Standard condos on Staten Island

Which condominiums of this kind are actually in Staten Island?

• Attached and semi-attached townhouse condominium communities across the South Shore in Annadale, Huguenot and Eltingville
• Mid-rise buildings on the North Shore around St. George and along the waterfront
• Communities where the condominium owns roads, parking and common grounds rather than a single building
• A borough where one and two family houses, not apartments, are the reference point for value

What changes about the waiver and the loan file in Staten Island?

• Warrantability questions here turn on the community’s budget and reserves rather than on owner-occupancy, because these communities are owner-occupied
• A condominium that owns private roads and drainage carries infrastructure costs an apartment building does not, and lenders read the reserve against that
• Flood zone status drives a flood insurance requirement that the lender will impose, and it is priced into the carrying cost
• The approval step is a right of first refusal waiver, and it is routine in these communities

Which taxes and recording steps apply in Staten Island?

• Mortgage recording tax reaches a Staten Island mortgage exactly as it reaches one in the other four boroughs, but it is not paid through ACRIS: the Richmond County Clerk collects it when the mortgage is presented for recording
• Staten Island deeds and mortgages are filed with the Richmond County Clerk rather than with the Department of Finance Office of the City Register, which is the borough’s one genuine recording difference
• That difference reaches the search as well as the filing. The recorded instruments are indexed in the county clerk’s own land records rather than in ACRIS, so an ACRIS-only search of a Staten Island lot returns no chain of title at all
• The mansion tax is reached on relatively few Staten Island sales given the borough’s price distribution

What pattern does a purchaser meet in Staten Island?

• Confirm the recording and search route early: the filing office is the county clerk and so is the index, and a file assembled on the assumption of a City Register submission and an ACRIS search has to be redone
• East Shore and waterfront communities carry post-storm elevation and flood requirements that affect insurance, lending and any alteration
• Where the condominium owns roads and drainage, ask for the reserve study, because road and drainage replacement is a large and predictable cost
• Comparables are houses, so a purchaser should compare common charges plus taxes against the upkeep and taxes on a house rather than against a co-op maintenance figure

What else should you read before closing on one of these?