Legitamate Condo Association in Ohio

Does the Declaration of Covenants state or show that there is common area for whose maintenance the association is responsible? E.g. Does the Declaration say the association is responsible for roofs, a parking lot, a small park, sidewalks or similar?

Otherwise, for now: The Ohio Secretary of State may suspend a corporation. However this does not mean the corporation goes away. To fully terminate, the corporation has to sell any property it owns. In statutes the latter is called "winding up the corporation's affairs."

If there are recorded legal documents saying that this is a condominium, then it is a condominium. Lapsed corporate status is a different thing.

If these are attached condos, then there almost certainly is common area that must be maintained by the association. Typical in such condo buildings, the foundation, framing, and roofs will be common area. What matters in this case is how the original declaration defined these things. I owned a condo built in the 1980s, and that community had a somewhat "unique" take on how the units and the common areas were defined.

Where condo associations that aren't being maintained often get into trouble is the insurance. Individual owners can't purchase insurance for the common areas - only the association can. This is a problem for an association that has allowed its corporate status to lapse. Without condo association insurance (the master policy), then owners are jointly *personally* liable for things like someone tripping and injuring themselves in the parking lot or a bad storm ripping the roof off the building and damaging whatever is underneath.

Ignoring all of this won't make it go away.

If I were an owner in this building, I'd want to talk to a lawyer - preferably with my co-owners, but if they won't participate then I'd go by myself. Right now my personal assets are at risk, and I'd want to put a stop to that asap.

Hey MarieP6, this is indeed a scary situation for your Mom (and you!).

Yes, it sounds like your Mom’s property is legally a condo.

To protect your Mom’s investment, you (and her) definitely need to straighten this out.

In my view, the issues, in order of highest priority, are:

1) potential missing insurance. If the condo association is supposed to insure the common areas (and if common areas in this condo include important things like the roof, the exterior siding of the building, etc), then your mother may actually be UNINSURED at the moment.

2) Missing reserve fund: if the condo association is responsible for common areas, and is not saving any money for them, your mom might have a nasty surprise bill coming.

3) inability to sell: when your mom goes to sell, the prospective buyer’s mortgage bank, title insurance, etc will check into the condo association, ask for things like minutes of recent meetings, a certificate that your moms condo fees are paid to date, etc. Being unable to provide these things will make it hard to sell, or lower the price.

As others have suggested, your first step is to gather up all the documents you can find, primarily from public records like the registry of deeds, and Secretary of State. Then once you read them over you’ll have more questions. Feel free to come back and ask more!

Good luck.