A lender questionnaire for a condo is a standardized form your mortgage lender sends to the homeowners association to collect information about the project’s finances, insurance, governance, ownership mix, and any pending litigation. The HOA board or its management company fills it out, not the buyer, and the lender’s underwriters compare the answers against Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA, or VA eligibility rules to decide whether the loan can be approved.
The form matters because a condo loan is really two approvals in one: the lender has to approve you as a borrower, and it has to approve the building. If the association’s answers show inadequate reserves, too many delinquent owners, unresolved litigation, or an ownership pattern the guidelines don’t allow, the loan can stall or fall through even when your own finances are strong.
What the Questionnaire Asks the HOA
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac developed the two forms most conventional lenders use or adapt: Form 1076 for a full review and Form 1077 for a limited review.1Fannie Mae. Condo, Co-Op, and PUD Eligibility The categories are consistent across most lenders.
Ownership and Occupancy
The form asks for the total number of units, how many have sold and closed, how many are under contract, and how many the developer still holds. It also splits ownership into owner-occupants, second-home buyers, and investors.2Fannie Mae. Condominium Project Questionnaire A project dominated by rentals carries a different risk profile than one where residents mostly own and live in their units, and Fannie Mae’s full review requires at least 50% of units to be conveyed to principal-residence or second-home purchasers when the loan itself is for an investment property.3Fannie Mae. Full Review Process
Reserves and Budget
The form asks whether the association funds replacement reserves for capital improvements and whether those reserves are sufficient.4Freddie Mac. Fannie Mae Form 1076/Freddie Mac Form 476 – Condominium Project Questionnaire Full Form Underwriters then check the HOA’s answers against Fannie Mae’s rule that the budget devote at least 10% of annual assessment income to replacement reserves, calculated by dividing the annual budgeted reserve allocation by total annual assessment income.3Fannie Mae. Full Review Process
Insurance
The questionnaire collects the carrier name, phone number, and policy number for the association’s hazard, liability, fidelity, and flood coverage.2Fannie Mae. Condominium Project Questionnaire The form itself doesn’t ask for coverage amounts; the lender verifies separately that the master policy meets minimums such as property coverage equal to 100% of the replacement cost of the project’s improvements and common elements.5Fannie Mae. Master Property Insurance Requirements for Project Developments
Litigation and Commercial Space
The form asks directly whether the HOA is a party to any active or pending litigation and, if so, requires documentation from the association’s attorney.2Fannie Mae. Condominium Project Questionnaire Pending lawsuits can signal future special assessments or insurance problems, and structural-safety claims in particular can make a project ineligible outright.
If any part of the building is used for non-residential purposes, the form requires the type of use, the square footage, and its share of total project square footage.4Freddie Mac. Fannie Mae Form 1076/Freddie Mac Form 476 – Condominium Project Questionnaire Full Form Fannie Mae will not purchase loans in projects where commercial space exceeds 35% of total square footage, and FHA caps commercial space at 25%.6U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Condominium Project Approval and Processing Guide
How the Questionnaire Gets Ordered
Once you’re under contract, the lender contacts the HOA board or its management company to request the completed form. Most associations now route these requests through third-party document platforms like HomeWiseDocs or CondoCerts. The buyer or their agent enters the property address, pays the processing fee, and the management company uploads the completed questionnaire for the lender to download.
Standard turnaround runs about three to ten business days. Complex communities with multiple phases or mixed-use components can take longer, and rush processing is usually available for an extra fee when the closing date is tight. Ordering the questionnaire the same day you go under contract, rather than waiting for the lender to trigger the request, buys you time if the answers reveal a problem.
Fees and Who Pays
The HOA or its management company charges a fee to research records and complete the questionnaire. Amounts vary widely by management company and project complexity, and there is no federally regulated cap. Rush fees add to the total. In most transactions the buyer pays as part of closing costs, though some purchase contracts shift the charge to the seller. Ask your agent about the expected fee early, so it isn’t a surprise line item at the closing table.
