Form 1076: The Condo Questionnaire That Decides Whether the Loan Closes

Published August 17, 2026 · 7-minute read · By the CondoScores team at RentSpire

If you've ever tried to sell a condo, buy one, or serve on a board, you already know this scene: the buyer's lender emails a multi-page PDF to the HOA. The board sits on it. The buyer's rate lock expires. Everyone blames the lender. The document is almost always Form 1076 — the Condominium Project Questionnaire. Since Limited Review was retired on August 3, 2026, Form 1076 is the first thing lenders reach for on nearly every conventional condo loan. This is what it is, why it matters more than it used to, and how to answer it without killing the deal.

What Form 1076 Is (and Isn't)

Form 1076 is the standard Condominium Project Questionnaire — Full Form, jointly developed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (Freddie's counterpart is Form 476). The header on the current form reads "March 2016 (addendum added December 2021)" (Fannie Mae Form 1076). Its purpose, per the Selling Guide, is to help lenders "collect data to determine condo project eligibility" (Fannie Mae Selling Guide B4-2.1-01, General Information on Project Standards).

Technically, using Form 1076 is optional: "This form is optional; however, lenders are encouraged to use and retain the form in the loan file. A substantially similar form may also be used in its place" (Fannie Mae Selling Guide B4-2.1-01). In practice, almost every large lender uses it or a near-identical clone — inventing your own questionnaire only slows the process.

The form has an explicit two-party structure. The lender completes the top table and enters a return-by date. The HOA or management company answers the rest. The Spanish version of the same form makes the split just as clearly (Fannie Mae Form 1076, Spanish edition).

What the Form Actually Asks

The full form runs several pages. The sections that matter for board readiness:

• I. Basic project information — legal name, addresses, HOA tax ID, master association name, and a checklist for any of six red-flag features: hotel/motel/rental-pooling activity, deed or resale restrictions, manufactured homes, mandatory fee-based amenity memberships, non-incidental business income, and supportive or continuing care (Fannie Mae Form 1076).
• II. Project completion information — whether the project is 100% complete, phasing status, how many phases and units are planned, and whether HOA control has been turned over from the developer (Fannie Mae Form 1076).
• December 2021 addendum: deferred maintenance and special assessments — the newest and most disqualifying section. It asks whether an engineer's report exists, whether the project is structurally sound with sufficient remaining useful life, whether all repairs affecting safety, soundness, and structural integrity are complete, whether replacement reserves are allocated for all capital improvements, and whether reserves are sufficient to fund them (Fannie Mae Form 1076).
• Foreclosure liability — whether a lender that acquires a unit through foreclosure is responsible for delinquent common expense assessments (Fannie Mae Form 1076).

The 2021 addendum is why the form got teeth. Fannie's own FAQ states: "Effective Dec. 15, 2021, an addendum to Form 1076 helps capture this information. Use of Form 1076 is optional, however, lenders are responsible for obtaining documentation to support the review for deferred maintenance and special assessments if Form 1076 is not used" (Fannie Mae Project Standards Requirements FAQs). Translation: even if a lender uses a shorter questionnaire, they still owe Fannie the same answers — so they'll ask the same questions anyway.

Why Form 1077 (the Short Form) Is Dead

If a lender ever handed your board a Form 1077, that's an artifact from a different era. Fannie retired it: "We are also retiring Condominium Project Questionnaire – Short Form (Form 1077) as this form is not sufficient for lenders to determine eligibility under our new requirements" (Fannie Mae Selling Guide Announcement SEL-2021-11, December 15, 2021). The short form existed to support Limited and Streamlined Reviews. With Limited Review retired on August 3, 2026, even the historical use case is gone — everyone uses the full form now.

The Time-in-File Rules Boards Should Actually Care About

Here's a rule most boards never see: for projects going through Fannie's Project Eligibility Review Service (PERS), the questionnaire must be "completed within the past 180 days" (Fannie Mae Selling Guide B4-2.2-06, Project Eligibility Review Service). PERS is a niche path (mainly new construction and specific waivers), but the 180-day threshold sets a de facto shelf life that many lenders apply informally to regular Full Reviews too. A board that answers Form 1076 for one sale can typically reuse the same responses for other units in the building for a few months — beyond that, the details need refreshing.

