They may or may not find out through some kind of building department - assessor office connection, but sooner or later the assessor will do a re-assessment and it will come up, and obviously at that point you would not be untruthful.However I also don't see any need to proactively notify them of an increase in bedrooms as it will probably increase your taxes.

@Sheldon VicYou should look to see if an appraisal is required to get the step up in basis.If an appraisal is required you may want to see if an appraisal can be done where the appraiser would value the property as of 8 months ago or if an alternate assessment date would work.

With that being said I am wondering does anyone know how the HOA comes up with a fee assessment?

I understand I am to apply through the housing authority who will assess if the increase is fair, is there anything else I need to know?

If you're buying a condo, you have little say in condo fee raises, special assessments, wasteful spending, crazy rules like eliminating rentals, unless you're on the board or have enough proxies for a strong vote. 

In Maryland they reassess every 3 years, and the new assessment is phased in 33% each year....so almost every year because of the phase in our taxes rise.

The seller has been accommodating on other items (eg. closing off a doorway to create a 3rd bedroom).We have asked if we can have a professional company assess the cost of repair so we know what we're getting in to.

Do they have the proper insurance, are there any big assessments looming, is there a restriction on the number of non owner occupied units, etc?

  - Assessing the true value.

Their methodology is fraught with risk, the general public and agents aren't trained to assess a home and the repairs it may need: "ask people to upload photos and answer more questions about the home.