Reserve study readiness checklist.

A reserve study is a long-term plan for your community’s big-ticket repairs. We inspect your shared assets — roofs, paving, elevators, siding and the like — estimate when each will need repair or replacement, and forecast the cost over 30 years. Then we compare that forecast to what you are saving, so your board knows whether today’s dues will cover tomorrow’s projects. It answers the two questions every board has: what will need work and when, and whether the money will be there.

Percent funded is your actual reserves divided by what you would ideally have saved, based on how much useful life your components have used up. It is the headline number boards watch. On the scale we use, below 30% is poor, 30–50% good, 50–70% strong, 70% or above very strong. Most boards do not know their own figure, because calculating it is what a reserve study does.

Commonly one of five things: a state-law deadline or disclosure requirement, a prior study past its usual cycle (commonly a site inspection every five years), a lender or insurer or buyer asking for reserve information, a large component aging faster than expected, or board turnover bringing in someone who wants a clear picture. In practice they often arrive together — a new treasurer asks the question that a lender was going to ask anyway.

Governing documents — particularly the CC&Rs, which set out what the association is responsible for maintaining — your most recent reserve study if you have one, your current reserve balance and annual contribution, records of any recent major repair or replacement, and site access for the inspection, including gates, roofs and mechanical rooms. If you do not have all of it, that is normal. We will work from what is available and tell you exactly what is missing.

No — you are exactly who a reserve study is for. Most boards start here. The checklist is a way to see where you stand, not a test to pass, and an unchecked box is a starting point rather than a failing grade.