The Condo Questionnaire: The Form That Decides Whether Your Condo Loan Closes

When you buy a house, the lender underwrites you and the house. When you buy a condo, the lender underwrites you, the unit, and the entire association — its budget, its lawsuits, its insurance, and its neighbors' payment habits. The tool for that third review is the condo questionnaire.

The condo questionnaire is a standardized form the lender sends to the homeowners association or its management company. Most lenders use Fannie Mae Form 1076, which is also Freddie Mac Form 476, or their own version of it. The answers determine whether the project meets conventional guidelines — whether it's warrantable — and therefore which loans are available for every unit in it.

• Occupancy mix: how many units are owner-occupied, second homes, and rentals.
• Concentration: whether any single person or entity owns a large share of the units.
• Delinquencies: what percentage of owners are 60 or more days behind on dues.
• Budget and reserves: whether at least 10% of the annual budget goes to reserves.
• Litigation: any pending lawsuits involving the association, and what they concern.
• Commercial space: how much of the building is non-residential.
• Insurance: master policy coverage, deductibles, and fidelity coverage.
• Hotel-type features: front desk, rental pooling, short-term rental programs.
• Structural and safety: deferred maintenance, failed inspections, unfunded repairs, and current or planned special assessments.

Following the 2021 Surfside collapse, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac added questions about building condition: whether the association knows of any deficiencies affecting safety, soundness, or habitability, whether inspections have been completed, and how repairs will be funded. A yes on critical repairs can make the project ineligible for conventional loans until the work is done. This is closely connected to HOA special assessments, which often fund exactly those repairs.

Not every purchase triggers the full questionnaire. With a larger down payment on a primary residence or second home in an established project, conventional guidelines may allow a limited review with a shorter form and fewer questions. Investment properties and lower down payments generally require the full review. Your lender decides which applies after you're under contract.

The HOA's management company completes it. Fees typically run $100 to $500, usually paid by the buyer, often upfront and non-refundable. Turnaround ranges from two days to three weeks. Some management companies decline to answer certain questions on advice of counsel, particularly the structural ones, which creates its own problem — an unanswered question is treated as a bad answer. Order it the day you go under contract.

• More than 15% of units delinquent on dues.
• A single entity owning more than the permitted share of units.
• Reserves funded below 10% of the budget.
• Litigation involving structural defects or safety.
• Commercial space above roughly 35% of the building.
• Hotel-style operations — see condotel financing.
• Unfunded critical repairs or a failed structural inspection.

These thresholds come from agency guidelines and change periodically; your lender applies the current version.

A failed questionnaire means the project is non-warrantable. It doesn't mean the unit can't be financed. The non-warrantable condo program is built for these buildings, with its own project review that tolerates what the agencies won't. The background is in what is a warrantable condo, and I compare lender approaches in non-warrantable condo lenders.

If you already have a completed questionnaire — or a conventional lender just declined over one — send it to me. I can usually tell within a day whether the building fits a non-warrantable program and what the terms would look like. Eligibility is determined case by case.