Finding out whether the roof is yours
This takes about ten minutes and it decides everything that follows. In a large part of Palm Beach County housing, the roof is common property, and knowing which side of that line you are on saves a week of the wrong phone calls.
The document that settles it
The declaration of condominium, or the declaration of covenants for a homeowners association, defines what is common property and what belongs to the unit. Roofs appear explicitly in nearly every one, usually in the section listing common elements, sometimes as a limited common element assigned to a particular building.
You should have received it at closing. If you cannot find it, the management company can answer in one line, and the county records the recorded declaration for the community.
Three faster signals
You pay a monthly or quarterly assessment that funds reserves. Reserves are money set aside for major components, and roofing is almost always one of them. Money set aside for a roof is money set aside by whoever owns it.
The buildings have been re-roofed as a group at some point, rather than one address at a time. That is a schedule, and schedules belong to associations.
You share a roof plane with another unit at all. A single roof over several homes is common property in almost every arrangement.
What to do with each answer
If the roof is yours, the rest of this site applies directly: compare quotes on reset-or-replace, underlayment, hardware and flashing, and get the architectural approval in writing first if your community specifies a product.
If it is not, the useful next steps are the reserve study and the replacement schedule. Ask where your building sits and whether the reserve is funded to reach it. An independent inspection is still worth commissioning, because it gives the board something documented rather than an opinion.
Quick answers
- I own my unit outright. Does the roof come with it?
- Not necessarily, and in most attached housing here it does not. Ownership of the unit and ownership of the roof over it are separate questions.
- Can I pay to have my own section done sooner?
- Almost never, and doing it without approval can leave you liable for the work and for restoring it. The schedule and the specification belong to the association.
- What is a special assessment?
- A one-time charge when reserves do not cover a major component. Roofs are the item that most often triggers one, which is why the funding question matters when buying.