Condo Inspection Checklist: 15 Things to Check Before You Buy
A practical 15-point checklist for condo buyers covering reserve studies, special assessments, BPS status, insurance, litigation, and more — before you sign.
A standard home inspection covers your unit's walls, plumbing, and electrical. It says nothing about whether the building's reserves are dangerously underfunded, whether a $40,000 special assessment is being discussed in closed-door board meetings, or whether the building is years behind on an energy compliance mandate that will cost every unit owner tens of thousands of dollars.
Use this checklist before you make any offer on a condo. Every item is requestable as part of due diligence. If a seller or HOA refuses to provide any of these documents, treat the refusal as informative.
1. Reserve Study — Funding Percentage
What to request: The most recent reserve study, including the percent-funded calculation.
What to look for: 70-100% funded is healthy. 50-70% is manageable with good board discipline. Below 50% is a warning sign. Below 30% means this building has been spending its future, and the bill is coming.
The reserve study should be dated within the past three to five years. An older study in a building with aging systems is not reliable.
Red flag: No reserve study exists, or the board will not share it.
2. Special Assessment History — Last 5 Years
What to request: A written history of all special assessments levied in the past five years, including the reason and amount per unit.
What to look for: One small assessment for a specific, clear reason is not alarming. Multiple assessments in five years, or a pattern of large assessments, indicates chronic underfunding.
Red flag: "There's been nothing, don't worry about it" without documentation.
3. Pending or Anticipated Special Assessments
What to request: Board meeting minutes from the past 12 months. Ask directly in writing: "Are there any pending or anticipated special assessments in the next 24 months?"
What to look for: Any mention of structural inspections, compliance projects, major system replacements, or reserve shortfalls that could trigger an assessment. Board minutes are required to be made available to unit owners and to prospective buyers who request them through the appropriate disclosure process in most states.
Red flag: Board minutes are unavailable, heavily redacted, or show that compliance work has been discussed but not disclosed to buyers.
4. HOA Fee History — 5 Years
What to request: Annual HOA fee per your unit type for each of the past five years.
What to look for: Calculate the compound annual growth rate. If fees are increasing 8-12% per year, model that forward over your intended holding period. A $450 fee today increasing 10% annually is $724 in five years. That projection is arithmetic, not speculation.
Context: In Denver, average HOA fees went from roughly $200/month in 2006 to $450/month in 2026 — a 125% increase over two decades. There is no mechanism that reverses this trend.
5. Master Insurance Policy — Premium Trend
What to request: The building's master insurance premium for the past three years.
What to look for: Annual percentage increases. Increases of 20-40% per year are not unusual in today's market, but they indicate a building that insurers are repricing. Very large increases (50%+) can indicate claims history, structural concerns, or a building that has lost its primary carrier and is in the surplus lines market.
Context: Insurance premiums have risen 40-300% since 2020 depending on market and building type. This cost flows directly to unit owners through HOA dues.
6. Building Performance Standard (BPS) Compliance Status
What to request: The building's current BPS compliance status and estimated per-unit compliance cost. Over 40 U.S. cities have active BPS laws covering large buildings.
Key cities to check:
- Denver: Energize Denver (25,000+ sq ft, EUI and GHG targets through 2030)
- NYC: Local Law 97 (25,000+ sq ft, already in effect, Phase 2 in 2030)
- Boston: BERDO 2.0 (20,000+ sq ft, deadlines through 2035)
- Washington D.C.: BEPS (10,000+ sq ft)
- St. Louis, Chicago, others: Check the National BPS Coalition database
What to look for: Has the building been benchmarked? Does the HOA have a compliance plan? Are compliance costs included in the reserve study or identified as a future special assessment?
Red flag: The board is unaware of or dismissive about applicable BPS requirements. This means an unquantified liability sits on every unit.
7. Structural Inspection Report
What to request: Any structural inspection reports, engineering assessments, or building envelope studies completed in the past three years.
Context: Post-Surfside, many states have mandated structural inspections for older multifamily buildings. These inspections are revealing deferred maintenance that boards have ignored for decades. Assessments of $50,000 to $200,000 per unit for structural remediation have become common in Florida, and the pattern is spreading.
What to look for: If a structural inspection has been done, read the full report, not just the summary. Pay attention to "monitor and reassess" language, which often means "we found something concerning but the board does not want to act yet."
8. Metro District Status and Mill Levy
What to request: A title commitment that discloses all taxing districts. Ask specifically whether the property is within a metropolitan district (also called a metro district, special district, or CID).
