The capital improvement fee (CIF) is a fee allowed by community associations to charge new owners when they acquire property.
There is a way to circumvent paying this fee altogether, there is a way to defer the payment of this fee for up to 18 months.
Currently the CIF is $1,250.00 at Lake Adventure.
If you are an investor you can avoid paying the CIF by signing a resale affidavit and reselling your investment campsite
within 18 months of the purchase date.
If you are purchasing a campsite property for a family member or another party and plan on reconveying property to the
family member or other person for whom you purchased the property with 18 monhts then you are acting as an investor and can
avoid the paying the CIF on your purchase. The new owner will, however, have to pay the CIF when the property is acquired.
Several of my customers have used this affidavit over the years.
CIF RESALE AFFIDAVIT
The history of the capital improvement fee affidavit was created by and lobbied for at the Pennsylvania state legislature
back in the 1990s by Ed Nikles Jr, myself and others. At that time community associations were unregulated and charging all
sorts of fees on a inconsistent basis throughout Northeastern Pennsylvania. Ed and I via the Pike County Builders Association
and the PA Builders Association lobbied for the inclusion of the resale certificate with its 18 month limit (at the time community
associations wanted to limit the CIF deferment to 12 months as I recall). We also lobbied for limits on property transfer
fees amounts now know as capital improvement fees (CIFs). As a result the capital improvement fee is limited to 50% of the
annual fees charged by any particular association.
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