Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Massachusetts

Thanks for your question. The short answers are as follows:

1. If the attorney has asked that you not speak with his client directly, you are under no obligation to comply with that request. However, the other owner may simply disregard your communications.

2. It is unreasonable to for the attorney to demand that meetings be held at his office if that office is located a good distance from the condo. A meeting should ideally and reasonably be held in one of your units.

I think the notion generally that budgets should be established through counsel is impractical, My experience in two-unit condos, however, is that a meeting between the attorneys just once tends to resolve many of the issues.

Assuming he is representing the unit owner and is not acting as a new trustee, I would suggest the following:

1. That you reply to the attorney and state that you are more than happy to meet to discuss the budget with the other Trustee and he may be present, but the meeting should take place somewhere else than his office and you can suggest an alternative to that location.

2. That as Trustee you reserve the right and in fact are obligated to discuss such matters with the co-trustee until such time the other trustee resigns and appoints the attorney as his trustee and registers the attorney as the trustee with the registry of deeds representing his unit.

3. That before moving forward it should be agreed and acknowledged that the fees for the attorney are the sole reponsibility of the other unit owner as the unit owner and are not the obligation of the condo association.

Without knowing the particulars I cannot make any other suggestions.

You could send a letter which simply says I want to arbitrate, but that will cost money.