special assessment

our board recently levied a special assessment against the coowners for engineering fees. a little background on this assessment, our condo buildings are about six years old and last summer water damage was discovered to just about all the screened in porches and common walkways. the builder was approached and agreed to pay for and repair the damage.the board hired an engineering firm to determine the extent of the damage and a proposal of what needed to be done to make it right. the board voted for a special assessment to pay for the engineering fees. and stated that they could not go to the reserves for this expense.my question is this, should the co-owners have to pay any out of pocket money for a repair the builder clearly admitted liability for. the second question is, would replacement of carpet,rubber membrane,standard lumber with pressure treated lumber and added water proofing constitue a capital improvment verses a pepair? i have contacted the property mgmt co. and they informed me that the article i sighted to them, sites a 2/3 vote by co-owners is needed for a special assessment. they said that section pretains to only capital improvements.the section reads as follows:a special assessment may be levied for the purpose of defraying in whole or part the cost of any construction,reconstruction,unexpected repair or replacement of a described capital improvement. provided any such assessment shall have 51% assent vote. did the board violate the bi-laws?

Richard, is the "51% assent vote" by the members? You said the special assessment was approved by the Board but I presume it may require 2/3 approval by the members. If so, the Board may have to use whatever funds are available to pay the cost for the engineering firm. You are probably not in violation of the By-laws - just that the Board's motions and votes would be meaningless. I hope you got the builder's agreement to pay for and repair the damage in writing. Doesn't insurance cover some of these expenses?