19 October 2026

Buying a condo in Los Angeles: 12 questions to ask and the red flags to watch for.

Judson Rothschild · Realtor and interior designer

When you buy a condo in Los Angeles, you are buying two things: your unit and a share of a building run by a board of your neighbors. The unit is easy to judge. The building is where buyers get hurt, through rising dues, a surprise assessment, an earthquake bill nobody insured or a hidden lien in your title report.

Here are the questions I ask before any client of mine writes an offer on a condo, and the red flags that make me tell them to walk away.

What should I look for when buying a condo in Los Angeles?

Look past the unit to the building and the association that runs it. Read the budget and reserve study, the last year of board minutes, the insurance summary and the most recent inspection report. Then check the building’s age and construction against the city’s earthquake retrofit list. Those documents tell you what the unit will really cost. When you receive your title report, check it for any outstanding liens.

Inside the unit, the usual checks apply: condition, layout, light and noise. But in a condo, the most expensive problems are usually shared ones, and they arrive as a bill from the association rather than a repair you can schedule.

What do HOA fees cover?

HOA fees usually pay for two things: running the building today and saving for the big repairs coming later. Day to day, that means common-area utilities, cleaning, landscaping, management, the master insurance policy and routine maintenance. The savings portion, called reserves, funds roofs, plumbing, elevators, paint and paving when they wear out.

The annual budget report lists what your association actually pays for, and every building is different. Some fees include water, trash, gas or a doorman; others do not. Compare fees between buildings only after you know what each one covers.

Red flag: dues that look low for the building’s age and amenities. Low dues often mean thin reserves, and thin reserves mean the money will be collected later, all at once, as an assessment.

What is a special assessment, and how do I see one coming?

A special assessment is a one-time charge on every owner, levied when the association needs money its budget and reserves cannot cover. In California, the board alone can levy special assessments totaling up to 5 percent of the year’s budgeted gross expenses. Anything larger needs owner approval, except in emergencies.

Those emergencies are defined in the law: a court order, a newly discovered threat to health or safety, or a repair the board could not reasonably have foreseen. A failed balcony or a burst main line can trigger one, and that is how owners end up with large bills they never voted on.

You can usually see one coming. The annual budget report must state whether special assessments are likely and, if so, the estimated amount and timing. Read it alongside:

The reserve study. It compares what the association has saved with what its major components will cost to replace. A large shortfall is the clearest warning sign.
Deferred repairs. The budget report must say whether the board has chosen to defer or skip repairs on components with 30 years of life or less, and why.
Board minutes. Talk of bids, engineers, leaks or lawyers often appears months before an assessment does.

Red flag: a board that keeps deferring repairs while holding dues flat. The bill is still coming; it is just being left for the next owner.

Which HOA documents should I read first?

Start with the annual budget report and the reserve study, because money problems hide there. Next, read the board minutes from the past 12 months, then the insurance summary. California requires the seller to provide these, along with the governing documents and a statement of current and approved future assessments. The minutes come only if you request them, so request them.

The full disclosure package under California law includes:

The governing documents: CC&Rs, bylaws, rules and articles
The annual budget report and reserve summary, including the insurance summary
A statement of current regular and special assessments, and anything unpaid on the unit
Any assessment increases the board has approved but not yet billed
Any unresolved violation notice against the unit
Any construction defect claims, if the building has had one
Any rental or leasing restrictions
The most recent inspection report on balconies, decks and exterior stairways
Board minutes from the past 12 months, on request

That balcony report deserves its own look. Since SB 326, California condo associations with three or more units must have wood-supported balconies, walkways and stairs six feet or more above ground inspected. The first deadline was 1 January 2025, then every nine years. Ask whether it was done and what it found.

Red flag: a seller or management company slow to produce documents. Delays usually mean something nobody wants you to read.

What does the master insurance policy cover, and what doesn’t it?

The master policy insures the building and common areas, plus the association’s liability. It does not insure your belongings or your personal liability, and often not the improvements inside your unit, such as flooring and cabinetry. You will still need your own condo policy. Many associations carry no earthquake insurance at all, so check.

California makes this easy to check. The budget report must include a summary of the association’s property, general liability, earthquake, flood and fidelity policies, with the insurer, the limit and the deductible for each. Read three lines carefully:

Earthquake. If there is no earthquake policy, damage to the structure falls on the owners after a quake, usually through a special assessment.
The deductible. If the master policy has a large deductible, the owners may be assessed for it after a claim.
Where the master policy stops. Find out whether it covers the unit’s interior finishes or only bare walls. Your own policy has to start where it ends.

You can protect yourself. A California Earthquake Authority condo policy includes loss assessment coverage, which pays your share of an earthquake assessment, with limits up to $100,000.

