MoneyInJapan

Condominium financial-health checker

Reserves, arrears, repair plan, borrowing, insurance, and governance to a risk result.

Direct answers

Enter the reserve, arrears, repair plan, association borrowing, insurance, and governance details to score the building’s financial health — with a low current fee scoring negatively if it creates future special assessments.

Key points

  • Scores reserve balance and monthly reserve per square meter.
  • Weighs the funding method, arrears, borrowing, and repair plan.
  • Includes insurance, governance, and unresolved litigation.
  • A low current fee scores negatively if it means future special assessments.

Inputs and outputs

Inputs: reserve balance and monthly reserve per m², funding method (even or escalating), 30-year-plus repair plan and update date, estimated next major work and funding gap, owner arrears, association borrowing, management-fee trend, commercial/absentee ownership concentration, insurance and earthquake coverage, meeting attendance, unresolved litigation, and planned elevator/pipe/façade/seismic work.

Outputs: a financial-health risk result, where a low current monthly fee does not score positively if it creates future special assessments.

How to interpret the result

A low monthly fee is not a good score if it reflects an underfunded reserve; the checker treats a step-up plan’s early low fee as a future risk.

What the tool shows — and what it doesn’t

In short: Scores reserve balance and monthly reserve per square meter; Weighs the funding method, arrears, borrowing, and repair plan; Includes insurance, governance, and unresolved litigation; A low current fee scores negatively if it means future special assessments.

A calculator is only as good as its inputs and the scenarios you test, and it models arithmetic, not approval: it cannot tell you whether a lender will lend, what rate underwriting will actually offer, or how your circumstances will change. Use it to compare options and to stress-test — run a mortgage at the offered rate plus one, two, and three points, and a purchase at pessimistic as well as central assumptions — rather than to produce a single answer. Advertised rates are execution-month or example figures, not guaranteed offers, so treat any result as a planning estimate and confirm the real numbers with a dated written quotation before you commit.

Who this is for

  • Buyers and borrowers modeling a decision
  • Anyone stress-testing affordability

What this is not

  • A guaranteed quote or approval
Important cautions
  • A low monthly fee is not a good score if it reflects an underfunded reserve; the checker treats a step-up plan’s early low fee as a future risk.

Frequently asked questions

What should I check for a condominium?

Reserves, repair plan, arrears, minutes, bylaws, insurance, litigation, and planned major work.

What is a special assessment?

An extra owner payment when reserves are insufficient for needed work.

Sources