GAR Contract: More Changes to that pesky, never-perfect HOA Exhibit

This is information from garealtor.com. Two significant forms changes have been set forth – the All Cash Sale Exhibit and the F123 Community Association Disclosure Exhibit. This form has been renamed “Payment of Community Association Fees and Disclosure Exhibit.” 

One of the biggest changes to this form is that the fees associated with obtaining a community association account statement or clearance letter are paid by the SELLER since it is an expense that is necessary for the seller to provide good and marketable title to the property. The revised F123 also added a subsection for Transfer and Initiation Fees for the seller to disclose. The form stipulates that the seller must pay for any fee increases that were not initially disclosed on the F123, or subsequently disclosed in a notice to the buyer not later than three (3) days prior to the end of the due diligence period.

The Forms Committee hopes that by assigning specific fees to the parties ahead of time, this will help avoid the issue of the parties arguing at the closing table of who must pay for all of the fees associated with obtaining the community association account statement or clearance letter as well as any fees that were not disclosed or higher than the disclosed amount.

It will be critical for Sellers and their Realtors to know the most current initiation fee in advance and disclose it properly on the form. The increase, if it’s disclosed too low, must be paid by Seller. And this will be interpreted to stipulate that if Seller states that there is no initation fee, which turns out to be wrong, the Seller will be picking up the tab for the entire fee. This is regardless of whether or not the mistake was a good faith lack of knowledge and whether or not the fee was recently enacted by the HOA Board without Seller paying close attention to the news.

The 2017 GAR Forms Revisions Package Changes, the revised F79 and the revised F123 can be found at the links below for your review prior to the May 1 release.

2017 GAR Forms Revision Package Changes

F79 -ALL CASH SALE (NO FINANCING CONTINGENCY) EXHIBIT

F123 – PAYMENT OF COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION FEES AND DISCLOSURE (“DISCLOSURE”) EXHIBIT