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Maryland Condominium Owners Need to be Mindful of Common Element Warranty Requirements

If you have decided that the condominium lifestyle is for you, and have purchased a sparkling new unit in a recently constructed complex, you probably take comfort in the fact that Maryland law provides for a three-year warranty on major components of the common elements. However, you may not be aware that when you purchased your unit, the three-year warranty was probably already running, and, in fact, may even have expired. That is because the common element warranty, does not begin to run when you settle on your unit, but, instead, commences when the first unit sold in the complex settles. As a result, where the size of the condominium or the slowness of the market results in the project taking a period of years before all units are sold, it is possible that many purchasers may take title when the three year common element warranty has nearly, if not already, expired.

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Condominium Building Maintenance Issues

An important consideration of nearly all purchasers of residential condominium units is the fact that a condominium provides the advantages of home ownership without the time-consuming and laborious tasks that are an expected part of maintaining a house and property. After all, exterior maintenance is taken care of by the association. But that does not mean that maintenance and repair issues are something with which condominium owners need not be concerned. On the contrary, there are several reasons why building issues should be matters of extreme urgency in a condominium setting.

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The Condominium Phenomenon

It has been nearly 30 years since I first became involved in the representation of a condominium association that was confronted with construction defect issues. That case was litigated for several years, and eventually grew to engulfing a multitude of parties, including developer entities, the general contractor, design professionals, engineers, numerous subcontractors and suppliers, and all of their law firms and insurers. It ultimately resulted in a resolution that allowed the condominium to repair the significant deficiencies in the exterior envelope of their high-rise building. Since that time, condominium construction defect matters have come to constitute the majority of my work. This has resulted from two phenomena: The first has been the explosion of condominium development since the 1980s, with the wide acceptance of the condo as a desired form of housing. The second is the nature of residential construction and its tight profit margins, in which inspection, supervision and coordination of trades are often the first casualties of budget constraints.

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