The newsletter introduces PATScore™ as a “condo risk report card” and uses 175 East Delaware Place as a live case study to show how underfunded reserves and a manipulated reserve study create massive hidden liabilities for owners.​

Core focus of the newsletter

• Explains the Property Asset Transparency Score (PATScore): a 0–100 score in 5‑point bands (Poor through Excellent) based on reserves, inspection recency, funding discipline, governance, and reporting quality.​
• Shows how PATScore translates dense documents (audited financials, tax returns, budgets, reserve study) into an accessible risk signal for buyers, lenders, boards, and owners.​
• Frames PATScore as a “condo CARFAX,” giving prospective buyers a way to estimate their share of unfunded long‑term obligations instead of relying on marketing and boilerplate disclosures.​

Key facts highlighted in the issue

• Subject: 175 East Delaware Place Homeowners Association, 700 units, managed by Sudler; auditor and tax preparer: CondoCPA; reserve study provider: Building Reserves, LLC.​
• PATScore: 15 – Poor, indicating critically low reserve funding and high risk of special assessments and deferred maintenance.​
• Current unfunded reserve liabilities: about $30,000,000; projected 30‑year unfunded liabilities: at least $100,000,000, even if the reserve study’s own funding plan is followed.​
• Current vs. recommended reserve contributions: $1,020,000 in the adopted budget vs. $2,453,400 recommended, implying about a 14.6% immediate assessment increase just to get onto the reserve study’s (still flawed) path.​

Governance and reserve‑study issues covered

• The reserve study is based on a 3.9‑year‑old site inspection (January 19, 2022), yet is still used to justify current funding.​
• Approximately $67.7 million of high‑priority and life‑safety projects are pushed beyond the 30‑year horizon, materially understating long‑term capital needs and reducing recommended contributions.​
• The association has been paying income taxes from the reserve fund instead of the operating fund, diverting long‑term capital savings to recurring expenses and worsening reserve deficits.​
• The newsletter also notes that these patterns reflect deeper weaknesses in financial governance, reserve adequacy, and long‑term capital planning.​

How the newsletter guides readers to use PATScore

• Encourages prospective buyers to compute their personal share of risk by applying their unit’s ownership percentage to the $30M current and $100M projected unfunded liabilities.​
• Explains that associations in the Poor (0–25) band face substantial unfunded capital obligations and a high probability of sharp assessment increases or special assessments.​
• Positions PATScore as a complement to, not a replacement for, engineering, legal, and financial due diligence—a synthesizing tool that exposes when reserve studies and budgets are structurally understating risk.
  

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