Condo Fee a.k.a. Maintenance Fee

There are many reasons why people chose to buy a condo instead of a landed property. My few reasons are location, security and amenities (swimming pool, tennis court and the like). It's common sense that to enjoy the facilities of a condominium, these facilities must be taken care of for life.

The cost of providing the best in security and maintenance of amenities (pool, landscape, etc) is high. This cost is shared among the owners in paying a monthly condo fee to the management corporation. Condo fees cover items such as security services, building maintenance, a master insurance policy, parking lot maintenance, elevator maintenance, landscape maintenance, management, amenities, common utilities, sinking fund and more.

In other words, the management corporation needs to collect the money to take good care of the condominium. When a condominium is well taken care of, the value will increase and so will the rental. Everyone wishes that the value of their properties to increase over time, the more the better.

Many condominiums are run down because of late payment, delinquent owners and hardcore defaulters. When the percentage of these is high, the management will not have enough fund to upkeep the condominium. Frequent elevator break-down, dirty pool, landscaping neglected, large sum of unpaid water bill and poor security service are the usual problems arising. When this happens, other good paymasters will stop paying also. It'll become unbearable for everyone and also causes the property values to drop sharply.

Lets do our part in paying our condo fees promptly. Make it our new year aim to have zero defaulter so that money and manpower won't be wasted on sending reminder letters or spending on legal fees.