What You Need To Know About Condominiums

Condominiums or condo is a term used in the United States and most provinces in Canada. Condos are more complicated than buying and living in a single family home. You must understand what it is you are purchasing and whether the lifestyle will suit you and your family.

In this paper, I will attempt to help you understand what it is you are purchasing when you say you are buying a condo and proffer some advice on what you need to know about condos in a Q&A format. It is imperative that after giving you this information, you still consult your lawyer to discuss the documents and any conditions that might affect your lifestyle since the documents are usually prepared by the developer's lawyer.

1) What is a condominium?

A condominium is unlike an apartment. The difference between the two is purely legal.

A condominium combines the legal concepts of single ownership and tenancy in common, whereas an apartment only utilzes the concept of single ownership.

The concept of single ownership affords the owner of a piece of property the bundle of rights that go with real property interests. The bundle of rights are the right to use the property, the right to possess the property, the right to exclude all others from the property and the right to sell the property.

The concept of tenancy in common says that two or more persons hold an "undivided interest" in a property but all have an equal right to use the property. In one case it was held that a tenant in common unlike a joint tenancy have no right of survivorship and hold their property in undivided shares. "No right of survivorship" means that if one of the tenants in common dies, each interest may be separately sold, mortgaged or willed to another. This is distinguishable from a joint tenancy interest which has a "right of survivorship" and each interest passes automatically to the survivor.

Based on the foregoing analysis, it follows that a condo ownership has a dual nature; a condominium unit owner has ownership of his or her unit and, shares jointly with other unit owners, the ownership of the common areas, whereas an apartment owner has ownership of only his or her unit e.g. in a condo the sauna, swimming pool, gym, stairway, gardens, car park are common areas owned jointly, whereas in an apartment, these areas would be part of the apartment and the responsibility for managing these areas are not for the apartment owners.

2) What are the rules on condominiums?

Currently, there are no dedicated condominium laws governing the ownership of both residential and non-residential condominiums in Ghana, the condominium bill is the closest we have come to obtaining a condominium law but I...