When HOA Documents Hide Six-Figure Surprises: A $102,000 Lesson
A retiree's $102,000 HOA special assessment was buried in board minutes. Learn which HOA documents to review and what questions to ask before buying a condo.
Janet Stone did everything right. The retired special education teacher had saved for decades. When she found a Florida condo listed at $379,000, she ran the numbers carefully: mortgage payment, property taxes, insurance, and HOA dues. On her fixed retirement income, it all worked.
Eleven months after closing, she received a letter that would send her back to work.
The Assessment
The HOA announced a special assessment of $102,000 per unit. Seven installments over two years, ranging from $3,529 to $23,310 each. For a retiree who had carefully budgeted her fixed income, it was devastating.
Janet went back to work. Every paycheck went toward the assessment. Her final payment came in January 2025 - more than two years of working in retirement to pay for something she did not know was coming.
What She Missed
Janet reviewed the governing documents before purchasing. CC&Rs, bylaws, the basics. What she did not review: the board meeting minutes from the months before her purchase. Those minutes contained discussions about the upcoming assessment - discussions that had been happening for months before she closed.
The information was available. It was disclosed. It was just buried in hundreds of pages of documentation that most buyers - and most agents - do not have time to fully review.
The Bigger Picture
Janet is not alone. Since Florida passed new structural safety laws following the Surfside condo collapse in 2021, buildings across the state have been required to conduct milestone inspections and fund reserves for structural repairs. The result: special assessments of $50,000, $75,000, even $100,000+ are becoming common for Florida condo owners.
The challenge is not that this information is hidden. It is that it is buried - in reserve studies, board meeting minutes, financial statements, and engineering reports that can add up to 200+ pages for HOA packages alone.
What Buyers Should Ask
If you are buying a condo - especially in Florida - here are the documents to request and the questions to ask:
- Board meeting minutes from the past 12-24 months. Look for discussions about assessments, repairs, or reserve funding.
- The reserve study. Is it fully funded? What percentage? Anything below 70% is a warning sign.
- Recent engineering or inspection reports. Any structural issues identified?
- Pending or proposed assessments. Ask directly: Are any assessments being discussed or planned?
- History of assessments. How many in the past 5 years? For how much?
The Documentation Problem
Real estate transactions generate 300-600 pages of documents. HOA packages can add another 200+ pages. Even experienced transaction coordinators, reviewing manually, miss an estimated 5-10% of critical items.
The question is not whether you are diligent enough. It is whether the review process is designed to surface what matters - before closing, not after.
Janet reviewed documents. She just did not review the right ones. And buried on page 187 of the board minutes, the $102,000 assessment was waiting.
CT
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