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Yeah but the condo association can change the rules on you in a heartbeat. They can prevent you from using your condo as a rental, and make outrageous rules. Plus everything outside of your unit you don't own....no thanks.
No, they can't change the rules in a heartbeat, changes need to be ratified by the owners. The condo association is the other owners, it's not a landlord with unilateral authority. If you don't want a change to pass, then you need to rally support of other owners to prevent it.
I've been part of a movement to throw out an HOA board when they tried to make rules people didn't want. It's not that hard.
If people don't want to live in a condo, that's great, there are lots of options out there. But just because someone chooses not to doesn't mean that giving false information about what condo ownership means is ok.
And the person I responded to is wrong, no one can "sell a condo out from under you." I guess unless you default on your mortgage or taxes or condo fees and it goes to court and there's a judgement against you, but of course the same thing is true for a single family house too.
I chose to rent for a long time, then followed the OP's advice and bought a house that we were planning on selling after about 7 years. Surprise! Along came the housing crash--so we were stuck an extra 6 years.
But before the crash, I was already disillusioned with home ownership, frankly. First--maintenance on a house, lawn and pool was kind of a pain. Maintenance itself is pretty expensive (as is a condo maintenance fee of about $500 in our area). The AC, the water heater, plumbing, in addition to lawn and pool maintenance. The fact is that we would rather be doing almost anything than DIY or property maintenance. And when neighbors move in, they aren't going anywhere fast, so you are stuck with them too.
I would never walk away from a mortgage as many were doing at the time, and we were not terribly underwater, so we stuck it out. We grew to really dislike the entire area after a few years, but were stuck. Living somewhere you dislike when you cannot just pick up and leave sucks.
As soon as the market picked up, we sold and moved to another part of the state. All I miss is the private pool. Though we like it here better, I have absolutely no desire to walk into another long term commitment home-wise. We have a great condo--with very expensive maintenance fees that we do not pay, great landlord, better and quieter neighbors than we had with our house (bad neighbors are evicted pretty quick). Since we are very responsible people, the landlords tend not to raise the rent, and ours is very reasonable for the area we live a few minutes from the beach. Best of all, we can move to Europe or wherever we like in a year or so, and I don't have to even think about selling a house. So I officially like renting a whole lot more than owning.
No, they can't change the rules in a heartbeat, changes need to be ratified by the owners. The condo association is the other owners, it's not a landlord with unilateral authority. If you don't want a change to pass, then you need to rally support of other owners to prevent it.
I've been part of a movement to throw out an HOA board when they tried to make rules people didn't want. It's not that hard.
If people don't want to live in a condo, that's great, there are lots of options out there. But just because someone chooses not to doesn't mean that giving false information about what condo ownership means is ok.
And the person I responded to is wrong, no one can "sell a condo out from under you." I guess unless you default on your mortgage or taxes or condo fees and it goes to court and there's a judgement against you, but of course the same thing is true for a single family house too.
That's still someone else dictating what you do with your "property".
You just literally said the changes have to be ratified by the owners, so how is what I said a false statement?
Condo owners face the risk of having rules thrown at them when the board decides to. I got kicked out of a condo rental against my landlords will because her board didn't want to rent out to tenants anymore. She was against the rule but they forced her to so she ended up selling the place.
Condos are great for some people and that's wonderful, but I want full control of what I do with my place. HOA's are bad enough to deal with when it comes to homes and making changes to exteriors, but with condos...again...no thanks for me.
That's still someone else dictating what you do with your "property".
You just literally said the changes have to be ratified by the owners, so how is what I said a false statement?
Condo owners face the risk of having rules thrown at them when the board decides to. I got kicked out of a condo rental against my landlords will because her board didn't want to rent out to tenants anymore.
It doesn't happen in a heartbeat and all the owners get a say. It's not the board doing it, it's the owners collectively. And no, you didn't get kicked out because "the board" decided - if it was even ok in the first place (and owners have been known to lie to tenants about that) then a majority of owners would need to vote to change the bylaws on whether renting units out was allowed. You as a tenant had no say, but the owner of the unit would have.
It doesn't happen in a heartbeat and all the owners get a say. It's not the board doing it, it's the owners collectively. And no, you didn't get kicked out because "the board" decided - if it was even ok in the first place (and owners have been known to lie to tenants about that) then a majority of owners would need to vote to change the bylaws on whether renting units out was allowed. You as a tenant had no say, but the owner of the unit would have.
But the owner didn't have a say. The board did and she was in the minority. That's my entire point. A majority of people on a board shouldn't dictate what you do with your own place that you "own" and pay a mortgage for.
You obviously have no idea what condo ownership means. No one can sell it out from under you. The owners collectively own the land, no one else. A condo complex doesn't get sold, just the individual units.
In any case, OP's friend doesn't want to own anything and that's perfectly fine too.
Then why do I always hear about developers trying to buy condo buildings?
Then why do I always hear about developers trying to buy condo buildings?
They may want to purchase all of the units in a building so they can re-develop it in some way. But they can't just buy the building because no one entity owns the building. They would have to successfully negotiate a purchase with every unit owner, since each owner owns their individual unit and an undivided share of the common assets.
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