Condo Seller's Guide
While our general Seller's Guide applies to condo sellers, there are certain additional aspects when selling a condominium in Vermont that sellers need to be aware of before selling. They include:
Public Building Inspection Requirement
- Condominiums in Vermont are governed by a State law known as the Vermont Common Interest Ownership Act.
- The law requires among other things that condo buyers be provided a set of the governing documents of the condominium, typically referred to as the "Condo Docs".
- The law also requires that the seller provide a "Resale Certificate". The law states what must be included in the certificate, but most importantly for a buyer it must include whether the seller has any outstanding dues or liens from the Association and whether there are any ongoing lawsuits against the Association.
- The resale certiciate should also have a copy of the Association's current budget, income and expense report and reserve balance attached to it. If it does not, you should ask the seller to provide those items.
- The law allows a purchaser to terminate a contract within 5 days after receiving the resale certificate from the seller if the buyer is not satisfied with the information revealed in the documents.
- In addition to the distinct legal aspects of condominium purchases, sellers should also be aware of the practical differences.
Public Building Inspection Requirement
- Begginning in mid 2009, a new inspection requirement was imposed upon condo sellers.
- Sellers of condominiums in Vermont must now either produce a current Public Building Certificate of Occupancy or have their condo unit inspected by Fire Marshall.
- Most condo buildings lack current Public Building Certificates of Occupancy so in most cases, buyers will need to get a report of a Fire Marshall before closing.
- The Fire Marshall inspection is done applying current safety standards even if the condo was built at a time when different safety standards applied.
- It is very possible that condo sellers will need to bring their unit into compliance with current standards if the standard has changed since the condo was built.
- For the most part the closing process described in our Seller's Guide will be the same for a condo in Vermont as it is for a single family home. However, there a couple of slight differences.
- The first difference is that the condominium dues must be prorated. Most condo dues are paid monthly and due on the 1st similar to rent.
- If for instance the closing is on the 15th of the month and the you paid the dues for the month on the 1st, then the buyer will need to reimburse you for the 15 days or so of dues paid in advance by you.
- Before prorating the dues, however, the closing attorney will want to make sure that the data on the resale certificate is still true as it usually takes more than 30 days from the contract signing to the closing. It is possible that the resale certificate says the dues have been paid by the you but if a new month started since the resale certificate was first issued then you need to make sure to update the certificate
