Condominium associations could get another two more years to come up with state-mandated cash reserves under proposed legislation from a Lower Shore delegate in Annapolis.
It’s the second year that Del. Wayne Hartman (D-38C, Worcester) has sponsored a bill to extend the payment window for reserve studies. His House Bill 1215 is scheduled for a Feb. 28 hearing in the House Environment and Transportation Committee.
In response to the 2021 collapse of a Florida high rise condo building that killed 98 people, Maryland lawmakers in 2022 mandated condos, cooperatives, and homeowner’s associations complete a review of how much money they’d need for financial upkeep of common areas, called a reserve study.
But the law has sent condo associations scrambling to find money, sometimes in five- or six-figure amounts for their buildings, according to Michele Nadeau, president of the Delmarva Community Managers Association.
“The three years is really a tight time frame to get up to speed. It’s almost impossible for people who haven’t had a reserve study in 30 years to say they now need a million dollars and there’s only 16 condos. I think five years is a realistic figure. Three years is not enough for people who were not doing this regularly,” she said.
She said older and smaller condo buildings especially have been hit with sticker shock because, before 2022, they’d never had a reserve study, instead asking unit owners to pay a special assessment when needed. Reserve studies are supposed to be conducted by a third-party building auditing firm, the law says.