Minnie wrote:
Boilers and hot water heaters service a particular unit and at $190. is most likely each unit owners responsibility. Same for apartment entry doors and windows.

A new roof will last a long time if done correctly. Same for brick re-pointing.

A problem our condo had in the past was the overspending of funds and it was done by our property manager at that time. We were almost flat broke. Hard to believe because I had hired an attorney and asked that he look into the finances before closing... but I failed to follow up with him and learned the hard way... which was after I closed.

I started reading the master deed, bylaws, rules & regulations and then started asking questions and requested the balance sheets and bank statements. What I found was that association money was being spent on items that were not even the associations responsibility. Not to mention over paid contractors that did poor work with no warranty. We were getting ripped off.

At that time there was no board of directors, and so I formed a board, requested credits for the jobs that were the responsibility of a unit owner and shopped around for better rates on insurance, exterminating, cleaning and a new property manager. Within a short period of time we were doing okay.