Some Ocean City condominium owners are facing five-to-six digit bills over the next few years as they rush to meet a deadline set by new state law that requires associations to fill accounts reserved for maintenance, repairs and replacements.
House Bill 107, which is commonly referred to as the “reserve study” law or “capital reserve fund” law, passed in April 2022 and went into effect as law on Oct. 1, of that year. It mandated that condos, housing associations, cooperatives and homeowners associations in Maryland complete a reserve study by Oct. 1, 2023.
Reserve studies are an analysis of a shared building’s condition and an assessment of the costs to fix or replace the structure and utilities.
Any association that shares common assets that were originally valued at a minimum of $10,000 and hasn’t had a reserve study done since Oct. 1, 2018 must have had the study conducted by a third-party building auditing firm as of the beginning of this month.
For each study, a firm calculates the cost for all the necessary work, and then recommends how much money an association must put into a reserve fund annually.
Owners associations have three years to fill that fund to the recommended level, and then must maintain that amount of money in the fund each year and replenish any amount spent on building updates.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: buying property that is subject to and regulated by an Association is foolish.
Damn RIGHT !!!! THey Don’t Pay My Mortgage & I don’t Need or want them !!!! OUT THEM !!!
YES > same here in SALISBURY !!!! We now cannot afford to stay in our Damn homes thanks to this & it
should be Recsended !!!!
We already pay High Fees & our place just raised it $500.00 per year !!! These condos know we cannot
afford to leave because of the Biden High Interest Rates so we are Stuck where we are getting GOUGED !!!!
Don’t blame high interest rates. You bought it, you “own” it. I’ve been telling you all not to buy property subject to Associations for years and years and decades, even when interest rates were low. But it seems like you fell for the pretty shiny promises of “maintenance” and groundskeeping, etc. I’m sorry. I know you meant well and you’re a nice person. But you made a big mistake. Do your best to get out and PLEASE let everyone know the dangers so in the future we can end this scam nonsense. The developers set these up so things look pretty and clean and the future looks bright. But people don’t learn their lessons until after it’s too late Well, tell your kids, your grandkids, your friends and loved ones: If you want to own a home, OWN it. Don’t buy into the fairy tale stories of HOAs, Condo Associations, etc.
it will be my LAST Don’t Worry !!!! Learned the HARD WAY !!!!
This should be Judged ILLEGAL !!!! We owners Pay too much already to the Condo Kings & it never ends !!!
We owners SHOULD HAVE A VOTE & Not be forced to not have any say on our expenses !!!
Note a STUDY was the subject & RECOMMEND was used by the state !!! Not ANY set mandated amount $$$
just because the study Recommends an amount !!!!
We owners should always have the RIGHT to VOTE on ANYTHING before it can be implemented Including the
Right to KICK OUT / Vote Out the condo Associations !!!!! They don’t pay Our Mortgages & we OWN our propertys Not THEM / we are Not RENTERS !!!!
Is this the beginning of the big takeover I’ve been reading about ?
Throw this Bullshhht OUT !!!! We owners pay too much now !!!! This will Force Out Owners !!!!
Vote OUT Condo Kings instead !!!!
Taxation without representation.
Look up Black Rock, State Street and Vanguard bank investment groups. Connections to China, banks, realtors. That’s why so much rental properties and no home ownership is getting limited. The govt has their hands in a lot of rental properties. Wake up people vote these democrat politicians and rinos out of office.
This is a state law, mandated by Annapolis and covers the entire state of MD…not just condos on the eastern shore. Yes it hurts all, but how bout the city of Bmore? Those slum apts and condos. Sure as hell dont have reserve money, less peeps who can pay. Will they get kicked out eventually? Liens? MD did this and most understand why. (Avoid being sued like FLA did with the collapses and other states.
People at this time can afford it…..although there seems to be a beacher in DE who loves giving BILLIONS of our taxpayer dollars to foreign countries on a daily. Print some of dat for us Joey!
A new MD legislature can rescind this current law. Something to think about for next years election. Just sayin
I own a condo here in OC, and while I never want to pay more, these fees are in place and are a reflection of the condo situation that hit Florida. I’m fortunate that our condo association and membership were on top of this, so we will see no increase as all of our accounts are in compliance. I’d hate to be an owner in a building where maintenance wasn’t kept up though. Asking anyone in this economy to come up with that amount of money is just absurd. I predict that a lot of condos will be on the market in the immediate future. If you are interested in buying a condo, be sure to ask your realator about this, as this could be a really nasty surprise.
We live in a Place that is over 20 years Old so how the hell if they did not Already have enough RESERVE Funds
are we supposed to make up for all the years they Mis-Managed things as Condo Managers ????
Schumaker Manor < Salisbury , MD !!!!! We owners who have just gotten here in recent years should NOT
Have to make up for the last 20 + Years we had nothing to do with
The Condo Managers Associations need to be VOTED OUT to set the Condo OWNERS Free of them !!! SOLVED
We Do NOT need them & are Better off WITHOUT THEM !!! We would SAVE ALOT of Money !!!!!
We like our Homes to be a FIXED payment & cannot afford our costs being raised when somebody else
decides to RAISE our costs to live in these damn Condo hellholes !!!!
It is just like have a Non-Fixed rate Mortgage !!!! Gambling with our Future !!!!