Published
A beachfront condo has two prices: the purchase price and the building. The second one is set by people you have never met, collected monthly, and occasionally multiplied by special assessment. Ask these seven questions before your lawyer spends an hour on the title.
1. What are the arrears and the reserves?
Ask for the delinquency rate and the reserve-fund balance — numbers, not reassurances. A building where a fifth of owners do not pay is a building where the paying fifth funds everything, including the next emergency.
2. What special assessments are pending or planned?
Façades, elevators, waterproofing, pumps: salt air bills all of them eventually. Ask what is planned, what it is estimated to cost, and how it will be divided. Then ask what the last one cost and how owners reacted.
3. How old are the elevators, and who maintains them?
In a tower, the elevator is not an amenity — it is the front door. Maintenance contract, service history, and age tell you whether the next assessment already has a name.
4. What happened in the last rainy season?
Waterproofing claims are cheap; March evidence is not. Ask where water entered, what was repaired, and what recurs every year. Staining in stairwells and garages is a building telling on itself.
5. What are the short-term rental rules — and the reality?
Rules on holiday rentals affect your noise, your security, and your resale market. Ask for the written rule and then ask residents what actually happens in Carnaval week. The gap between the two is information.
6. Who handles emergencies at midnight?
A name and a phone number, not “the guard.” Pumps fail, pipes burst, and power trips on weekends. The quality of the answer predicts the quality of the management.
7. Can I see two years of accounts?
Not the budget — the accounts. Income collected versus spent, per line. If this request causes discomfort, that discomfort is also an answer.
None of this replaces legal due diligence on the title. But a clean title in a failing building is the most expensive bargain on this coast.