Dear PoP – Condo Developers Went Bankrupt Help Please

Photo by PoPville flickr user elliotmitchell

“Dear PoP,

Our new condo building has been going through some changes. 5 of the units have been sold and have owners. 3 of the units were rented by the developer and have tenants. A few are still not occupied and for sale. We learned recently as of early January that the developer lost the building to the bank and the bank now owns the 3 rented units as well as the 4-5 unoccupied units. I called the bank’s attorney and as expected, they do not want much to do with the management of the building. Then, the developer showed up this past Sunday at our door, and requested that we pay him our condo fees.

I feel quite skeptical about handing the condo fees over to the developer. He claims he still manages the building and that he may be getting the building back (we don’t believe him). I’ve contacted the title attorney about condo fees as well and he does not provide us with a straight answer. Aside from not knowing where the condo fees should go, we are worried about trash removal, electricity, etc. being cut off. Our condo docs say that we need 75% of the building to be owned in order to establish a condo association. I’m wondering if you or anyone out there might know our rights in a situation such as this?”

This sounds awful. Anyone deal with a similar situation and have advice?