Property Assessments

Property Condition Assessments are performed for several situations:

• An owner purchasing a building will want to know the maintenance history and the condition of the building (foundation, roof, water intrusion, electrical system, mechanical systems, HVAC systems, condition of the siding, condition of utility buildings, etc.).
• An owner wanting to re-finance the property may be required by the lending institution to check the condition of the property and the Capital Reserve.
• A management company may want to have the condition of the buildings and equipment checked for determining increases in Homeowner Association dues.

There are advertisements on the internet for do-it-yourself software to perform Property Condition Assessments and Capital Reserve projects for 20 years. These involve inputting maintenance bills, current income, current balance of Capital Reserves and extrapolating that data for 20 years. This method can provide an expectation of expenses in the future.

However, these DIY methods do not predict failures to the building that are outside of the information provided by the data inputted into the program.

DCSPE was hired by a Homeowner's Association because its monthly dues were sky rocketing each year. Fees increased from $120 per month to over $280 a month. Our evaluation found problems with the buildings that were causing accelerated aging of the exterior cladding; incompetent management was wasting money on building repairs, and there was no effort by the management company to protect the buildings from future changes to the site. DCSPE provided a recommendation of how to operate, how to track maintenance records, recommended a two-year program of repairs to correct current problems and future problems, and a Capital Reserve program that saw monthly fees drop to $105 per month after 3 years.