TOPIC: Condo/MultiFamily/Townhouse

How do you guys treat these?
i.e. - do you inspect the exteriors?  only if not maintained/owned by an association?
I am doing an inspection next week on a townhouse that is connected to other units.
I suspect the owner "owns" the outside but am in the process of finding out.
Obviously if they own it, i'll inspect the whole thing.  If an association owns/is responsible then what do you guys do?
This is where things get a little interesting/tricky to figure out because of how these association things work.

Thanks in advance.

Hey Robert,

Even though the homeowner does not usually own the exterior or roof you still have to inspect it. If the place has a roof that's falling apart for example, don't you think your client wants to know before it's raining inside the house? Or termites that are eating through the exterior siding and will soon be inside the house (at which point the homeowner is usually responsible). This information just gets passed on to the association during escrow as requests to get fixed rather than the seller.

If you're doing a unit with 4 stories and the client is on the first, then it's not as big of a deal to look on the roof, but some inspectors will still look as if there are expensive repairs coming, it could mean special assessments down the road.

Makes sense and well said.
Thanks for the quick response.

Would there be any additional issues getting on the roof of an association owned area?
Are there additional people that should be contacted for an inspection of this type or just the seller still?

No problem, and I'm speaking from experience too! Our condo had a few exterior issues like termites in the back fencing that we had the association fix during escrow.

Permission for getting on the roof depends. I'm sure you should technically contact the HOA before getting up there but I doubt anyone does. Some of the other guys can give you some more insight here.

I ask a lot of questions when booking condo/townhouses.

There are so many variations, I usually only do interior, garage and common components of the interior like the cooling system, maybe a faucet and some electrical.

I have verbiage in my inspection that states about the exterior and association.

Some times the condo is like a full home and I do an entire inspection, most condos the client does not want the exterior inspected. I try to explain you should do an entire inspection and when they decline I add obtain condo/association Bylaws and read thoroughly.