How does our HOA board fill out a condo lender questionnaire?

By OurHOA · General information · Revised October 17, 2026

How an HOA board fills out a condo lender questionnaire like Fannie Mae Form 1076: who signs, records to pull, what not to guess at, and litigation and reserve answers.

Part of the HOA board handbook: treasurer and money.

The short answer

A lender questionnaire is the form a buyer's lender, or an owner's refinance lender, sends the association so its underwriter can decide whether the whole project qualifies for a loan the lender can sell. The most common one is the joint Fannie Mae Form 1076 and Freddie Mac Form 476, the full condominium project questionnaire, and its instructions are addressed to the HOA or management company. Answer it from records, not memory. Name one person to complete every questionnaire, have a second director check the handful of numbers that decide eligibility, attach documents instead of retyping them, and write "unknown" before you guess. A wrong answer can sink an owner's sale, or let a lender make a loan the project never qualified for, and the association signed the answers. This guide covers the board's side of the job. Fee rules, governing documents and lender requirements vary by state and change over time, so treat it as general education, not legal or lending advice.

Know which form you are holding

Lenders send several versions. The full form (Fannie Mae 1076, Freddie Mac 476, December 2021 edition) has seven parts: basic project information, project completion, newly converted or rehabilitated projects, financial information, ownership and other information, insurance and financial controls, and contact information. The short form (Fannie Mae 1077, Freddie Mac 477) asks fewer questions and is used for lighter reviews. Many lenders also attach the addendum, Form 1076A/476A, which must be completed by an authorized representative of the association. It asks when a licensed architect, engineer or other inspector last inspected the buildings, whether that inspection found safety or structural problems, whether the repairs are done, whether there are open code violations, whether deferred maintenance has a funding plan and a schedule, whether a reserve study was done in the last three years, and what special assessments and association loans exist. FHA loans work differently. Form HUD-9991 is completed and signed by the lender, and HUD's Mortgagee Letter 2021-09 removed the requirement that the condominium association complete HUD's condo forms and sign the certification. The lender may still email you questions so it can fill the form in. Many lenders also add a cover page of their own. Read it before anyone signs, because the agency forms carry no warranty or indemnity language and the lender's page sometimes does.

The answers that decide the loan

Underwriters look hardest at six answers. Know the rules behind them so you understand why the lender asks, and never shade an answer to fit a rule. Delinquency: Fannie Mae's Selling Guide (B4-2.2-01) says no more than 15 percent of total units may be 60 or more days past due on regular assessments, and the same limit applies to each special assessment. Count units, not dollars, from the ledger on the day you answer. Reserves: in a full review, the budget's reserve allocation must be at least 10 percent of budgeted assessment income. Use the adopted budget, not the transfer the treasurer plans to make. Ownership concentration: in a project of 21 or more units, one person or entity may own no more than 20 percent of the units, and leased units count (B4-2.1-03). Litigation: a project is ineligible if the association is a party to pending litigation, with exceptions that include collection suits the association brings, non-monetary disputes, and cases whose expected damages and legal costs stay under 10 percent of funded reserves. The full form asks you to attach documentation from the attorney or the HOA. Critical repairs: projects that need critical repairs are ineligible, including unfunded repairs costing more than $10,000 per unit that should be done within the next 12 months. Commercial space: the form asks for square footage of non-residential space, and Fannie Mae's limit is 35 percent of the project or building.

Build a questionnaire file once

The work is gathering the same dozen facts over and over, so gather them once. Keep one folder and refresh it after each monthly close. It should hold the adopted budget with the reserve contribution as its own line; the latest balance sheet with operating and reserve balances; a delinquency report showing units 30, 60 and 90 days behind, with special assessments listed separately; the owner roster with a count of units per owner, grouped by name, LLC and mailing address, plus the units registered as rented; the master policy declarations pages for property, general liability, fidelity or crime, directors and officers, and flood if you carry it; the most recent reserve study and any engineering or inspection reports, with the minutes where the board acted on them; a one-paragraph litigation summary the association's attorney has approved; and the basics: year built, number of units and buildings, phases, and whether the developer still controls anything. In Florida, add the milestone inspection report under section 553.899 and the structural integrity reserve study under section 718.112(2)(g) if the building must have them, because the addendum's inspection and reserve questions point straight at those documents. Note on the full form that it also asks whether operating and reserve funds sit in separate accounts and whether two directors must sign reserve checks. With the folder current, a questionnaire takes 30 to 45 minutes instead of an evening.

