Ballast PlanningClarity · Competence · ConfidenceU.S. ASSOCIATIONS

Ballast rule TR-1

How property complexity tiers are assigned

Every property falls into one of four complexity classes. The class is worked out from your answers to the questions below — not from a judgement call, and not from anything about your association we have not asked you. The tests are applied in the order printed, and the first one that matches decides the class.

The questions

  1. 1Does the association maintain the building envelope (roofs, cladding, windows, balconies)?
  2. 2Are there vertical systems — elevators, pressurised plumbing risers, central HVAC distribution?
  3. 3Does the association carry structural exposure — post-tension, podium, structural slab or deck?
  4. 4Does the association maintain more than one reserve fund?
  5. 5Does the association receive non-assessment revenue — commercial rent, parking, marina, club?
  6. 6Is this a master association, a sub-association within one, or a mixed-use property?

The classes, in the order they are tested

  1. T4 · Complex

    Master, mixed-use, or revenue-bearing.

    Applies if you answered yes to any of: Is this a master association, a sub-association within one, or a mixed-use property? · Does the association receive non-assessment revenue — commercial rent, parking, marina, club? · Does the association maintain more than one reserve fund?

  2. T3 · Mid-rise / high-rise

    Vertical systems, structural exposure.

    Applies if you answered yes to any of: Are there vertical systems — elevators, pressurised plumbing risers, central HVAC distribution? · Does the association carry structural exposure — post-tension, podium, structural slab or deck?

  3. T2 · Attached / garden

    Envelope responsibility, no vertical systems.

    Applies if you answered yes to any of: Does the association maintain the building envelope (roofs, cladding, windows, balconies)?

  4. T1 · Common-area HOA

    No envelope responsibility.

    Applies when none of the classes above do.

What this rule does and does not do

It decides which class your property is in. It does not decide what that class costs — fees are set out inside the scoping flow, once the class is known.

There is no override. If the class looks wrong to us or to you, the answer is to correct the answers and record the intake again, which leaves both records in place. A rubric that gets quietly overridden is a rubric nobody can check, and this page would then be describing something we do not actually do.