04-23-2021, 06:36 PM
(04-23-2021, 06:20 PM)danbrotherston Wrote:(04-23-2021, 03:08 PM)mastermind Wrote: I had a co-op job once helping do these reserve fund studies. They're quite in depth. We would go to condominiums and look at every common element, calculate quantities, estimate the age and replacement date and cost of each, project ahead 30 years and then figure out what the reserve fund contributions need to be to pay for it all.
Most were buildings from the 70's or 80's still on their original roof, windows, and parking lot, and these three items were almost always in really bad shape. The recommended increase in reserve fund contributions in order to pay for them was usually quite steep. I imagine it would not be fun to be on a condo board and be the recipient of one of those reports.
I mean, I don't know what the history on those buildings are, but hasn't it always been the case that those replacements were known and planned for? Certainly costs have increased beyond the planned increases, but they shouldn't be totally out of line.
The reserve fund studies and the 30-year requirement did not come into play until the act was proclaimed in 2001. And there might have been a transition period, too. Prior to that, many condos had reserve funds but they were not regulated, and many of them would have been insufficient to meet the current 30-year requirement.