The reason why I posed this question is because an acquaintance of mine was recently handed his share of a leaky condo repair bill that amounts to tens of thousands of dollars. He bought some three years ago and was not aware of any pending envelope issues, but the strata maintains that minutes going back over a decade contained references to engineering reports which hinted at the possibility of having to undergo leaky condo repairs if less costlier repairs done at the time of the report did not hold over the long term.
Problem is, those minutes were from the late 1990's and had not been provided to my acquaintance by the seller, his agent, or the strata council. In fact he was not even made aware of the engineering reports and the potential for future costly remediation.
This is a situation that I'm sure many condo buyers have found themselves in, partially because of the lack of access to older minutes and engineering reports, and partially because of a lot of strata council's agendas to push back costly repairs as far into the future as possible.
On most buildings I would recommend my client ask for 24 months of minutes. On 1990s buildings I would ask for the warranty/remediation package. On a 1990s buildings that have not had a remediation I would ask for all available engineering reports. If there is no engineering report available then you have to do a lot of investigating to do....this may including trying to get older minutes, talking to current and past care takers and or property managers, talking to the strata council members, etc.
Secondly, hire an inspector that will conduct moisture measurements throughout the unit on all exterior walls.