leasing a condo

My experience was that the so-called "condo board" proceeded to do a co-op board style finances/credit check verification. Their leverage is twofold: the "right of first refusal" and, apparently, the right to simply not let you use the service elevator to move stuff in.

The process seemed more bureaucratic than substantive and yes, it can delay move-in; for our building the broker wanted 2-3 weeks to complete it. That said, the owner has some leverage to push the board to hurry up, particularly if the process has been delegated to the managing agent.

oops correcting myself, i think it's a right of refusal, not FIRST refusal. How stringent the condo board is

If you know which building, pull the condo declaration and check the bylaws. They all have sale/lease conditions, with something like 30-45 days for the board to waive its right to buy/lease. At managing agents' sites I've seen condo sale/lease packages that're pretty elaborate, as mucuk said.

This is what I did in a well-established (ie pre 2000) condo:

1 - I insisted the owner discuss in advance with the Condo Bd. Pres what he was doing
2 - The condo had a right to take up to 4 weeks. I put in a rider to the lease that if it was not approved within 2 weeks I had unilateral right to walk. And that encouraged that #1 was done and also that the owner would follow up.

The board is there to serve the owners. Make sure the owner acts accordingly. Don't you as a prospective tenant agree to anything less than the above or make any of this your problem beyond fulfilling the paperwork requirements and being a good credit and later a good tenant.

thank you. i did look up the bylaws and it looks like its 20-30 days and the owner is pushing and on top of them. thanks for all the helpful information and feedback :)