Red flag: an insurance summary with no earthquake line, or a deductible so large that a modest claim would mean an assessment.

What is the building’s seismic retrofit status?

If the building is older wood-frame construction over open parking, or older concrete, the City of Los Angeles may require an earthquake retrofit. Find out whether the building has received an order, and whether the work is finished. An unfinished retrofit can mean construction, disruption and a large assessment ahead.

The city’s retrofit ordinance, passed in 2015, covers two kinds of building:

Soft-story wood-frame buildings. Two or more stories of wood frame, built to codes from before 1 January 1978, with ground-floor parking or other open space that weakens the walls. Residential buildings of three units or fewer are exempt.
Non-ductile concrete buildings. Concrete buildings permitted before 13 January 1977. Owners have 25 years from the order to finish the retrofit or demolish.

To check a building, search its address on the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety records site and open the retrofit program section. It shows whether an order was issued and where the work stands. A Certificate of Compliance means the retrofit is complete.

Red flag: an order to comply with no certificate, and nothing about the retrofit in the board minutes or reserve study. The cost has to come from somewhere.

What the inspector won’t tell you

A home inspector checks whether things work. As an interior designer, I look at how a unit will feel to live in, and in a condo that comes down to four things no report covers.

Flow. Condos are often small, and a poor layout wastes what little space there is. Walk the path from the front door to the kitchen and the bedroom. If it cuts through the living room or leaves walls you cannot furnish, the unit will live smaller than its square footage.
Light. You cannot add windows to a condo. Note which way the unit faces, and visit in the morning and late afternoon. A unit facing a wall or a neighbor’s windows stays that way.
Sound. Neighbors share walls, floors and ceilings with you. Stand in the bedroom and listen. Ask whether hard flooring upstairs was installed with sound underlayment, and whether the rules require it.
Deferred maintenance. The common areas show how a building is run. Look at hallway carpet, stairwell paint, rusted railings, water stains on ceilings and the state of the garage. Small neglect in public usually means larger neglect behind the walls.

Three times this mattered

Every one of these buyers was in negotiations on a condo. Every one of them walked away, and each time the reason was on paper before anyone signed.

A lien nobody mentioned

Everything looked right. The HOA documents were good, the reserves were strong, and neither the budget nor the board minutes mentioned an assessment. The building was in excellent shape. Then the title report arrived, and it showed a PACE lien.

PACE stands for Property Assessed Clean Energy. It lets an owner finance energy-saving, water-saving or renewable energy upgrades through a special tax assessment. Unlike a traditional loan, the debt is tied to the property rather than the person, and it is paid through the annual property tax bill. My buyers would have been paying it off for the next 20 years, which in effect added $150,000 to the price of the unit. It was not disclosed in the MLS, and the sellers would not credit the buyers for it. We canceled the offer, and we had to hire an attorney to get the deposit back.

Lesson: read your title report carefully.

Three lawsuits and a roof

When the HOA documents arrived, they showed three lawsuits in the past year over water leaks, all because the building had neglected the upkeep of its roofs. The board was still collecting bids from contractors, so no one knew how large the assessment would be. The seller would not give any credit for the roof, so we canceled the offer.

The floor above

The building was in good shape and the reserves were excellent. But the minutes recorded complaint after complaint: many owners had been allowed to ignore the “no hardwood floors” clause in the CC&Rs. The unit directly above the one my clients were buying had hardwood floors, and the sound coming through was tremendous. My clients asked us to cancel the offer.

The 12 questions: a pre-offer condo checklist

Ask all 12 before you write an offer. Print them, or download the one-page checklist and take it to every showing.

What do the monthly dues include, and when did they last go up?
Is a special assessment underway, approved or under discussion?
How well funded are the reserves compared with the reserve study’s target?
Has the board deferred any repairs, and why?
What did the last 12 months of board minutes discuss?
Does the master policy include earthquake coverage, and what are the deductibles?
Does the master policy cover interior finishes, or bare walls only?
Has the building received a city retrofit order, and is there a Certificate of Compliance?
Was the balcony and exterior stair inspection done, and what did it find?
Is the association involved in any lawsuit or defect claim?
What are the rules on renting, pets, renovation and flooring?
How does the unit live: its layout, light, sound and the condition of the common areas?

Before you make an offer

A condo can be a smart purchase in Los Angeles, as long as you know what the building is about to ask of you. Read the documents before you fall in love with the view.

If you are considering a condo, send me the HOA documents and I will review them with you before you make an offer. For more on buying, read my insider tips for home buyers, or explore Westwood, Century City and Brentwood.

Judson Rothschild is a Realtor with Rodeo Realty, CA DRE #01411187, and an interior designer. This article is general information, not legal or insurance advice. For a specific building, consult the documents, a licensed inspector, and an attorney or insurance professional.