TIERRA VERDE: A PROPOSED HIGH-RISE CONDOMINIUM

A condominium, frequently shortened as “condo”, is a form of housing tenure and other real property where a specified part of a piece of real estate (usually of an apartment house) is individually owned. Use of land access to common facilities in the piece such as hallways, heating system, elevators, and exterior areas are executed under legal rights associated with the individual ownership. These rights are controlled by the association of owners that jointly represent ownership of the whole piece. Scholars have traced the concept of selling part of a building to a first century Babylonian record. "Condominium" is a legal term used in the United States and in most provinces of Canada. In Australia, New Zealand, and the Canadian province of British Columbia, it is referred to as "strata title". In Quebec, the term "divided coproperty" (French: copropriété divisée) is used, although the colloquial name remains "condominium". In France, the equivalent is called copropriété (coownership), usually managed by the syndic. In Italy, the equivalent term is "Condominio" (not surprisingly, as "Condominium" comes from Latin). In Hispanic regions, the traditional term Propiedad horizontal is retained since the horizon in this case, signifies "defined". In South Africa, this form of ownership is called "sectional title". The term "condominium" identifies a form of ownership of real property. The property becomes a condominium simply by recording a Declaration which submits the real property to the Condominium Property Act. Submission of real property to the Condominium Property Act of the State in which it is located is the only way to create a condominium. Neither the type of building nor its structure or use has any bearing on whether it is a condominium. It is simply that the Declaration subjects the property to the Condominium Property Act. In most states, the statute is not referred to as the Condominium Property Act. It is referred to as the Horizontal Property Act. Condominiums are not a new concept. The form of ownership which is utilized for condominiums was used by the Romans as early as the 6th century B.C. In Europe, the concept has been available for many centuries. The concept has existed in South American countries for at least two centuries. Among the industrialized countries, the United States was the last to embrace the condominium concept. The first attempt in the United States or its territories to develop condominiums was the Horizontal Property Act of Puerto Rico, passed in 1948, utilizing a model statute developed by the Federal Housing Authority. After World War II, essentially the only type of commonly owned housing that was available to the general population was the cooperative. However, the cooperative had several major drawbacks, chief among them being the fact that the ownership in the cooperative entity could not generally be mortgaged, thereby precluding most of the available purchasers from purchasing shares in the cooperative. The form of ownership known as the condominium solved most of the major problems associated with the cooperative.