HOAleader.com - Tip of the Week - April 28, 2012
Published: Fri, 04/20/12
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Do Commercial Condos Follow Residential Condo Laws?
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This week's tip answers an HOAleader.com reader's
intriguing question: "Virtually everything covered on
HOAleader.com relates to residential dwellings or
homeowners. Does all this information apply equally to
an office condo association where the owners are
running their own small businesses or does this situation
involve different principles?"
Let's start with some definitions. A residential condo
association typically contains only residential units.
However, condo associations that are primarily residential
may also be called "mixed use" because they also include
some units for commercial owners (and commercial can
encompass retail, restaurant, or office space). There are
also condo associations whose owners are exclusively
commercial entities.
The rules governing all of those condo associations are
dictated by state law. A law governing condo associations
could cover residential, commercial, and mixed-use condos,
or it could expressly state that it doesn't cover some
types of condo associations.
"For every condo in Florida--whether it's in a residential
or commercial association or a mixed-use community--
legislatively it's all the same," says Bill Worrall,
vice president of The Continental Group, which is based
in Hollywood, Fla., and manages 1,300 condominium and
homeowner associations totaling 310,000 residential units.
"They fall under the same statute, Chapter 718, and have
to have bylaws and boards, and everybody gets a vote."
Michael Chapnick, managing shareholder at Chapnick
Community Association Law PA in Delray Beach, Fla.,
concurs. "All are governed by Chapter 718 and their own
internal governing documents," he says. "The only legal
difference is that office condos aren't required to do
mandatory arbitration through the Florida Division of
Business and Professional Regulation to resolve disputes
between owners and the association."
Arizona and Massachusetts, however, operate slightly
differently. "Our condo law has a section on nonresidential
condos that changes the rules somewhat," says Robert Galvin,
a partner at Davis, Malm & D'Agostine PC in Boston who
specializes in representing condos and co-ops.
That's true in Arizona, too. "Commercial condos would be
subject to the Arizona condo act, which has provisions
saying if the condo association is nonresidential, this
provision would not apply, but everything else would apply,"
says Kristen L. Rosenbeck, a partner at the Mulcahy
Law Firm PC in Phoenix, who advises many commercial condo
associations. "Then you'd have to go to the
governing documents."
Those governing documents may also differ. Find out how,
and learn about typical tensions between residential and
commercial condo owners, in our new article,
Are Commercial Condos Different Than Residential Condos?
http://www.hoaleader.com/members/705.cfm
Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President
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HOA Board Communications: Three Things You Shouldn't Do Via Email
You've surely heard that it's important to be careful about which
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Here, an expert explains California's new anti-email law and
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Click here to read full article:
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