Pennsylvania document review
Pennsylvania operates parallel statutes — the Pennsylvania Uniform Condominium Act (Title 68 Subpart D, 1980) for condos and the Uniform Planned Community Act (Title 68 Ch. 51-54, 1996) for HOAs.
Why Pennsylvania is different
Both impose detailed resale-certificate requirements with a 5-day buyer rescission right. The state requires master property insurance covering at least 80 percent of actual cash value plus liability coverage, but does not mandate reserve studies or specific reserve funding. Philadelphia adds the PM-315 facade-inspection ordinance for buildings 6 stories and above, and Pittsburgh has a 5-year exterior inspection requirement for non-R-3 buildings. The dominant risks are facade-inspection compliance in Philly and Pittsburgh high-rises, flood exposure (Hurricane Ida and increasingly common river flooding), and reserve underfunding under the no-mandate framework.
Under 68 Pa.C.S. § 3407 (condos) and § 5407 (HOAs), the resale certificate must include governing documents, current budget and financial statements, reserves, planned capital projects for the next 2 years, pending litigation, insurance coverage summary, and known violations. The buyer has 5 days after receiving the certificate to cancel. Use the rescission window.
Philadelphia requires facade inspections every 5 years for residential buildings 6 stories or higher (or 60 feet+). Inspectors must be PA-licensed architects or engineers. Reports filed with L&I. Non-compliance can result in citations and required remediation. For Philadelphia condo diligence, the most recent PM-315 inspection report is essential.
Pittsburgh's property maintenance code requires 5-year inspections of exterior elements for non-R-3 buildings — essentially everything except single-family dwellings. Licensed engineer or architect required. Verify compliance status and any outstanding repair items for Pittsburgh condos.
Pennsylvania has seen significant flooding events including Hurricane Ida (2021) along the Schuylkill, Delaware, and Susquehanna rivers. Master policies exclude flood. Buildings in flood zones need separate NFIP or private flood coverage on common elements — many do not carry it. Premium pressure on Pennsylvania homeowners has been moderate (about 8 percent statewide in 2023).
68 Pa.C.S. § 3312(c)(2) requires the master policy to include a waiver of subrogation — protecting unit owners from insurer claims after a covered loss. Pennsylvania case law (E.D. Pa.) has held that if the waiver is missing from the actual policy language, the insurer may pursue at-fault owners. Verify the waiver appears in the policy itself, not just the statutory framework.
Pennsylvania cities
Philadelphia / Delaware Valley
Philadelphia's condo inventory spans Center City high-rises, Northern Liberties and Fishtown converted-warehouse stock, Society Hill historic structures, and University City mid-rises.
Allegheny County
Pittsburgh's condo market spans Downtown high-rises, Strip District converted-industrial stock, Shadyside and Squirrel Hill mid-rises, and South Side neighborhoods.
Pennsylvania topic guides
A condo document review is the structured analysis of every disclosure document your seller or association has provided — declaration, bylaws, rules, reserve study, budgets, financials, meeting minutes, insurance summary, estoppel or resale certificate, and any pending special assessment notices. Done well, it tells you exactly what you are buying. Done in a hurry — or as a chat session against a single PDF — it misses the cross-references where real risk lives.
Pennsylvania guide →
An HOA document review reads the full association document set — declaration or deed restrictions, CC&Rs, bylaws, resale or disclosure certificate, current budget, audited financials, meeting minutes, and any enforcement history — and surfaces the items that actually affect your ownership cost, your usage rights, and your exposure to surprise assessments. HOA reviews have a different shape than condominium reviews, and treating them as the same process produces incomplete findings.
Pennsylvania guide →
A reserve study tells you what the association expects to spend on long-term capital repairs and replacements, and whether it is funding those obligations adequately. Reading the study without also reading the actual reserve balance, the current budget's contribution line, and recent meeting minutes is the single most common mistake in condo due diligence — and the one most likely to produce an expensive surprise after closing.
Pennsylvania guide →
Special assessments are the single largest source of financial surprise in condo and HOA ownership. They can arrive formally, as a voted board action with a disclosed amount. They can arrive indirectly, as a dues increase that follows a reserve shortfall or insurance spike. Or they can arrive silently, implied by the gap between what an association has saved and what it needs — visible in documents years before any official announcement. A thorough document review identifies all three types.
Pennsylvania guide →
The association's master insurance policy determines what your personal HO-6 policy needs to cover — and what it does not. Deductibles, named-storm provisions, water and flood exclusions, policy form (bare-walls versus all-in), carrier quality, and loss assessment exposure all change the real cost of ownership in ways that never appear in the listing price. Reading the insurance summary alone is not enough; reading the master policy declarations page against the declaration's loss assessment provisions is where the real exposure lives.
Pennsylvania guide →
An association's governance health is a leading indicator of every other risk. Boards make decisions about reserve funding, repair scope, insurance coverage, and vendor relationships. Functional boards make those decisions transparently and on time. Dysfunctional boards defer them, obscure them, or make them for the wrong reasons — and the deferred decisions show up later as assessments, deteriorated infrastructure, and insurance problems. A governance review reads meeting minutes, election and recall records, financial controls, and dispute history across multiple years to surface the patterns that precede financial problems.
Pennsylvania guide →
Pennsylvania reading
Philadelphia's PM-315 ordinance requires facade inspections every 5 years for buildings 6+ stories. Here is what to read in the report and how it affects your purchase.
Read →
Hurricane Ida and increasingly common river flooding have made flood coverage a critical Pennsylvania diligence item. Here is what to verify before closing.
Read →
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