3.3 The New Hampshire Condominium Act (RSA 356-B)

How a New Hampshire condominium is created

A condominium is a form of ownership, not a building type: each owner holds fee simple title to an individual unit plus an undivided percentage interest in the common areas. New Hampshire governs all of this through the Condominium Act, RSA 356-B.

A condominium comes into existence when the declarant (the developer) records two core documents:

1. The declaration (master deed) — legally describes the land, defines unit boundaries, fixes each unit's percentage interest in the common area, and submits the property to RSA 356-B.
2. The bylaws — the operating rules of the unit owners' association, covering the board, meetings, assessments, and maintenance responsibilities.

Once recorded, the association is responsible for managing the common areas, and each unit owner pays monthly assessments (condo fees) in proportion to that unit's percentage interest. Those allocations are tested: a unit with a 4% interest pays 4% of the common budget and casts votes weighted accordingly, regardless of how the fee compares to a neighbor's.

Liens for unpaid assessments

When an owner stops paying assessments, the association can place a lien against the unit and ultimately foreclose to collect. This is why the disclosure of any unpaid assessments is central to both the public offering statement and the resale certificate, below.

New units vs. resales — two different disclosure tracks

The exam separates a first sale by the declarant from a resale by an ordinary owner. They use different documents and different timeframes.

New units: the Public Offering Statement (RSA 356-B:52)

When a declarant sells units in a new or registered project, the buyer must receive a Public Offering Statement (POS). The New Hampshire Attorney General's office (Consumer Protection Bureau) reviews the POS and may require the declarant to amend it to ensure full and fair disclosure. The POS must describe, among other things:

• The declarant and the nature, size, and phasing of the project;
• Copies of the declaration and bylaws;
• Management contracts, budgets, assessments, and capital reserves;
• Improvements/amenities and their construction status and approvals;
• Title matters, encumbrances, and warranties; and
• A statement of the buyer's cancellation rights.

The five-day right of rescission (RSA 356-B:50). A buyer of a unit from a declarant may unilaterally cancel the purchase agreement within five days measured from the later of (a) signing the agreement or (b) receiving the public offering statement. This right cannot be waived by contract. If the POS is delivered late, the clock starts at delivery — so a developer cannot shorten the window by stalling.

Resales: the resale certificate (RSA 356-B:58)

When an owner other than the declarant resells a unit, the buyer is entitled to a resale certificate before the contract is finalized. The seller requests the statements from the association, and the association's principal officer must furnish them within 10 days of a written request. The certificate discloses items such as:

Exam trap: Do not confuse the timeframes. Five days is the buyer's right to cancel a new-unit purchase; ten days is the association's deadline to deliver the resale documents. Swapping these is the most common wrong answer.

The association, the budget, and special assessments

Day-to-day, the unit owners' association is the entity a buyer is really joining. The exam expects you to connect three financial concepts. Regular assessments (condo fees) fund the operating budget and are allocated by percentage interest. Reserves are savings the association sets aside for large future repairs (roofs, siding, paving). When reserves fall short of a major repair, the board can levy a special assessment — a one-time charge on every unit, again by percentage interest.

A buyer who skips the resale-certificate financials can be surprised by a special assessment days after closing, which is precisely why RSA 356-B:58 requires disclosure of the budget, reserve balances, and any planned capital expenditures.

Master deed vs. bylaws — a tested distinction

Students routinely confuse the two governing documents. The master deed (declaration) is the document that creates the condominium: it describes the land, fixes unit boundaries, and sets each unit's percentage interest. The bylaws are the operating rules of the association — how the board is elected, how meetings run, and how assessments are levied and collected. A change to percentage interests generally requires amending the declaration (a high bar, often unanimous or near-unanimous consent), while routine governance changes ride on the bylaws.

If a question asks where unit boundaries or ownership percentages live, the answer is the declaration/master deed.

Resale practice for the listing agent

When you list a resale unit, build the 10-day association turnaround into the contract timeline. Order the resale certificate early; if the association is slow, a buyer's contingency period can lapse before the documents arrive, jeopardizing the deal. Confirm the current monthly fee, any unpaid assessments that could become the buyer's problem, and whether the association restricts leasing or pets — restrictions that can make or break an investor buyer. Disclosing these from the governing documents protects both your seller and the transaction.