Filling it out, step by step

Step 1, log it. Record the date received, the lender, the unit, the borrower and the return date the lender wrote on the form, and send an invoice for any fee the board has adopted. Step 2, answer from the file. Copy each figure from a dated report, and where the form asks for a count, write the as-of date beside it. Step 3, mark what you do not know. "Unknown" or "not tracked by the association" is an honest answer. The rental count should come from lease registrations or owner filings, not a guess from the parking lot. Step 4, attach instead of summarizing. Send the insurance declarations, the budget page and the attorney's litigation letter rather than retyping them. Step 5, second check. A second director compares the delinquency count, the reserve percentage, the ownership concentration, the litigation answer and the addendum's repair answers against the source reports. Step 6, sign with your title and return it to the lender that sent it. Keep a copy of the completed form, the attachments and the date sent. If three lenders send questionnaires for the same project in one month, the three sets of answers should match except where a number really changed. A workable timeline: day 0, log and invoice; days 1 and 2, fill from the file; day 3, second review; day 4, return and file a copy. The lender's return date usually tracks the buyer's financing deadline, so treat five business days as the outside limit.

What not to guess at, and wording to copy

Do not answer from memory on replacement cost, coverage limits and deductibles, the number of rented units, whether an owner is in bankruptcy, or any structural question no report covers. Send coverage questions to the insurance agent and condition questions to the reserve study or engineer's report. If a lender's own page asks the association to warrant, guarantee or indemnify the answers, the person signing should not accept that on the association's behalf. Strike the language, or add a limiting line, and have the association's attorney approve the line once so you can reuse it. A line to adapt: "This questionnaire was completed from the association's records as of [date] by a volunteer officer, as a courtesy to the lender. It is not a warranty or guarantee, and the association does not certify information supplied by third parties." A motion to adopt the process: "Moved, that the treasurer is designated to complete lender and condominium project questionnaires for the association; that a second director reviews each one before it is returned; that the association charges a questionnaire fee of $[amount], payable before the form is returned; and that no officer may sign a warranty or indemnity for the association without board approval."

Fees and the estoppel are separate jobs

A questionnaire is not the estoppel or resale certificate the closing needs, and the statutory caps written for those certificates do not mention questionnaires. Texas caps the resale certificate fee at $375 for property owners' associations (Property Code 207.003(c)) and for condominiums (82.157(f)). Florida caps an estoppel at $250, plus $100 for expedited delivery and up to $150 more when the account is delinquent, with inflation adjustments every five years (718.116(8) for condominiums, 720.30851 for HOAs). Colorado requires a written statement of unpaid assessments within 14 calendar days after a proper request, and that statement binds the association (38-33.3-316(8)). None of those sections uses the word questionnaire, so set the questionnaire fee by written board policy at an amount that reflects the time the work takes, and confirm your governing documents allow it. Our guide on answering a resale certificate or estoppel request covers the certificate deadlines, and our guide on whether an HOA can charge a fee for a lender or mortgage questionnaire covers the owner's side of the fee.

Mistakes boards make

Reporting delinquency in dollars instead of units, or leaving special assessments out of the count. Giving the reserve bank balance when the question is about the budgeted reserve contribution. Answering "no litigation" because the only case is a small claims suit or a collection action; report it and let the lender apply its exceptions. Letting whichever director picks up the email answer, so the numbers drift from one form to the next. Answering the addendum's inspection questions "no" when the truth is that no inspection has been done; say so plainly. Signing a lender's indemnity page without reading it. And letting the form sit, because the buyer's financing deadline keeps running and a late answer can cost an owner the sale.

Sources

These guides are general education for HOA boards and residents, not legal, tax, or financial advice. Rules vary by state and by your community's governing documents - check with a professional for your situation.

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