For regular Full Reviews, the Guide doesn't set a hard expiration on the questionnaire, but lenders must document the file with an unexpired CPM certification (Fannie Mae Selling Guide, Full Review Process (08/05/2026)) — and CPM certifications rely on current Form 1076 answers. If your building's answers change (a new special assessment, new litigation, a new critical repair) the certification stops being reliable.

The Answers That Kill Deals

Certain answers on Form 1076 either make the project ineligible outright or trigger a much deeper investigation. Most of them map to the ineligibility list in Selling Guide B4-2.1-03 — the same list we walk through in what makes a condo non-warrantable and in the board's Full Review survival guide. The high-danger cells:

• Any "yes" in the Section I red-flag checklist (hotel-like activity, mandatory amenity memberships, non-incidental business income). Some of these are automatic ineligibility; all of them slow closings.
• More than 15% of units 60+ days past due on regular dues, or on any special assessment (Fannie Mae Selling Guide, Full Review Process).
• HOA is a party to litigation involving safety, structural soundness, habitability, or functional use — unless it falls into the minor-litigation carve-outs (Fannie Mae Selling Guide B4-2.1-03).
• Deferred maintenance addendum answers indicating unaddressed critical repairs, unsound structure, or unfunded reserves for known capital work — these are ineligibility triggers under B4-2.1-03.
• Any special assessment tied to an unremediated critical repair. That combination is expressly ineligible (Fannie Mae Selling Guide B4-2.1-03).

The trap for boards: an honest but incomplete answer is often worse than a well-supported "yes." If you check "special assessment: yes" but don't attach the resolution and scope, the lender assumes the worst.

A Practical Playbook for Boards

1. Keep one master Form 1076 packet current. Refresh it whenever a special assessment, engineer's report, or new litigation matter is voted on. Attach: current budget, most recent reserve study, latest inspection report, insurance certificates, and special-assessment documentation.
2. Pre-answer the red flags. If the answer to any Section I checkbox is "yes," write the explanation before a lender asks. Continuing care, non-incidental income from a leased rooftop antenna, or a defunct rental-pooling clause in the CC&Rs are all fixable with narrative — silent "yes" boxes aren't.
3. Never leave the deferred-maintenance addendum blank. Even when the answer is a clean "all repairs complete, reserves sufficient," say so on the form with the current reserve study date. Missing sections read as red flags.
4. Refresh at least every 180 days. Match Fannie's PERS shelf life (Fannie Mae Selling Guide B4-2.2-06); it's a reasonable proxy for how long any answer stays credible.
5. Route requests through one authorized responder. Property managers routinely field ten Form 1076 requests a month. One point of contact, one saved template, one shared drive for supporting documents.

FAQ

Is Form 1076 required by law? No. Federal law doesn't mandate it. Fannie Mae calls it optional, but lenders are still required to gather the underlying information — so a "substantially similar form" is the practical alternative, not skipping the questions (Fannie Mae Selling Guide B4-2.1-01).

Can a board refuse to fill it out? They can, but they shouldn't. Any conventional loan on a unit in the building — purchase or refinance — depends on the answers. Refusing to complete the questionnaire is a fast route to Fannie's "Unavailable" status in Condo Project Manager. That's the same status buyers call the condo blacklist.

Does Freddie Mac use its own form? Yes — Form 476, which is functionally identical to Fannie's Form 1076 (Fannie Mae Form 1076). Freddie's own guidance also references Forms 1076/1077 as the standardized GSE questionnaires (Fannie Mae, Lenders Identify Risks and Opportunities for Condo Lending).

What about the 15% reserve rule that starts January 4, 2027? Form 1076's reserve questions will still ask whether reserves are sufficient to fund the study — but the underlying eligibility threshold in the Selling Guide changes to 15% of budgeted assessment income. Boards should be running the new math in this year's budget, because next year's answers on Form 1076 will be scored against it.

Want to know whether your building would pass the questions on Form 1076 today, before a lender asks? Run a free CondoScores readiness check — it walks through the same delinquency, reserve, deferred-maintenance, and litigation criteria the questionnaire covers.