Miami Beach Condo Assessments (foreclose, credit, loan)

[MiamiLIFE]

Originally Posted by Marc Middleton

$10k-$15k assessments are nothing really if you consider what you're getting. Its easy to drop $10k on repairing a home throughout a year. Also, keep in mind HOA fees. If they don't budget for reserves, you save that money each month. If they do, then you pay more per month but don't get big bills thrown at you (think Tequesta in Brickell Key).

The $100k ones are the bad ones. That's years of deferring maintenance and poorly run HOAs. The Floridian has been undergoing repairs and upgrades for years but no big special assessments. Its well run and has some reserves each year.

What was the boutique building that had a big one coming? Don't keep it a secret, inform the rest of us so we can avoid it. (I'm thinking Absolut Lofts but just a guess).

Ilona Lofts.

[bale002]

Originally Posted by logybogy

Condos are money pits now. Between all the inspections for insurance after the Surfside collapse and new laws requiring additional reserves for condo associations and inspections at 25 years for coastal buildings...

Monthly maintenance fees and special assessments going up, up, up especially for older buildings. Residents on fixed incomes may end up being forced to sell. Older buildings with too much deferred maintenance on prime lots may have to liquidate and sell to developers.

Buy a single family home if you can.

A single family home owner could defer maintenance of a roof or other major issue and face some $50,000-$100,000 or more in emergency or other do-it-or-lose-it repairs with no cash reserves.

So the biggest difference is collective responsibility among a number of unit owners of a condo building versus the sole responsibility of a single owner of a stand-alone house.

Seems that members of condo associations facing huge “unexpected” and urgent maintenance and repair assessments were charging themselves too low monthly fees and not doing the necessary periodic maintenance, similar to bringing a car in for maintenance every 5,000 miles and paying some $100-$500 periodically instead of many thousands “unexpectedly” all at once or being forced to buy a new car.

[MadManofBethesda]

Originally Posted by elchevere

It’s not just Miami Beach either and/or related to Surfside….Icon Brickell residents paid an assessment ($15K per unit??) for pool repairs. Jade had balcony repairs—not sure if that was an assessment or if the developer was forced to pay….Asia Brickell Key is having some work done now.

Originally Posted by MiamiLIFE

I moved down from a high-rise condo in NY. It was about 12 years old. I got hit with a $2,500 special assessment last year for repairs. It's not just Miami. But, I think if you delay repairs the SA in the future are much higher. I think that's part of the problem down here. A lot of unit owners/associations kicked the can down the road.

That's nothing. The oceanfront building I used to live in was built in 2004 and started having issues as early as 2016. By the time it was approved in 2018, we needed a special assessment of close to $4M to take care of all the repairs. We only had 130 units, so the assessments to individual owners were pretty steep for such a new building. I had to pay $25k and I only owned a 1br unit; the owners of 2br units got hit harder.

[MadManofBethesda]

Originally Posted by elchevere

I got past the paywall by reading this article from another site, but assessments at Murano Portofino could cost as high as $320,000 per unit (two phases, no financing); Murano Grande will cost $36,000 per unit….some owners might be forced to sell. Yikes—not exactly chump change and Murano Portofino is not exactly ancient, +/- 20 years old.

https://therealdeal.com/miami/2022/0...sessments/amp/

There's a good article in today's Sun-Sentinel on the condo assessment situation. I know it is behind a paywall, but maybe those who don't have a subscription can find a work-around in order to read it. Here's the first snippet from the article:

Sell now or pay later?

It could become an unpleasant choice for many South Florida condominium owners, ahead of a new state building inspection law driven by last year’s catastrophic collapse of the Champlain Towers South building in Surfside.

By the time Florida’s updated condo safety law goes into effect in 2025, many owners may have decided that it’s too costly to stay in their decades-old, high-rise condominiums.

For tens of thousands of Florida condominium residents, the new law potentially means forking over large payments to boost reserve accounts and probable special assessments to fund major structural repairs. The new rules stand to price many residents out of their buildings, particularly those people on fixed incomes, professional advisers say.

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/real-es...cam-story.html

[MiamiLIFE]

Originally Posted by MadManofBethesda

That's nothing. The oceanfront building I used to live in was built in 2004 and started having issues as early as 2016. By the time it was approved in 2018, we needed a special assessment of close to $4M to take care of all the repairs. We only had 130 units, so the assessments to individual owners were pretty steep for such a new building. I had to pay $25k and I only owned a 1br unit; the owners of 2br units got hit harder.

This is also the reason that it is important the condo association has to hire an excellent engineering firm before the building is transitioned.

[elchevere]

….and if that’s not bad enough, I have a friend who owns and lives at Asia and his current monthly HOA’s are $4500. Not sure where that money goes as the pool and gym are nothing special.

[SanyBelle]

Originally Posted by elchevere

….and if that’s not bad enough, I have a friend who owns and lives at Asia and his current monthly HOA’s are $4500. Not sure where that money goes as the pool and gym are nothing special.

Wow, $4500!! Does that include mortgage and taxes?

[elchevere]

No…granted, a nice and large unit but still (though he’s not hurting for $$). I’m sure there are units at Continuum with even higher HOA, though at least they have nicer amenities.

Originally Posted by SanyBelle

Wow, $4500!! Does that include mortgage and taxes?

[MiamiLIFE]

Originally Posted by elchevere

….and if that’s not bad enough, I have a friend who owns and lives at Asia and his current monthly HOA’s are $4500. Not sure where that money goes as the pool and gym are nothing special.

That should be a large unit. Condo fee usually around $0.85 psf to $1.00 psf.

[Marc Middleton]

Originally Posted by SanyBelle

Wow, $4500!! Does that include mortgage and taxes?

That's a 3400-3500 sq ft 4 bedroom unit. So you're talking $4ML-$5ML. The smaller ones, in the 2k sq ft range are about $2k/mo in HOA. So its about $1/ft or a little higher, pretty standard for a luxury building like Asia. Contrast that with Tequesta, the building complex next door with great amenities and you're about $900/mo for a 1300 sq ft unit, so much more affordable, with reserves too. (A testament to how well run those buildings are).