Barry Cavalancia
Broker
Realty Executives Associates
In MN real estate a seller has to provide certain condo/townhome documents to buyers. The required documents are: Articles of Incorporation (the document forming the Home Owners Association- HOA), the Bylaws, The Declaration, current rules and regulations, the last printed financial and budget statements, MN ReSale Disclosure Certificate (document filled out by the HOA that basically answers questions about dues, assessments and other controlling information). TheMN State Laws give the buyer 10 days to review these documents and can cancel the sale at any time during the 10 day review for any reason. The 10 days start once the seller/agent turns the documents over to the buyer. HOA's and managers or HOA's usually charge sellers for copies of these documents and for the Resale Disclosure Certificate. Prices vary from $50-450. This is a sellers expense. Furthermore for closing the title insurance company needs to know that the sellers HOA dues and any assessments are paid. Thus the title company will require a "Dues Current Letter" from the HOA. HOA's and managers of HOA's charge for this also. This is a sellers charge that is usually seen on the closing settlement statement. Charges vary from $50-275 for the Dues Current Letter.
Condo/Townhome owners should lobby their HOA's and management firms to lower these costs and not try to make money on sellers. Condo Documents are supplied now in pdf formats and truly do not cost the HOA $450. They do cost to process the request but $50-100 is adequate. Same goes for the Dues Current Letter. This should cost very little as this info is easily identified by anyone keeping current records. This should only cost $25 at most. Bottom line: sellers are over paying for these fees
