Revocation of Condominium Plan, Dissolution of Condominium Plan in California
Bullet Points:
- I am the owner of a triplex that was converted to condos.
- We have a lot of equity and I'd like to do a re-fi.
- You can’t get a government backed refi on a condo if a single owner (of a 2 to 4 unit property) owns more than one of the units. I own all three.
- If I did want to sell a unit (which I don’t ), the buyer wouldn’t be able to get a government backed loan. I don’t see anyone buying a condo in this area, with a (probably more expensive) non-traditional loan.
- I'm trying to convert the property back to a triplex.
- Our long term plan to is to hold the property and continue to rent out the units.
In addition to wishing to make use of our equity to get a refi, do some improvements, increase the rent and value, I need an exit strategy. More importantly, if I get hit by a bus next week, I want my family to have the option to liquidate (fairly easily) that asset if they choose to.
When I first researched converting the property back to a triplex, the city told me that I needed to do a Reversion to Acreage. They did some research before they gave me that direction and advised me to talk to various real estate professionals, which I did.
Now I’ve begun that process and the city has discovered that the way to go on this is actually something called a Revocation of Condominium Plan, or Dissolution of Condominium Plan. The people at the city have no experience with this. They can manage their part of the process, but have cautioned me that they don’t know what will happen when it passes to the California Bureau of Real Estate. They are advising me to proceed with caution. This is all costing money.
I’ve searched the California Bureau of Real Estate and can’t find anything on this issue. I plan to call when I have a chance (I work full time).
I feel like I can’t be the only landlord in California coming up against this. My common sense tells me that there’d be no reason for the state to refuse to sign off on it, but…I really don’t know what to expect.
Does anyone have any experience with this? Also, if there's another forum where this would be more appropriate, please advise. Thanks!