Who pays to refurbish the shared spaces of a branded Miami condo?

The owners, the hotel and sometimes both, in proportions written down before the first closing. A branded condominium has up to three pockets for the work: the residential association's reserves and assessments, which fund everything the declaration makes the residences' common property; the hotel's furniture, fixtures and equipment reserve, which the hotel lot funds out of its own operation under its management agreement; and the shared facilities budget, which divides the cost of the spaces both use, the pool deck, the spa, the arrival, by a formula in the shared facilities agreement. The brand's licence can require the work on a cycle whether or not the owners would have chosen it. None of this is in the brochure; all of it is in four documents a buyer can ask for.

The declaration draws the map. In a tower with a hotel inside it, Waldorf Astoria Residences Miami publishes hotel guestrooms and suites in the same 100 story building as ~360 residences, and Delano Residences publishes the hotel below ~421 residences, the hotel is usually its own unit or lot with its own owner, and the residences are a condominium with common elements of their own. Between the two sit the shared facilities: Fouquet's in the Design District publishes about 15,300 square feet of resident only outdoor space plus a shared hotel terrace, which is the split in one sentence. A branded building without a hotel is simpler: Kempinski Residences Miami Design District publishes no hotel on the site and daily management by Kempinski Group, so every shared space is the association's and the brand's say is a licence term rather than a neighbour's. The buyer asks for the declaration's definition of common elements, the hotel lot's boundaries and the shared facilities schedule. Read hotel guests and resident spaces at Waldorf Astoria, hotel guests and resident spaces at Fouquet's and the Kempinski Residences dossier.

In three lines a buyer can read. The first is the association's reserve line in the estimated budget the developer files: Florida's condominium statute requires reserves for the structural and safety items a structural integrity reserve study identifies in a building of three stories or more, and those cannot be waived; reserves for finishes and furnishings are a different line, and the budget says how they are funded and whether the owners may vote to change them. The second is the hotel's own reserve, often a percentage of hotel revenue set in the hotel management agreement, which the residences do not fund and cannot direct. The third is the shared facilities budget, where each side pays its share of the shared spaces by the formula in the agreement, and where a refurbishment of the shared pool deck becomes a residential assessment in the residences' proportion. What is not in any of the three is paid by special assessment, voted under the declaration's rules, which is the pocket a buyer is really asking about. Read how to read the developer's estimated budget, Florida milestone inspections and structural reserves and what it costs to own a condo in Miami each year.

The brand first, the agreements second, the owners last. A licence agreement lets the residences use the name on condition that the building meets the brand's standard, and a standard can include the look of the arrival, the finish of the corridors and the age of the soft goods in the lounge; when the standard moves, the obligation moves with it. In a building with a hotel, the hotel management agreement gives the operator the right to run the shared spaces to its standard and to call on the shared facilities budget to do so. The association's board, which the developer controls until turnover and the owners elect afterwards, approves the residential share and levies it, and the owners vote only where the declaration requires a vote. An owner who wants a say reads the term of the licence, what happens to the name if the standard is not met, and who may terminate the hotel management agreement and on what notice. Read who manages a new Miami condo and what the management agreement says, when the developer hands a Florida condo association to its owners and what the branded residence premium buys.

Six things, each with a document behind it. The reserve lines in the estimated budget, structural and non-structural, with the funding method for each. The hotel's reserve, as a percentage or a sum, in the hotel management agreement, and the sentence that says the residences do not fund it. The shared facilities formula and the list of shared components, with the first year's split in the budget. The licence term, the brand standard and the refurbishment cycle it implies, and the remedy if the building falls short. Whether the developer anticipates any assessment in the first years, which the prospectus may say. And, at a building that has already been running, the last three years of assessments and the current reserve balance, which the estoppel and the association's records show. A buyer at a resale asks the same questions of the seller's documents. Read branded or unbranded residences, how a Miami hotel residence goes from offer to recording and what a condo estoppel certificate tells a Miami buyer.

A brand buys a standard the owners could not keep by themselves, and the cost of that standard follows the brand. An unbranded building refurbishes when its owners vote to, at the pace they choose; a branded one refurbishes when the licence says, at the operator's pace, with the hotel paying for its own rooms and the residences for theirs. The buyer who wants the lobby to look new every decade without arguing about it at a meeting is buying exactly that; the buyer who wants to decide for themselves is in the wrong building. Which Downtown or Design District buildings carry a hotel and which carry a brand alone is set out in which Fisher Island or Downtown Miami condo has the best service and Miami Beach condos with a hotel on site. The desk reads the budget's reserve lines, the shared facilities formula and the licence term with the buyer before the reservation, and Miami HOA fees sets out what the monthly figure already carries.