Negotiating with developers

What you can actually push back on

A board dominated by developer appointees sometimes signs contracts that quietly favor the developer: management deals, cable agreements, lease-backs, all at above-market terms. In some states, owners get a statutory right to cancel these arrangements once they can show the deal was not fair and reasonable, check your own state's community association act and your declaration.

"any grant or reservation made by a declaration, lease, or other document, and any contract made by an association prior to assumption of control of the association by unit owners other than the developer, that provides for operation, maintenance, or management of a condominium association or property serving the unit owners of a condominium shall be fair and reasonable"

Source: Florida Statutes, section 718.302, The Florida Senate

Florida also sets a specific owner vote threshold to cancel such a contract once control has shifted. That percentage, and whether a cancellation right exists at all, is Florida's own rule; do not assume it transfers to your state without checking.

The developer's exit doesn't close the file

Do not let a developer's departure, or the sale of its remaining rights to a new company, become a negotiating trump card in its favor. Under the model law adopted in states such as Nevada, a declarant transferring its declarant rights must record the transfer, and the original declarant "is not relieved of any obligation or liability" that arose before the transfer, including warranties. Losing control involuntarily, through bankruptcy or foreclosure, does not erase that liability either.

Practically: if you are negotiating with a successor company, ask what it is taking on and confirm, with counsel, that the original developer remains on the hook for anything that predates the handoff.

The clock and the clause shape your leverage

Two things change how hard you can push. First, deadlines. Construction defect claims are barred after a fixed window, sometimes measured from when a problem was discovered, sometimes from a fixed calendar event regardless of discovery. California sets a ten-year cutoff from substantial completion for most claims under its Right to Repair Act; other states set different periods from different starting points, confirm yours with a construction-defect attorney before you start talking settlement, not after.

Second, arbitration. It is common for a developer's attorneys to write an arbitration clause into the declaration specifically so that disputes, including construction defects, get pulled out of court. Whether that clause binds the association is a contested, state-specific question. Get counsel's read on your own declaration before you decide to litigate, arbitrate, or try to amend the clause away.