While cleaning out a closet found a box of records from my old condo and decided
to toss them. I’ve already tossed a few things that don’t appear important (condo CC&Rs and
annual reports from the condo board of directors), but what about the rest?
I purchased the condo in 1994 sold it in 2013 for roughly twice the original price
and used the money from the sale to purchase the house I now live in. Along
the way I refinanced the condo twice (2002 and 2010). Also in 2008 there was a lien
placed all the condo owners by a contractor when the condo board refused to
pay and also sued the contractor for an improperly repaired roof. The lien
was removed a few weeks later when the board and contractor settled out of court.
I have paperwork for nearly all of the above. How much if any do I need to keep?
Did anything relating to the condo appear on tax returns? If so you would probably need to keep records just like any other documentation to support your tax return in case of an audit–3 years, 6 years…
And other than for taxes, there’s no reason to hold any records of property you’ve sold cleanly and now have no connection to.
IF you have any on-going connection, like you took back a seller-financed mortgage, or there’s existing litigation on the property, that would be different and keeping some records would be relevant. But if not, not.
But keep 'em anyway! When you re-discover them in a dusty attic 35 years from now, you may get some real enjoyment reading them, and the memories they bring you. Like old photos.
And the grandkids will be surprised that you ever lived in a neighborhood that ,to them, is a run-down old slum.
If storage is a concern, than you could get a scanner and scan in documents. The very nice thing about a scanner is that a physically tiny hard disk can store more documents and photos than you would ever need. Plus they are cheap and it’s easy to make a copy of them and store it at different locations. People have mentioned that in the fire the thing they can’t replace are photos. Who knows what legal claims there might be or whatever in the future, this way if you have at least a scan of it, you have something if needed. It’s also helpful to review thing from years ago to see if the situation is what you remembered, like “How much did I pay for that car?”. I started going paperless years ago, and it’s great. If you ever want to find something it sure beats going through boxes.
