Developer to Homeowner Transition

Our condo association transitions from developer to homeowner controlled in the fall of this year. Several questions come with this:
- any advice on what to look out for from the developer?
- should the homeowners seek legal representation to protect our interests?
- what kinds of things would an attorney check / verify?
The current board (builder employees) says everything will be fine, with no need to do anything except hold an election for the new board.

Any advice?

Mark,

The first thing you need to do is check up of the laws in Massachusetts to see what is required of condo transitions, if anything. You may also want to consult an attorney knowledgable in condo law in MA. You may be able to get a consultation at no or little cost. I believe there are some law firms in Massachusetts that routinely practice condo law. You can "Google" to find them.

I sort of like to think of transition as being somewhat akin to buying a home or buying a business (maybe a combination of both) where the "seller" is the declarant or developer and the "buyer" is all the homeowners, except that money doesn't actually change hands (at least, not from "buyer" to "seller") and there is no mortgage or loan involved. In a sense, money does change hands in that the association funds are turned over to the homeowners, so the flow is from "seller" to "buyer."

You wouldn't buy a home or a business without legal representation and I don't think you should go through transition without legal representation either. The existing board may believe they are correct when they say every will be fine, and it may even be true, but you shouldn't trust your board, or even the developer's attorney, to know everything that may be required.

Our association just went through transition during the past year and there were several things that neither the developer nor his attorney knew were required by Connecticut law. For example, the developer was surprised to learn that one thing that was required, under the law, was a formal audit, paid for by the developer.

The problem with hiring a lawyer is who pays for it? The answer is the association does, but how do you do that while the developer is still in control? Easy. I believe in most cases the first step in transition is the election of a new, homeowner-controlled, board. The developer then has a period of time after that to turn over documents and do whatever else is required. So, one of the first acts of the new board, after the election of officers, should be to hire an attorney to represent the association during the transition (and maybe even continuing after). Of course, you should do your homework in advance so you can hit the ground running after the election. The important thing is, don't sign anything until it has been reviewed by your attorney.

There have been several good articles written about transition from declarant (developer) to homeowner. They're pretty easy to find on the internet. Just "Google" for them. (BTW - I often use declarant and developer interchangeably because they are often the same person or company, but they don't have to be.)