In Australia and BC, Canada we call them stratas. Other jurisdictions call them condominiums. The HOA or condominium association is a corporation composed of all the owners of the suites, with each suite having a single vote on electing the HOA council members, HOA bylaw changes and on Special Assessments. Common areas including the grounds and other shared spaces are shared ownership and use through the corporation.
Monthly HOA maintenance fees and Special Assessment costs for each suite are determined by the percentage of the building that the suite occupies. a relatively small (say 700 square feet) one bedroom suites’ monthly fees or mandatory Special Assessment contribution is a quarter of a 3 bedroom 2800 square foot suite.
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As someone in both an HOA and a condo association, this is how it works in the US as well. The members of the association own the building/structure in common. Where common area begins is dictated by local law and the condo docs/declaration. My condo has common area that begins just below the drywall—anything in the walls isn’t owned by me. I have friends in associations where common area is everything that doesn’t service your unit directly, like building plumbing that just runs past your unit, while you’re responsible for pipes that branch off to run to your sink.
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We aren’t plagued with HOAs, thank goodness. Stratas are governed by fairly strong provincial legislation. Some stratas are great and some that I’ve lived in are the proverbial shit show.
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Unfortunately, for the owners, their sunk-cost is still, physically, sinking. 
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No, even if the County or State reviewers miss something, it is still the responsibility of the developers-designers- general contractor.
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Questions in this vein get asked in almost all construction disputes (I am an engineer and regularly serve as an expert in such disputes). Most commonly there’s a variation on “Didn’t the city inspect it during construction? They should’ve caught this problem!” This question and yours assumes a level of involvement orders of magnitude deeper than actually occurs, even in very well funded jurisdictions. The level of complexity in a modern building, even a relatively small one, is mind boggling. The number of hours of time for a huge team of professionals that is involved in the design process beggars belief.
The concept that the local planning/permits department would independently verify any aspects of the design that require actual engineering is simply not realistic. The staff involved likely don’t have the expertise and they certainly don’t have the time/bandwidth. This is why licensed professionals are required to be involved, because a deep amount of trust is placed in them. Usually that trust is warranted. This time 
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I thought the structural engineer was Bonanno Pisano.
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An HOA payment for nothing done wrong of the LANDHOLDER’S part. Wow.
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