Please look for the ad for this blog in the program for this weekend’s Home and Condo Show in Ocean City. The show begins today and runs through Sunday at the R.E. Powell Convention Center. Hours are Friday Noon – 6:00 pm, Saturday 10:00 am – 6:00 pm, and Sunday 10:30 am – 3:30 pm.
The Ocean City Condo Show is this weekend at the R.E. Powell Ocean City Convention Center, Saturday, October 26 and Sunday, October 27. Please look for the ad for this blog in the show program and in this week’s edition of The Bayside Gazette and Ocean City Today.
Ocean City area residents and visitors should look for information on this blog in the Ocean City Spring Home, Condo and Outdoor Show Program. The 28th annual show will take place at the R.E. Powell Ocean City Convention Center during the weekend of October 25 – 27. The program will be available at the show, and can also be found as an insert in that week’s edition of The Bayside Gazette and Ocean City Today.
Associations continue to suffer from an epidemic of unpaid assessments. Such delinquent owners are often also behind in their mortgage payments, which can lead to the lender foreclosing. Once the lender forecloses and takes title, it becomes responsible for assessments going forward, but not for past due assessments. As in last year’s session, the legislature is again considering a means of providing some relief to associations in these circumstances. The Residential Association Sustainability Act of 2011 is pending as Senate Bill 946 and House Bill 1246. It would provide that, in the case of a foreclosure on a mortgage or deed of trust on a condominium unit, the portion of a lien on the condominium unit that represents up to six months of specified unpaid assessments, including specified fees and costs, has priority over a first mortgage or deed of trust under specified circumstances. Accordingly, if the condominium has obtained a lien on the unit for unpaid assessments, six months of those assessments would constitute a priority over the mortgage or deed of trust. In other words, six months of assessment would be paid first out of a foreclosure sale before payment of the mortgage debt. (more…)
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.
It is important to first understand the condominium form of ownership. The purchaser buys a unit that is owned in the same way that an individual home would be owned, but also receives an ownership interest, in common with all other owners, in the common elements of the complex. Each owner’s property, therefore, includes all of the common elements in addition to their unit. This means that maintenance and repair issues in the common elements effect the value, maintainability, and useful life of every owner’s property. (more…)
The Maryland Condo Law Blog is written by Raymond Daniel Burke. One of the region's top construction and real estate development lawyers, Ray has more than 35 years of experience in matters relating to condominium and other multi-use development matters.