We bought a condo in a four unit building almost two years ago. Over time, I have realized that the condo association is completely mis-managed and perennially short of money due to very short term thinking on the part of the unit owners. Building is 19 years old. Our condo board "president" recently sold his unit and I was "elected" president, and honestly I am sort of at a loss for what to do. Here are the big issues.
1. The condo association is not running in compliance with the Decs and Bylaws. "Board" composition is different in the bylaws than what is functionally has been since I moved in. Bylaws call for a three member board, which means in a four unit building, one owner is unrepresented on the board. So the association had been running with each unit having one representative and everyone voting on every decision, which seems more fair, but not how it is "supposed" to work.
2. Former president let our nonprofit status lapse two or three years ago, which apparently can be corrected by paying some fees and re-registering. Condo association has not been filing tax returns, even though we are required to.
3. Monthly assessments (which we have raised twice since I moved in) are way less than needed for reasonable upkeep of the building. The other co-owners always massively underestimate costs for repairs, then refuse to authorize repairs when I obtain reasonable market-value quotes for the work. This is getting to the point where it could affect resale capabilities of our unit.
4. Building has water infiltration issues, but the board refuses to authorize an inspection to determine the extent of the problem, worried about the associated repair bills and the need to disclose the findings to potential buyers.
I'll address the obvious question - why did I take on being president of this mess. First, I thought it was the best way to provide leadership to correct some of the ongoing issues. Second, some of these issues (nonprofit status, true tax status) didn't come to light until the full books were turned over to me after I'd already agreed.
Basically there are two problems here - the fact that as president this is all now my responsibility to somehow correct, and the potential effect it has on our ability to sell our unit. We have about $200k of equity in the property (half our investments, half market growth), and part of me feels like we should just cut our losses and sell. But it also feels wildly unethical to punt this to some poor unsuspecting buyer, and then we have to undertake the task of finding somewhere to live where the association is in better shape.
Thoughts?