I recently purchased a condo and I have just received a notice of a special assessment by the Board of Directors to the tune of $3,000 in order to bring the reserve fund up to date and in line with legal requirements. When I bought the property eight months ago, nothing indicated that this may be coming in the future. What, if anything, can I do about this?

Just to bring our readers up to date, a special assessment is a charge the condo management can demand from each owner to address deficiencies and possible shortfalls in the reserve fund. This fund is savings set aside by the condo corp to deal with large structural issues such as new roofs, redoing parking garage surfaces and other common elements. If a condo corp needs to make major repairs, they can draw from these savings. Then it needs to replenish the fund with either a special assessment against each owner or regular increases through the monthly common expenses.

In your case, it would seem that for reasons unknown to me, you have been required to top up the fund with a special assessment. If this charge comes very shortly after you purchased the condo, you may have had an opportunity to uncover this upcoming charge by reviewing the status/estoppel certificate. Generally, the certificate will indicate if there is a possibility of a special assessment and potentially the amount chargeable against the specific unit you are buying. This is why many offers to purchase have a condition for the review of the status certificate. However, eight months have passed and this probably puts you outside of the time frame for having been able to uncover this financial problem at the time of the offer.
 
You are required to pay the assessment, otherwise the potential extreme result of the Board placing a lien against the title to your condo. Often, the management will spread the payment out over a number of months in order to lessen the financial pain. However, one way or another the charge is yours.