Why this is the change that surfaces the others

On its own, retiring a review type is procedural. Its importance is that it is the mechanism by which every other standard in the bulletin actually gets enforced against a Pennsylvania association.

A reserve threshold, a deductible ceiling and a funding-method rule are only as real as the review that checks them. Under streamlined review, an established project could carry a 10% reserve allocation, a baseline-funded study and a large per-unit deductible, and a substantial share of transactions would never examine any of it. Under full review they are examined every time.

So the sequence in the bulletin is coherent rather than coincidental: retire the abbreviated route in August, then raise the reserve floor in January. The first makes the second enforceable.

What an association will actually experience

A questionnaire, more often and in more detail, and consequences when the answers are unsatisfactory.

The realistic failure mode for a Pennsylvania condominium is not a formal rejection letter. It is a sale that takes longer, then falls through, and a board that learns about the underlying problem from an estate agent. Boards find out about project-eligibility problems last, because nobody in the transaction has a duty to tell them.

The items most likely to cause trouble in Pennsylvania's older condominium stock — and Philadelphia and Pittsburgh have a great deal of it — are deferred maintenance recorded as a critical repair, a reserve study that does not exist or is a decade old, a budget reserve allocation below the threshold, a per-unit deductible above $50,000, and unresolved litigation.

The package a board now needs

The point of preparation here is that the same package answers every enquiry, so it is worth building once:

• The current budget, with the reserve allocation expressed as a percentage of total assessment income.
• A current reserve study whose recommended funding is not baseline, with the budget carrying its highest recommended allocation.
• The master insurance declaration page, with the deductible structure identified as per-unit or per-occurrence.
• A statement of any critical repairs or deferred maintenance, and the plan and funding for them.
• Delinquency figures, owner-occupancy and investor concentration.
• Any pending litigation, with counsel's description of it.

An association that can produce this within a day of a request will lose fewer sales than one that cannot, independently of whether the underlying numbers are strong.

The Pennsylvania context

The Commonwealth contributes nothing here. Pennsylvania mandates no reserve study, no reserve funding level, and no structural inspection; there is no state review of a condominium project's condition, and no agency holds the information a lender is now asking for. Title 68 was not amended at all in the 2025-2026 session, and no reserve or inspection bill was introduced in either of the last two.

The only Pennsylvania inspection mandate of any kind that reaches multi-storey residential buildings is municipal: Philadelphia's façade inspection ordinance, which requires periodic inspection by a licensed professional engineer or registered architect for buildings of six or more storeys, or with an appurtenance over 60 feet, on a five-year cycle.

For everywhere else in the Commonwealth, the secondary mortgage market's project review is now, in practice, the only recurring external examination a condominium's physical and financial condition receives.

What to watch next

The 4 January 2027 reserve increase, which is the next dated change and the one boards can still act on while setting 2027 budgets. Beyond that, the annual insurance verification and borrower reminder obligations placed on servicers from 1 January 2027, which convert what has been a point-of-sale check into a recurring one.

Some relief runs the other way and is worth knowing: the expanded waiver of project review for communities of ten units or fewer, which reaches a real slice of Pennsylvania's small urban condominium conversions.