and I are proud. Everybody's proud. We're proud. Thank you. Good job. Thank you. But how is it that sometimes these fees come as a surprise, and what they don't tell you is they can go up significantly- Correct. Yeah, I think what people don't realize, you have to make sure that you know that you can afford the unit you're buying, but you also have to understand you're responsible for your share. Of the common areas, so if like your condos in a building, if the roof goes bad or the elevator goes down, guess who has to pay for it? The owners, right? If the streets have to be repaved, sidewalks, parking garage, all of those costs get passed to the owners. And a lot of folks go in thinking, okay, I can afford this specific unit and they're not taking into account, okay, these expenses may come up and the money has to come from somewhere, right? So when you're doing due diligence, you don't only need to do the normal stuff when you're buying a house. Ask about that stuff is the association financially healthy. How much money do they have in reserves? Which really just means like a savings account to be able to, you know, Pay for those things? Is the association financially healthy? I wouldn't even think of that question, but what does that question mean? So if you're moving into a place and let's say, because unless it's new construction and even if it is new construction, things can still go wrong, but older buildings, they've been there for a while. You got to think eventually the elevators, something is going to happen, right? These are going to be major costs. Well, you want to know what's in reserves, like the condo savings account. To seek, would that be able to cover it? Because if you go into an association and they have $500 in the account, maybe you don't want to buy a condo there, right? But you also have to think they can be healthy now. And then five years later, they suddenly are not healthy. Hello, somebody. So what do you do in that case? Because you are starting to get so many different assessments and it feels like this is too much. Yes, so one of the things, and I know it's hard because you have your day job. You have everything going on, so it's hard for you to stay plugged in, but you've got to pay attention to those co-owner meetings. You have to look at the financial reports. You have to ask the questions, because this is very much impacting you, right? Not just an association. So when time, after you buy it, even if you calculated it, you're able to pay your regular dues, you're going to want to make sure, okay, what's going on with our insurance premiums? Are we paying too much? Do we need a different property manager? Can we get one for less? What's going on with expenses? Are you all actually the board? Can you talk about Is there any legal recourse, just if you are having an issue with the HOA, or are they the almighty, all-powerful? It depends on what they're doing. Now, if they are doing what is wrong, like from an ethical standpoint or breaching what we call their fiduciary duty, because they're board members, right? They're supposed to act a certain way. So there are options. We have gone to court on behalf of co-owners quite often, depending on what's happening, right? It can't just be a matter of these are the costs, and unfortunately, things are just going up. So it is what it is. But in situations where they haven't been managing things properly, there are options for owners in court. All right. That's good. Why does it got to be like that? Because you look at that and it's all that in the contract. Like you should. It's not. So and that's my point. You've got to do the due diligence before you purchase. It's not just about that. You have to because if not, you're going to find yourself stuck in a situation and it might be pretty challenging to get out of it. Don't I know it. Thank you. Where can we find you? You can find us at GLEGALGROUP.COM. If you can't remember that, just Google Great Lakes Legal Group.