Wiggle room shouldn’t mean condo developer can skip bills

Q: We bought into a condo development five years ago. The condo documents said the declarant didn’t need to follow the condo rules or pay dues on his units until the last unit was sold.

We didn’t worry because the declarant control had expired, and we agreed to give the developer a break on upkeep costs to help sell the condos. We figured it would shake out once all the units sold. However, the developer decided to turn the last 35 percent of units into rentals, and because he no longer plans to sell them, he refuses to pay into the reserve fund or full condo dues.

He also claims he does not have to abide by the association’s rental rules, such as limiting dog size and sharing resident contact information. Worse, the association is short more than $3,000 each month. Any advice?

A: It’s not unusual for a developer ( the declarant and the developer are usually the same entity) to reserve rights, including the ability to rent out units it has been unable to sell. But it seems unreasonable for a developer to own units and not have an obligation to pay either assessments or building expenses.

For example, let’s say the first unit in a 10- unit building sells and that owner pays $250 in monthly assessments to the association. The developer would be paying all the expenses for the building, taking care of the common areas and still has to sell the other nine units. Thus the developer shouldn’t also have to pay assessments.

But if the developer isn’t paying for any of the common expenses and still owns a unit, the developer should be responsible for its monthly assessments, just like any other unit owner.

Given that you are losing quite a bit of money every month, you should hire an attorney who knows condo law to go over your association documents. The attorney can assess the developer’s obligations.