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Condo association dissolution

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M

Merlin V12

Guest
What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? MA

The following question was recently posed to me, and I wanted to get some other opinions. A friend of mine owns 1/2 of a duplex (a "condex"?) in a neighborhood with 13 other units (7 buildings total) governed by a condominium association. The condo association was established by the builder who constructed the entire development, and has been in place for approximately 15 years. All of the homeowners have decided that they want to dissolve the condo association, because the condo fee is too high for what it pays for (lawn mowing & snow plowing) and the whole arrangement is generally a pain in the butt. So, practically speaking, how does one go about dissolving a condo association?

In theory, I think it's fairly straightforward. Under MA law, 75% of the unit owners have to consent, along with all of the lienholders. So, if one mortgage lender decides that it's a bad idea, they could sink the whole thing, right? Has anyone out there had any experience with this sort of thing? How likely is the average mortgage lender to go along with something like this?

Let's presume, for argument's sake, that all of the lienholders consent. The law states that, once dissolved, all of the unit owners become owners in common of all of the condo property, unless the dissolving instrument states otherwise. Obviously, we'd want the dissolution documents to state that the unit owners still retain ownership of their individual property. But would the unit owners own their lawns as tenants in common, or would they each own their half? And if it's decided that they each own the half of the lawn that's on their side of the house, do we need to do a survey to determine where the property lines lie?

And what are the practical implications with regard to things like homeowner's insurance? How does it work when the homeowner only owns 50% of the building? I'm having a hard time visualizing an insurance policy that only covers half a roof.

Thank you in advance for your help, and if there are any questions that I'm forgetting to (or are too dumb to) ask, please feel free to answer them anyway!
 


nextwife

Senior Member
Has anyone reviewed the Developers agreement under which the municpality AGREED to allow construction of these units? There may be conditions imposed by the municipality, regarding common areas, garbage collections, etc, that may still need to be addressed as an association. You need to know WHAT your municipality requires of the association.
 

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