Context: Metro districts are secondary taxing authorities that can levy 50-80 mills on top of standard county property taxes — adding $2,000 to $4,000 or more per year to your holding cost. They are common in Denver-area buildings constructed after approximately 2005.
What to look for: The title commitment will disclose all taxing districts. The county assessor's website will show the current mill levy for each district.
9. Environmental Factors: Radon, Flood Zone, Water Quality
Radon: Colorado has among the highest radon concentrations in the country — over 50% of Colorado homes test above the EPA action level of 4 pCi/L. In a multifamily building, radon typically concentrates on lower floors. Ask whether the building has been tested and whether mitigation systems are installed.
Flood zone: Check FEMA's flood map. A unit in a 100-year or 500-year flood zone has insurance implications that should be quantified before closing.
Water quality: If the building is on a private well or serves an area with known water quality issues, request recent water quality testing.
10. Utility Costs and Metering Structure
What to request: Whether the building is master-metered or individually metered for electricity and water. If master-metered, ask for the building's average utility cost per unit.
Context: Colorado electric rates are up 35% since 2020. Water and sewer costs are up 40%. In a master-metered building, your costs depend partly on the behavior of neighbors you have not met. In an individually metered building, you pay your own consumption.
What to look for: If master-metered, you are subsidizing inefficient neighbors and have no control over a significant cost line.
11. Pending Litigation
What to request: Disclosure of any active litigation involving the association as a party — either plaintiff or defendant.
What to look for: Litigation against a contractor (usually fine — the association is protecting owner interests) is different from litigation by a former owner challenging an assessment, a personal injury claim in common areas, or a dispute with the city over code compliance. The latter categories can result in judgments, settlements, or legal costs that are charged to unit owners as special assessments or fee increases.
12. Board Meeting Minutes — Last 12 Months
What to request: Full board meeting minutes for the past year.
What to look for: Any discussion of deferred maintenance, compliance obligations, reserve shortfalls, vendor disputes, owner complaints, upcoming projects, or changes in insurance. Minutes often reveal what the official HOA disclosure documents do not. The gap between what is in the minutes and what is in the seller's disclosure is worth scrutinizing carefully.
13. Parking and Storage — Deeded vs. Licensed
What to request: The unit's title or declaration language regarding parking spaces and storage units.
What to look for: A deeded parking space is real property — it conveys with the unit and is yours to sell or transfer. A licensed parking space is a revocable privilege granted by the association, which can be reassigned, repriced, or revoked at board discretion. The difference is significant in a market where parking has value.
14. Rental Restrictions
What to request: The association's current rental restriction policy, including any caps on the percentage of units that may be rented.
Context: A building with heavy rental restrictions limits your exit options. You cannot rent the unit if you cannot sell, financial circumstances change, or you want to relocate temporarily. Some buildings cap rentals at 10-25% of units — meaning if the cap is hit, you may be unable to rent at all.
Secondary effect: Heavy rental restrictions also affect financing. Lenders have guidelines about rental concentration in condo buildings; a building near those limits can restrict the buyer pool for your unit when you eventually sell.
15. Building Age and Overall Condition Walk
Beyond all the documents, do a physical walk of the common areas with attention to deferred maintenance signals:
- Roof: Visible from upper-floor windows or a rooftop terrace. Look for patching, ponding areas, flashing condition.
- Parking structure: Concrete spalling (chunks of concrete falling), rust staining, water infiltration are all signs of deferred maintenance that post-Surfside inspections are flagging.
- Mechanical room: Ask to see the boiler/HVAC age. Equipment installed in the 1990s is at or past end of life.
- Elevators: Age, recent service records, any outstanding violations from the state elevator inspector.
- Common area finishes: Are hallways clean and well-maintained, or visibly neglected? Management quality shows in the details.
Using This Checklist With the Property Investability Score
Each of these 15 items maps to one or more of the seven dimensions in the Property Investability Score from The Condo Trap: appreciation potential, carrying cost stability, regulatory exposure, insurance risk, reserve health, exit liquidity, and structural integrity. Working through this checklist generates the raw data needed to score a building on all seven dimensions.
A building that answers every item cleanly — well-funded reserves, no pending assessments, BPS compliance on track, stable insurance, clean structural inspection, no litigation — is a building worth paying more for. A building that fails three or four of these items may need a 15-20% price discount to compensate for the quantifiable risks.
The Condo Trap contains the complete Property Investability Score framework and a city-by-city guide to BPS regulations, carrying costs, and what to ask before you buy anywhere in the U.S. Get it on Amazon.