Massachusetts gives condominium associations something most creditors would envy, and most boards use it badly. Under M.G.L. c. 183A, § 6, a properly established condominium lien takes priority over other non-municipal liens on the unit - including a first mortgage - for up to six months of regularly recurring budgeted common expenses, together with costs and reasonable attorney's fees incurred in collecting them. That is the super-priority, and it is why a delinquent condominium account is not like an ordinary unpaid invoice. The bank holding the mortgage has a real reason to make the association whole. Two limits on it decide everything about how a board should run collections. The first is what the priority actually covers. The priority amount is the regularly recurring budgeted common expenses. It does not include special assessments, late charges, fines, penalties, or interest. So the balance you can put ahead of the mortgage is the base common fee, six months of it, plus your costs and reasonable fees. The $50 monthly late charge that has been accruing for two years is not part of that, and boards that mentally count it as recoverable are overstating what they hold. The second is the shape of the six months. It is a rolling window measured against the delinquency, not a bucket that fills up while you wait. Letting an account run another quarter does not increase what you can recover with priority. It increases the part of the balance that sits behind the mortgage, where recovery depends entirely on the owner's own finances. That single fact should restructure most boards' collections policy, because the instinct at the table is almost always to wait. Waiting feels merciful and it feels cheap. It is neither. Every month of patience converts collectible dollars into uncollectible ones. So run a written ladder, on dates, the same way for every owner. Day 1 past due, the late charge applies automatically under your rules - not by board discretion. Day 30, a written reminder with the balance itemized so the owner can see the fee, the late charge, and the running total separately. Day 60, a formal demand letter from the board or manager stating what happens next and when. Day 90, referral to counsel. Ninety days is where most Massachusetts associations land, and boards that push it to six months routinely find they have given away the more valuable half of their remedy.

Three weeks ago, on August 3, the Limited Review pathway for condominium financing was retired. Historically it covered roughly 40 percent of condo project reviews. For loan applications dated on or after that date, purchases in projects above ten units go through Full Review or a qualifying waiver. Boards have started to feel it. Full Review is not a formality - the lender evaluates the association's budget, reserve funding, insurance, delinquency rate, pending litigation, special assessments and inspection reports. In practice the request that lands on your manager's desk asks for the budget, the reserve balance, insurance certificates, meeting minutes, delinquency data, and disclosure of any pending litigation or special assessment. Your minutes are now read by strangers who are deciding whether to lend on a unit in your building. That is the change boards already know about. Here is the one that is coming, and it is bigger. Effective for loan applications dated on or after January 4, 2027, the reserve funding minimum rises from 10 percent to 15 percent of annual budgeted assessment income. The calculation is simple enough to run at your next meeting. Take your annual budgeted replacement reserve allocation - the transfer line - and divide it by your annual budgeted assessment income. Lenders may exclude certain categories from the denominator, including incidental income, utility income, income already allocated to reserves, and special assessment income. If the result is under 15 percent, your association is below the new floor. There is an alternative path. Where the percentage line fails, a reserve study can qualify the project instead - a current study, with the association funding at the level that study recommends. That is a genuinely useful escape hatch, and it rewards the boards that have been doing reserve planning properly all along. Now the part that makes this this week's news rather than next spring's problem. You are building your 2027 budget right now. For most Massachusetts associations that budget gets drafted in September and October and adopted in November or December. It takes effect January 1. The new requirement applies to loan applications dated January 4.

Ledgewood Commons is a 34-unit condominium in Malden, built in phases. Buildings A and B received certificates of occupancy in March 2020 and August 2021. The phase two building came online in 2023. The developer controlled the trust until this spring, when owner control finally transferred. Five owners were elected trustees in May. This is the first month they have had the books. What they found is not unusual, which is the point. The reserve account holds $18,400. For 34 units. There has never been a reserve study. The budget the developer set kept common fees at $285 a month, which was excellent for selling units and is not a number that maintains a building. The board's own quick math says the fee is roughly half what it should be. On the physical side: Building A's roof is leaking at two locations. Owners in three units report failed window seals. There is cracking in the garage slab that nobody can explain. The developer's punch list was closed out and signed off by the developer's own property manager. There was no independent turnover inspection, no turnover audit of the finances, and the document file has no as-builts and no organized warranty records. The trustees are split three ways. One wants to leave litigation alone, raise the fees, and move forward - the building is nice, the neighbors are neighbors, and a lawsuit poisons a community. One wants to sue the developer now, for everything. The treasurer wants to commission a reserve study first and decide once there are real numbers. Building A's certificate of occupancy was issued in March 2020. DISCUSSION QUESTION Three reasonable trustees, three reasonable positions. Which one do you back at Tuesday's meeting - and does the date on that certificate of occupancy change your answer? RECOMMENDED APPROACH It changes everything, and it means the treasurer's sequence is backwards. Massachusetts sets two clocks on construction and design claims under M.G.L. c. 260, § 2B: a three-year statute of limitations and a six-year statute of repose. The repose period runs from the earlier of the opening of the improvement to use, or substantial completion plus the owner taking possession. And the SJC has held that in a phased condominium the clock is triggered building by building - each building is its own improvement, running from its own certificate of occupancy.