If you've bought or sold a condo in Rockville any time in the last few years, you've seen the reserve study line in the resale package. It sits a few pages into the disclosure packet, somewhere between the operating budget and the insurance summary, and most buyers skim past it the way they skim past the pool rules. It reads as background information. A snapshot of how much money the association has set aside for the next roof, the next set of elevators, the next round of exterior work.
That line means something different now than it did three years ago. Since October 1, 2025, Maryland no longer treats the reserve study as something a board simply has to disclose. It requires the board to actually fund it, and the resale package you're reading is one of the few places that gap becomes visible before you sign anything.
From a Disclosure to a Deadline
Maryland's reserve study requirement started in 2022 under House Bill 107, which took county-level rules from Montgomery and Prince George's Counties and made them statewide, effective October 1, 2022. Condominium associations had to get an independent study done, covering every structural, mechanical, electrical, and plumbing component, its remaining life, and its replacement cost. Associations had to review that study every year and hand owners a summary. What they didn't have to do, at least at first, was fund it to the level the study recommended.
House Bill 292 closed that gap. Effective October 1, 2025, Maryland associations must adopt a formal funding plan built in consultation with the person who wrote the reserve study, and they must deposit reserve contributions matching that plan's recommendation by the end of every fiscal year. A board can no longer look at a study showing it's underfunded and simply keep collecting the same dues it always has. It has to close the gap on a schedule, and the text of the statute spells out exactly how that funding plan has to prioritize health, safety, and structural components first.
That shift is why the reserve line in a resale package now reads less like a snapshot and more like a countdown. An association that's 40 percent funded when its own study says it should be at 70 percent isn't just behind. It's out of compliance with state law, and it has to get current through some combination of a phased dues increase or a special assessment. Community association attorneys who work across Montgomery County describe this as a familiar pattern in the year since the funding mandate took effect: a study that used to sit in a drawer is now the document a board is legally required to act on.
What's Actually Inside the Resale Package
Under Section 11-135 of the Maryland Condominium Act, a seller has to deliver the resale certificate to the buyer at least 15 days before closing. That certificate has to include the current operating budget, the reserve study or a summary of it, the status of the reserve fund, any pending litigation, and any approved special assessments. Once the buyer actually receives a complete package, a cancellation clock starts. Most agent guides cite a seven-day window to rescind without penalty and get the deposit back. A few legal summaries put it at five. Either way, the clock starts on delivery, not on the date the package was mailed or emailed, which is why experienced Rockville listing agents order the certificate the moment a contract is ratified rather than waiting for the buyer to ask.
If the certificate is missing a required piece, it's incomplete under the statute, and an incomplete package doesn't start the cancellation clock at all. That can leave a closing in limbo until the association or the management company fills the gap, which is exactly the kind of delay a buyer under a rate lock does not want to discover the week before settlement.
The practical read for a buyer is straightforward. The reserve study section of the certificate now tells you whether the association is current on a legally mandated funding plan or still catching up. If it's still catching up, the certificate should also show you the plan for closing that gap and over what timeline. That's the section worth reading twice, not the section worth skimming.
Reading It Against Rockville's Own Buildings
Rockville's condo stock spans enough building ages that this law lands differently depending on where you're looking.
King Farm Condominium, the five buildings along Watkins Pond Boulevard and Elmcroft Boulevard that anchor the King Farm community near Shady Grove, has been through more capital cycles than a newer building has. So has the stretch of downtown high-rises around Rockville Town Square, including The Victoria and Americana Centre on Monroe Street. Buildings with more years behind them tend to have more components reaching the end of their useful life at the same time, which is exactly the scenario the reserve funding law was written for. A buyer looking at a unit in one of these communities should expect the reserve study to be doing real work in the disclosure package, not just checking a box.
Fallsgrove's Condominium Residences II and newer buildings like The Fitz at Rockville Town Center sit closer to the other end of that spectrum. They still carry the same statutory obligations, but a newer roof or a newer HVAC system generally means fewer components are competing for reserve dollars at once. That doesn't mean a newer building is automatically better funded. It means the read is different, and a buyer should still ask to see the actual funding plan rather than assume good condition equals good compliance.
The Jefferson, a boutique 12-residence conversion of a historic building near downtown Rockville, is a useful example of a third category entirely. New associations formed after October 1, 2022 have to complete an independent reserve study before the developer turns control over to the homeowner-elected board, specifically so the initial numbers aren't just whatever the developer assumed. A buyer in a small, newly formed association should ask when that turnover happened and whether the homeowner board has had a chance to independently verify the developer's initial assumptions.
If You're the One Selling
The instinct for a lot of Rockville condo owners is to wait until an offer comes in before worrying about the resale certificate. That instinct costs time now. If your association's reserve study shows a funding gap, that gap is going to show up in the package no matter when you order it, and a buyer's attorney is going to ask questions about the association's plan to close it. Getting ahead of that conversation before you list means you can explain the board's funding plan in context, rather than have a buyer discover it cold during a seven-day countdown with earnest money on the line.
If you sit on your association's board or simply want to know where things stand, ask for the current reserve study and the funding plan adopted alongside it. Compare the current reserve balance to what the study says it should be. That single comparison tells you more about your building's near-term financial trajectory than almost anything else in the packet.
A Few Questions Buyers Ask
Does this apply to co-ops too, or just condos? Maryland's reserve funding requirements run in parallel across the Condominium Act, the Homeowners Association Act, and the Cooperative Housing Corporation Act. A Rockville co-op board is under the same funding mandate as a condo association, even though the certificate itself takes a slightly different form.
What if the building is too new to have a funding history yet? Ask when the reserve study was completed and whether it happened before or after the transition meeting where the developer handed control to the homeowner-elected board. A study commissioned by the developer and never independently reviewed afterward is worth a more careful look than one the homeowner board has already had a chance to check.
What happens if the resale package just doesn't mention the reserve study at all? That's a missing required disclosure under Section 11-135, and Maryland law treats an incomplete package as not having started the buyer's rescission clock. In practice, that usually means the closing waits until the association or its management company fills the gap.
If you're weighing a Rockville condo against a similar unit somewhere else in Montgomery County, or you're a current owner trying to read your own association's numbers before you list, this is exactly the kind of question worth working through with someone who reads these packages regularly. Floyd Gómez-Starnes has spent his career in this market listening first and explaining clearly, and he's glad to walk through what your building's reserve study actually says before you're staring down a seven-day clock.
