Thanks to neighbour disputes, crazy restrictions and incompetent boards, problems inherited from developers, condo dwellers are increasingly finding themselves boxed in.

Owning a condominium usually means sharing your walls, floors and ceilings with your neighbours. Most of these condominiums will be faced with problems like internal politics, neighbour infighting and power struggles stemming from the complicated network of condo boards, owners, investors, tenants and property managers.Home owners—long accustomed to detached houses and backyards— have to be ready for a world where being a happy condo dweller means accepting that they’ll have to give up some of their personal freedom and that their neighbours may always be too close for comfort?

BEWARE FIRST - TIME BUYERS
Buying a condominium can be confusing for first-time buyers. They must fully understand the condominium concept. It’s also advisable for them to have their own realtor specializing in condominiums, when they go to negotiate with the developer or with his agent.

As a potential buyer, you should be knowledgeable about the uniqueness of condominium ownership. Condo documents should be reviewed with your attorney. The condo documents (docs) protect the different owners’ interests when they own real estate in common with others. The concept of shared interest ownership of common areas and sole interest ownership of the condominium unit can be confusing.It is imperative before you move in to your condo to make sure that your condo home is built and equipped according to your purchase and sale agreement. The inspection prior to taking over an apartment in a condominium project comprises of a systematic inspection of all the civil, mechanical, electrical and plumbing components in the apartment.

For this, it is necessary to get the services of a technically competent person/persons in the above fields who have the relevant experience. They will inspect the apartment thoroughly and prepare a report on an accepted format. This document should be kept by the unit owners as long as they occupy their condo.
Once you have moved in, you are ‘nothing’ when it comes to battles with your condominium management council. They are little fiefdoms and each one has a king. Many of the people who get elected to the boards have time on their hands and this is the only place in their world where they have power.

Unfortunately, that starts to go to their heads. In some buildings, just finding enough owners willing to take on that kind of responsibility is a challenge. But once they are appointed they like to exercise their authority.When unit owners make complaints they can ignore and harass you in many ways and you will end up in court. When you file a lawsuit against the Condominium Management Council while you have to pay your legal fees, condominium council legal fees are paid by the Condominium Council Management fund.

In most cases, purchase and sale agreements are drawn up by the project developer. Purchasers must get these agreements checked by their lawyers because it may be too confusing for the first time buyer to comprehend the terms and conditions of these documents. From a legal perspective, it is also important that a buyer questions the developer on the time taken to receive the Certificate of Conformity (COC) and the time frame associated with the transfer of deeds.

NO GOOD FENCES, NEIGHBOURS
In some buildings, the rule book governing what owners can and can’t do with their property can span close to 100 pages. Disputes over issues such as pets, squeaky floors and visitor parking spots are escalating into epic and costly court battles.One that involves an unprecedented amount of shared space and collective decisionmaking. In condos, the old adage that ‘good fences make good neighbours’ no longer applies. It is pretty hard to have a fence when you have to walk by a problem neighbour, just to get to the elevator.

The condo boom isn’t just reshaping our skylines; it ’s changing how we live. Are urban Sri Lankans—long accustomed to detached houses and backyards— ready for a world where being a happy condo dweller means accepting that we’ll have to give up some of our personal freedom and that our neighbours may always be too close for comfort?

As a legal entity, the condominium (sometimes called ‘strata’ i n Singapore and some other countries) has existed i n Sri Lanka for more than 40 years, ever since a boom in high-rise construction and innovations in property law essentially allowed developers to privatize the air space above the ground and carve it into small blocks that could be sold for profit.Many of the original condos were designed to encourage low-income population living in rental housing in big cities t o embrace home ownership, while the middle class continued its inexorable march to the suburbs.

The condo boom of the past decade has, however, been marked by a renewed interest in urban living, driven by increasing numbers of people who want to live closer to where they work, along with a cultural and environmental backlash against suburban sprawl, with its commuter traffic and car-induced smog.
To understand how quickly we’ve shifted from detached homes to condominiums, a great majority of new ‘home starts’ are condominiums (building more condos than singledetached houses).One of the biggest sources of conflict in condos stems from the fact that developers pitch buyers on the benefits of a worry-free lifestyle without all the responsibilities of home ownership.

While it is true that condo living usually means that owners pay maintenance fees so that someone else can mow the lawn and maintain the garden, that act of sharing general household expenses with your neighbours creates its own set of responsibilities. The result is that most condominiums have been turned into corporations with their own shareholders and boards of directors responsible for multimillion-rupee budgets.

BATTLES AND DISPUTES
More common than neighbour disputes, are battles between condo boards and owners over the growing laundry list of rules governing what owners can and can’t do with their property. Typically, when developers first build a condo, they write up a list of basic rules, running about two or three pages. Once responsibility for those rules is handed over to a condo board, however, that list can swell to anywhere from 20 to 70 pages, depending on the building and personalities involved.

Other long-term consequences of a condo boom in a city can eventually come to surface soon or later. The growing number of seniors living alone in condos, often without any family or friends nearby, can create serious problems for condo boards. Some elderly unit owners with dementia, living alone can even set fire to their unit.He or she can keep t he taps open and flood the apartment and the entire fl o o r. Ho w does a condo corporation become responsible for dealing with somebody with dementia? People who buy condos and then turn them into rooming houses—stuffing 12 people inside a two-bedroom unit— are another major concern.

Many older buildings, after decades of neglect are now facing massive budget shortfalls because of costly repairs. This was mainly due to no reserve funds were collected and there was no law requiring boards to create reserve funds.Many of these buildings constructed were condos aimed at low-income homebuyers who have struggled with the huge costs associated with maintaining multi storey buildings. Some of these buildings have structural problems and will find it difficult to bank financing or mortgages.A Condominium Owners Association is needed as a nonprofit association t o represent condominium owners across the country. This will be the country’s most influential voice in the condo owners’community.

This association must be stewarded by a board of directors with a wealth of condominium knowledge and should be considered the industry’s most senior leaders, in condominium practices, investment, financial and real estate.They must be further guided by the strong work of its committees. The association volunteers must be composed of highly educated, dedicated and experienced individuals who strive continuously to increase the ‘value for condo owners’through registration.

The Condo Owners Association will eventually be highly recognized and very successful policy influence with all levels of government to assist, promote and advocate a quality lifestyle for condo owners to include helping them towards a prosperous and sustainable condo ownership. This association will have to be supported and recognized by the Central, Provincial and Municipal Governments.