Reserve Questions from North Carolina Boards

No statute requires one. The Condominium Act and the Planned Community Act give the association power to budget for reserves (G.S. 47F-3-102) but set no study, interval or minimum. Your declaration or bylaws can require one, and if they do, the board must follow them.

Not in state law. Some declarations set a reserve contribution, and lenders reviewing condominium sales look at the share of the budget that goes to reserves.

They can reject the whole budget at the ratification meeting, but only by a majority of all owners, not just those present (G.S. 47F-3-103). If they do, the last ratified budget continues.

Not as the statutes are written. Buyers’ attorneys and lenders often ask for the latest study and reserve balance, so it helps to keep both ready. Check with the association’s attorney for your case.

For most HOAs, four to eight weeks from signed agreement to final report: a site visit in the first two weeks, a draft, the board’s comments, then the final. Ask for it at least two months before the budget meeting.

The recorded declaration and plat, bylaws, three years of budgets and financial statements, the current reserve balance, any past study, and records of major repairs with dates and costs.

Take the money in reserves and compare it with how much of every component’s replacement cost has been worn away so far, summed over the whole list; the ratio, as a percentage, is percent funded. It is a quick health check; the funding plan matters more.

North Carolina does not license reserve study preparers. Ask who will sign the report and what training they have; CAI runs a Reserve Specialist designation, and its National Reserve Study Standards describe what a study should contain.

Yes, if there was damage or major repairs. Replacements done early reset lives and costs, and insurance money rarely matches the reserve plan.