A Condominium Association’s Guide to Construction Defects Claim Documentation

During the early stages of investigating and asserting a claim for construction or design defects, condominium associations and individual unit owners are often asked by their attorneys to produce documents relevant to their potential claims.

The following is an illustrative, and by no means exhaustive, listing of the types of documents condominium associations or unit owners should have on hand to assist their attorney in initiating a construction or design defects claim:

1. All recorded Governing Documents, Declarations of Condominium, Master Covenants and the like, including any Amendments to same;

2. Developer’s Prospectus or Offering Circular;

3. Developer’s sales and promotional materials describing the property;

4. All documents evidencing the date of Turnover from a Developer-controlled Board to an elected Board of Directors controlled by a majority of unit owners. For example, this could include:

·        Meeting minutes containing the Turnover date;

·        Accounting or financial statements which were prepared on behalf of the

      Developer-controlled Association Board through the date of Turnover;

·        Notices of resignations from Developer-controlled Board members;

·        The signed and dated Turnover Checklist, which is typically provided at the

      Turnover meeting, and lists all of the documents the Developer is giving the new,

      post-Turnover, unit owner-controlled Association.

5. A copy of the final certificate of occupancy or certificate of completion issued by the applicable building department;

6. If the association has already retained a design professional to act as its consultant in investigating and documenting the defects, its attorney should be given copies of all reports, photographs documenting the defects, and testing results, if any, prepared by the design consultant.