advice for special assessment

[ddtforu]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? ca

Hi,

about 2.5 years ago my wife and I bought our first place, a condo in No. California, we used a broker with a lot of experience that we had met looking at open houses. We found a place that he had sold several units in that was just what we were looking for and he assured us it is a well managed complex, and was not an apartment conversion etc.

Well, about a year after we had moved in we saw a big sign stating there was a special assessment meeting. We were thinking, OK, maybe there's something for a few hundred or something like that, well come to find out it was estimated there was going to be a charge of approx $15k per unit to replace balconies and staircases due to damage caused by poor construction which did not allow water to drain properly. It didn't pass the first vote, but passed almost a year later after a new contractor got the cost down to about $13k. We found out that this special assessment was first disclosed to owners about 4 months before we purchased the place.

Anyway, of course right after the meeting we went back to go through the huge stack of paperwork/documents we got when buying the house., this was about 150 pages of HOA docs etc. On the front of the stack was a form our agent had the HOA management company fill out, and there was section regarding any "planned or contemplated future assessments" which had been crossed out by whoever filled the form out. It seems as though our agent relied on this document. About halfway through the stack of papers I found on the back of one page a small reference stating that in the next year or so they estimated a minimum cost of $10k per unit for the construction. We feel betrayed, I looked over the documents but had missed that small section amongst all the pages, and both our agent and the HOA management company both deny any responsibility. We sank every penny we had into our first purchase, so of course had we known anything about this assessment we never would have bought it or would have made the owner compensate us for the estimated costs.

Anyone have any suggestions for who we might pursue to try and recover at least some of the assessment from? Would it be the Management company for not filling out the documents properly(they deny responsibility because they provided the HOA docs that contained the info despite not filling out the forms requesting special assessment info properly) or the agent who did not do his job properly by not reviewing the documents closely(or at all for all I know). THanks for any advise.

[HomeGuru]

Originally Posted by ddtforu

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? ca

Hi,

about 2.5 years ago my wife and I bought our first place, a condo in No. California, we used a broker with a lot of experience that we had met looking at open houses. We found a place that he had sold several units in that was just what we were looking for and he assured us it is a well managed complex, and was not an apartment conversion etc.

Well, about a year after we had moved in we saw a big sign stating there was a special assessment meeting. We were thinking, OK, maybe there's something for a few hundred or something like that, well come to find out it was estimated there was going to be a charge of approx $15k per unit to replace balconies and staircases due to damage caused by poor construction which did not allow water to drain properly. It didn't pass the first vote, but passed almost a year later after a new contractor got the cost down to about $13k. We found out that this special assessment was first disclosed to owners about 4 months before we purchased the place.

Anyway, of course right after the meeting we went back to go through the huge stack of paperwork/documents we got when buying the house., this was about 150 pages of HOA docs etc. On the front of the stack was a form our agent had the HOA management company fill out, and there was section regarding any "planned or contemplated future assessments" which had been crossed out by whoever filled the form out. It seems as though our agent relied on this document. About halfway through the stack of papers I found on the back of one page a small reference stating that in the next year or so they estimated a minimum cost of $10k per unit for the construction. We feel betrayed, I looked over the documents but had missed that small section amongst all the pages, and both our agent and the HOA management company both deny any responsibility. We sank every penny we had into our first purchase, so of course had we known anything about this assessment we never would have bought it or would have made the owner compensate us for the estimated costs.

Anyone have any suggestions for who we might pursue to try and recover at least some of the assessment from? Would it be the Management company for not filling out the documents properly(they deny responsibility because they provided the HOA docs that contained the info despite not filling out the forms requesting special assessment info properly) or the agent who did not do his job properly by not reviewing the documents closely(or at all for all I know). THanks for any advise.

**A: you have no claim since you were given the required written disclosure with respect to the assessment. You may file a complaint wih the state against the 2 broker's ( your own and the management company)

[ddtforu]

wow, so that sucks, even though it was never actually disclosed to us at all we get stuck with it. We were told there were no issues and nothing to worry about with the complex. It's a shame that the realtors and everyone involved don't have any accountability for not doing their jobs right. They can just say everything is fine without looking at the documents and the buyer has no recourse.

[HomeGuru]

Originally Posted by ddtforu

wow, so that sucks, even though it was never actually disclosed to us at all we get stuck with it. We were told there were no issues and nothing to worry about with the complex. It's a shame that the realtors and everyone involved don't have any accountability for not doing their jobs right. They can just say everything is fine without looking at the documents and the buyer has no recourse.

**A: you're not making any sense.

[rowz]

what sucks is that you were given all the documents with disclosure and that you did not read them.

You are supposed to trust the agents/brokers, then you are supposed to verify that what they told you is the truth.

I believe that the final responsibilty is yours.

[HomeGuru]

Originally Posted by rowz

what sucks is that you were given all the documents with disclosure and that you did not read them.

You are supposed to trust the agents/brokers, then you are supposed to verify that what they told you is the truth.

I believe that the final responsibilty is yours.

**A: that's correct.