The monthly figure surprises more penthouse buyers than the purchase price does, because it is calculated on a basis most buyers have not thought about.
This page explains how the figure is built. What it is for a specific residence is in the building documents, and the desk will get them. Contact the desk at Miami Dossier for the current position on any building we cover.
Condominium assessments are allocated according to each unit’s share as set out in the declaration, typically related to floor area. They are not allocated by how much a resident uses anything.
A penthouse with a large share therefore carries a correspondingly large portion of the cost of the pool deck, the gym, the valet, the lobby staff, the elevators and the landscaping.
You may never use the gym. You will fund a substantial share of it every month for as long as you own.
Outdoor space. Terraces and rooftops need cleaning, sealing, drainage maintenance and periodic remediation. Salt air and sun are hard on everything exposed to them, and a rooftop with several thousand square feet is a real maintenance programme.
A private pool. Water treatment, equipment, servicing, and the structure supporting it. Pools on roofs also carry a waterproofing system that has a service life and a replacement cost.
Glass. More of it, higher up, harder to reach. Exterior cleaning at height is a specialised operation.
Climate load. A residence with double height volume and extensive glazing on the sunniest exposure costs more to cool, and in a west facing residence considerably more.
A special assessment is allocated on the same share basis. A large share means a large portion of any assessment, including for work that principally serves other parts of the building.
Florida structural inspection and reserve funding requirements have made assessments more predictable and, in many buildings, larger. Older buildings in particular are working through this.
In a small building the arithmetic is sharper still, because there are fewer households to spread any cost across. A twenty five residence building and a three hundred residence building absorb the same repair very differently.
The current operating budget, with the schedule showing this unit’s share and the monthly figure it produces.
The reserve study, and whether reserves are fully funded. An underfunded reserve is a future assessment with the date left blank.
The assessment history for the past several years, in a building old enough to have one. It is the most honest document about a building you will read.
The monthly figure is a permanent obligation and it is knowable before you commit, unlike almost everything else about a preconstruction purchase. Contact the desk at Miami Dossier and we will get the budget, the reserve position and the assessment history for any building you are weighing.
We hold no listings and we are not the developer. Contact the desk at Miami Dossier and we will go through the specific buildings you are weighing, including the parts a sales gallery would rather skip. Where a question is legal, tax or structuring, we introduce you to advisers who handle that properly rather than answering it ourselves.