| A condominium, or condo for short, is a form of housing tenure. It is the legal term used in the United States and in most provinces of Canada for a type of joint ownership of real property in which portions of the property are commonly owned and other portions are individually owned. In Australia and the Canadian province of British Columbia , the legal term for this is known as strata title.
In Québec, it is known as syndicates of co-ownership. Colloquially, the term "condo" is often used to refer to the apartment unit itself in place of the term "apartment". This clearly signifies ownership of the property.
| Often, it consists of units in a multi-unit dwelling (i.e., an apartment or a development) where the unit is individually owned and the common areas like hallways and recreational facilities are jointly owned by all the unit owners in the building. It is possible, however, for condominiums to consist of single family dwellings: so-called "detached condominiums" where homeowners do not maintain the exteriors of the dwellings, yards, etc. or "site condominiums" where the owner has more control over the exterior appearance. These structures are preferred by some planned neighborhoods and gated communities. |
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A homeowners association, consisting of all the members, manages the common areas usually through a board of directors elected by the members. The same concept exists under different names depending on the jurisdiction, such as "unit title", "sectional title", "commonhold," "strata council," or "tenant-owner's association", "body corporate" or "condominium association." Another variation of this concept is the "time share". Condominiums may be found in both civil law and common law legal systems as it is purely a creation of statute.
The rules for condominium government or management are established in a document commonly called a declaration of condominium. The owners and occupiers of condominiums are subject to rules in the declaration of condominium or created by the condominium association, such as paying required monthly fees for maintaining the property's common areas. Condominiums are commonly owned in fee simple title, but can be owned in ways other real estate can be owned, such as title held in trust. Owners can typically rent their condominiums to other people to occupy as tenants, similar to renting out other real estate.
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