Full Review vs. Limited Review
Not every condo purchase triggers the same depth of scrutiny. Fannie Mae offers two main review paths, and which one your lender runs depends on the loan-to-value ratio, whether the project is new or established, and whether the unit is attached or detached.7Fannie Mae. General Information on Project Standards
Full Review
A full review is the comprehensive analysis, required for new or newly converted projects, higher-LTV loans in established projects, and any situation where limited review thresholds are exceeded. Key benchmarks:
- The budget must allocate at least 10% of annual assessment income to replacement reserves.3Fannie Mae. Full Review Process
- No more than 15% of total units can be 60 or more days past due on common expense assessments.3Fannie Mae. Full Review Process
- For investment property loans, at least 50% of units must be conveyed to principal-residence or second-home purchasers.3Fannie Mae. Full Review Process
- In projects with 21 or more units, no single entity can own more than 20% of total units. In projects with 5 to 20 units, the limit is two units.8Fannie Mae. Ineligible Projects
Limited Review
A limited review skips most of the deep financial analysis. It’s available for attached units in established condo projects when the borrower puts enough money down. Outside Florida, the maximum LTVs for a limited review are 90% for a primary residence, 75% for a second home, and 75% for an investment property.9Fannie Mae. Limited Review Process A primary-residence buyer generally needs at least a 10% down payment to qualify. If the LTV exceeds those limits or the lender discovers an eligibility issue, the project drops back into a full review.
Detached condo units and units in two-to-four-unit condo projects generally have the project review waived entirely, with only minimal baseline requirements applying.7Fannie Mae. General Information on Project Standards
When the Answers Make a Project Non-Warrantable
When a condo project fails Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac eligibility standards, it’s classified as non-warrantable. The loan can’t be sold to the government-sponsored enterprises, and most conventional lenders won’t finance the purchase. Common triggers include delinquency above the 15% threshold, reserves below the 10% budget minimum, too much commercial space, excessive single-entity ownership, or unresolved litigation touching structural safety.8Fannie Mae. Ineligible Projects
A non-warrantable label doesn’t make the unit impossible to buy, but it narrows financing sharply. Buyers usually end up with non-qualified mortgage lenders or portfolio lenders at local banks. Those alternatives typically require 20% to 25% down and carry interest rates well above conventional loans. Adjustable-rate mortgages are common; 30-year fixed rates may not be available at all. The label also drags on resale, because future buyers will face the same hurdles and the pool of potential purchasers shrinks accordingly.
FHA and VA Use Separate Approvals
The Fannie Mae questionnaire process governs conventional loans. FHA and VA loans use their own project approval systems, and a project that clears one doesn’t automatically clear the others.
For FHA, the entire condo project generally must be on FHA’s approved list. The key thresholds are at least 50% owner-occupancy (30% for new projects under 12 months old, rising to 50% after the first year), no more than 50% of units carrying active FHA-insured mortgages, no more than 10% of units owned by any single investor, no more than 15% of units more than 30 days past due on association fees, and no more than 25% of floor area used for non-residential purposes.6U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Condominium Project Approval and Processing Guide Note the delinquency window: FHA counts 30-day delinquencies, stricter than Fannie Mae’s 60-day standard. FHA also offers a Single-Unit Approval process (sometimes called spot approval) for individual units in projects not on the approved list, subject to additional limits on how many FHA-insured units the building can hold.
For VA loans, the project must be approved by the Department of Veterans Affairs before the loan can be guaranteed.10Department of Veterans Affairs. Condo Approval for Lenders VA approvals can take two to three months, though once granted the approval is permanent for the life of the project. The VA looks at similar factors, including owner-occupancy (generally at least 50%), sold-or-under-contract percentages in new developments (typically 75% or more), and HOA delinquency. The VA will also flag deed restrictions that would block foreclosure or limit resale.
What to Do if Problems Turn Up
If the questionnaire exposes a project-level issue like thin reserves or heavy delinquency, you have little leverage to fix it before closing. The realistic options are switching to a portfolio lender willing to underwrite the risk at a higher rate and larger down payment, negotiating a lower purchase price to offset the financing disadvantage, or walking away if your appraisal and financing contingencies allow it.
If the problem is a slow or incomplete HOA response, push your real estate agent to contact the management company directly. Some management firms prioritize requests from agents they work with regularly.
If you know before making an offer that the property sits in a condo or townhouse community, ask for the association’s most recent financial statements and reserve study during the inspection window. Those documents reveal most of the same issues the lender will eventually flag, and catching them upfront is far better than discovering them weeks into the transaction.