River's Edge has been the most unique place to live in Philadelphia for many years and until recently the owners have been very happy. They enjoyed a great location, spectacular city views and very low association dues until now.
Unfortunately, in order to keep those association fees low, the building has not been maintained, and for years major projects that would have prevented damage from deterioration have piled up. In the last couple of years, there have been several emergency repairs to the structure of the building.
The first repairs were financed, costing the unit owners nothing, however, since the financial markets collapsed, so has credit to this deteriorating building. This left the owners to foot the bill in emergency repairs. At this point, the building is still in dire need of repair, and these repairs can no longer be ignored. With its credit lines dried up, the management cannot even afford routine maintenance, focusing solely on emergency work.
In the last few years, multiple multi-million dollar projects have been completed. Last summer, two water cooling towers were replaced, and the elevators have been replaced. These two projects dried up the building's credit lines. Last summer, the sundeck leaked into the penthouse units, but this time there was no money, so owner's were assessed, splitting the bill for over $2 mil. As you can imagine, most owners could not come up with this much cash.
Since then, the project to replace all windows in the building has been approved. This new assessment is for $1.7 mil and it cannot be avoided as some 90% of units have leaking windows. Individual units have not received their bill, but they are expected to foot the bill again.
There is yet another project on the table, and that is to re-appoint the facade of the building. Considering the fact that all major projects have been approved by the HOA in the last few years, it is reasonable to assume that this one will be approved as well.
In the mean time, the building's maintenance is ignoring individual unit repairs such as leaking windows, electrical problems, leaking decks, poor wiring, etc. because there simply isn't enough money to cover them.
This building has always been a pleasant place to live, but with the existing and planned assessments, it is a financial nightmare for many owners.
In addition, HOA dues will be going up sharply in 2012. This is to cover increasing operational costs and maintenance. Individual owners have not yet been informed what their new condo fees will be, but only that there will be a sharp increase in that cost.
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