Condo Townhouse Cooling Problems

[Christopher C. Welber]

Hello BPs.

We recently bought a Townhouse Condo unit in Piscataway, NJ. It has a finished basement, plus first and second floors. The central AC compressor outside had to be swapped out from a more powerful unit to a smaller unit to meet the town's code. The seller did this to pass inspection as they had illegally installed a more powerful unit than the Townhouse code permitted (they never actually got a permit). We suspect they probably choose the cheapest one they could so we bringing in experts to advise us. The basement is cool, first floor warm and the top second floor uninhabitable on days when the outside temperature is above about 80+. The total square footage is about 1,800+.

We're wondering if others have experienced these types of cooling issues and what the solutions might have been.

This is a major issue which we missed during the closing process and if we can't rent out the unit because of it then that's a huge problem.

Thanks for your feedback!