What a condo questionnaire costs, and who pays

Informational only

This page is general information about agency requirements and observed market practice. It is not legal advice, not statutory interpretation, and not a fee recommendation. Averbrook is not a law firm. What an association or a management company may charge is governed by the management agreement, the governing documents and state law, and is a question for the association's counsel.

Why no cap applies

Fee caps on community association documents come from state statutes, and those statutes are written for named documents. Florida's schedule caps the estoppel certificate. Texas Property Code sets a ceiling on the resale certificate, $375 with $75 for an update. Neither one names the lender questionnaire, because the questionnaire is not a creature of state law at all. It exists because the buyer's lender needs to know whether the project is eligible for a conventional mortgage, and the requirement sits on the lender.

That has a consequence people miss in both directions. An association is not obliged by any federal rule to complete a questionnaire, and no federal rule tells it what it may charge if it does. Both questions are answered by the governing documents, the management agreement and the state, which is why the answer is different in different buildings in the same city.

The three documents and who relies on each are set out on the questionnaire, estoppel or resale certificate page. Whether an association has to answer at all is on the page about who completes it.

What the market actually charges

Figures read off fee schedules that anyone can look up, rather than estimated:

• $150 to $400 is the ordinary band for a completed questionnaire, and it is the band this desk's own pricing is set against.
• $259 to $309 appears repeatedly on fee schedules filed with Texas management certificates, which are public records.
• Around $350 is common in Massachusetts, where the document is often bundled into a lender package.
• Up to about $800 at the top of the range, usually where a portal charge, a management charge and a rush tier are stacked on the same file.
• Roughly $90 to $160 is the usual expedited or rush tier on portal fee schedules, charged on top of the base fee.

The spread is wide because nothing narrows it. Where a statute caps a document, the cap becomes the price. Where nothing caps it, the price is whatever the fee schedule says and the closing agent pays without argument, since the alternative is a delayed closing.

What the fee is paying for

A completed questionnaire is not a form fill. Fannie Mae Form 1076 and Freddie Mac Form 476 run to seven sections plus the building safety addendum added in December 2021, and the answers come out of at least five different records: the approved budget, the reserve study or the reserve schedule, the delinquency report, the master and fidelity policies, and the minutes. Several answers are arithmetic performed on a specific base, and several are classifications rather than facts, litigation being the clearest example.

Since August 3, 2026 the work arrives far more often. Limited Review was retired for conventional condo loans in buildings of eleven or more units, so files that previously moved without a full questionnaire now need one. The change is explained here. A fee schedule written before that date was priced for a lower volume of a lighter document.

The other half of the cost is invisible on the invoice: the questionnaires that come back. The ten answers that most often cause a return are all avoidable, and each return costs the desk a second pass at no extra fee.

Who pays, in practice

• The lender or the closing agent orders it, sometimes through a portal the management company has designated, sometimes by email to the manager.
• The charge lands on the closing statement and is usually borne by the buyer, though which side pays is negotiable in the contract and varies by local custom.
• The association rarely absorbs it, on the reasoning that the document serves one owner's sale and not the community.
• Whether the fee stays with the management company or goes to the association is decided by the management agreement, and all three arrangements are common: company revenue, association revenue, and a split.

Where a fee gets challenged

Complaints about document fees almost never concern the amount alone. They concern the presentation:

• Charges that are not itemized. A single line reading HOA documents invites the reader to test it against whichever statutory cap they can find, and the questionnaire is not the document that cap names.
• A questionnaire fee described as an estoppel fee. The words are used loosely in day to day email, but on an invoice the wrong word attracts the wrong rule.
• A rush fee on a delay the schedule created. Expedited pricing is defensible where standard service has a stated turnaround and meets it, and hard to defend where it does not.
• A fee charged twice on the same sale, when the lender orders a questionnaire and the closing agent orders another because the first was not shared.

The practice that avoids all four is dull and it works: an itemized schedule naming each document, a stated standard turnaround, and one completed package per sale that the manager can send to whoever asks for it.

Common questions

How much does a condo questionnaire cost?

Roughly $150 to $400 in most of the country, with fee schedules filed with Texas management certificates commonly in the $259 to $309 range and figures around $350 in Massachusetts. There is no national price because there is no national rule setting one.

Is there a legal cap on what an association can charge for a lender questionnaire?

No federal cap applies, because the agency requirements bind the lender rather than the association. The state caps that exist, such as Florida's estoppel schedule and the Texas resale certificate ceiling, are written for those specific statutory documents. Whether any state or contractual limit reaches a particular questionnaire fee is a question for the association's counsel.

Who pays for the condo questionnaire?

The transaction does. The lender or the closing agent orders it, the charge appears on the closing statement, and it is usually borne by the buyer or negotiated between the parties.

Can a questionnaire fee be charged on top of an estoppel or resale certificate fee?

They are three different documents prepared from different records, and the statutory caps that exist name the estoppel or the resale certificate rather than the questionnaire, which is why the charges usually appear as separate lines. It is also where objections arise, so an itemized schedule reviewed by the association's counsel is the safe practice.

Why do rush fees exist on condo questionnaires?

Because the questionnaire has no statutory deadline, only a closing date, so the pressure is commercial rather than legal. Portal fee schedules commonly add roughly $90 to $160 for expedited handling. A rush tier prices the delay it also creates, which is why this desk does not have one.

Does the association or the management company keep the fee?

The management agreement decides. Some treat document fees as ancillary revenue of the management company, some direct them to the association, and some split them.

What does it cost a management company to have one produced?

At this desk, $115 a package, $95 each at ten or more a month, and $45 for a refresh of the same community inside 90 days. The first package for any new client is free. Set against a $150 to $400 charge to the transaction, the desk sits inside a fee the company already collects.

Where these figures come from

Market figures are read from management company and portal fee schedules that are openly available, including the fee schedules attached to Texas management certificates, which are public records. The statutory ceilings named here are Florida's posted estoppel fee schedule and Texas Property Code sections 207.003 and 82.157. The review requirement that drives questionnaire volume is Fannie Mae Lender Letter LL-2026-03 and Freddie Mac Bulletin 2026-C, effective for applications dated on or after August 3, 2026. Check the current agency text before relying on any of it.