Who should obtain fire insurance docs from HOA so that the lender can fund?

I recently bought a bank repossessed townhouse. I am upset because I have to pay a penalty of $450 because escrow closed on Monday which is 3 days late - the last day w/o penalty was Friday. However, the lender funded on Friday, so I guess it took time for escrow to close (since they don't work weekends).

The lender couldn't fund any earlier because they couldn't obtain the fire insurance docs from HOA in time. HOA was hard to contact because there was no management. The HOA is currently being managed by other people that live in the townhomes.

My question is, who is responsible for giving the fire insurance docs to the lender? Is the listing agent (who represents the bank) supposed to do that? Or is it my agent that's supposed to hound the HOA down? Or is my lender supposed to obtain it because they're the ones who need it?

Currently, all 3 parties have been pointing fingers at each other and they say they "feel bad" cuz I have to eat the costs.

You can get a "Dec Sheet" (declaration of coverage) from the President of the Condo Association. By law, they have to make this available to you. In most closings, seller's attorney or the escrow company obtains these documents to close. If nobody is co-operating, get them yourself. It should be a simple matter of faxing the doc to escrow. The escrow agent should know this. It's what they do all day long. Now, if for some reason the document is unavailable, get the name of the insurance company from the Condo Association and call them yourself. Yes, I know. It's easier to have someone else do it. But if they are not doing it, for whatever reason, you have to get it done.

It sounds like you bought into a mess.

Ultimately, any of the officers of the HOA should have been able to get you the NAME of the insurance company that held the Master policy.

All you had to do, is call the insurance company that held the master policy, and get them to fax over a copy to the lender. Your Realtor should have known at minimum, of who to contact and what the procedure was.

I also hope your Realtor told you that the fire policy of condos ONLY rebuild the structure and provide liability insurance for common areas. You need to take out content insurance called an HO-6 policy through a major carrier, and that will replace all of your belongings and even pay for a place for you to live, in the event of a loss.

PS: A lender WILL NOT accept DEC sheet from anyone except directly through the insurance company. The unit must be listed on the DEC page, along with the lender's mortgagee clause for that unit, as well as your name.

So no, the President of the HOA could not provide you with that information because no lender will accept that.

Good luck.