The common areas – or common elements – of a condo are defined in the corporation’s documents. Each condo is different and you need to take a look at the legal descriptions of a condo unit to define them.
Condo corporations in Ontario each have a declaration and a description as part of their legal documents and each owner should have a copy of these papers. The description will tell you the boundaries of the units.
Any part of the condo property that is not part of the units must be part of the common elements. There are two types of common elements… items like hallways, lobby, exercise room, pool are regular common elements and items like balconies, back yards just outside your townhouse‘s sliding glass door are exclusive common elements because ONLY you have access and usage of them. Sometimes lockers are included in the exclusive use category if they are not deeded.
In most cases, driveways and yards in condo developments are part of the common elements. But that doesn’t mean that your neighbour can park in your driveway and the children down the street can walk across your backyard whenever they please.
When looking at your corporation’s documents you will likely find that these particular parts of the common elements are described in the declaration as “exclusive-use” common elements. That means they are to be used by particular owners, not by all owners.
Exclusive-use common elements such as driveways and yards are like a middle ground between units and common areas. While they are for the use of particular owners, their appearance and repair are governed by the condo corporation. This preserves community standards and helps maintain property values in a condo complex.
Under the old Condominium Act the boundaries of units must be defined by reference to a building, and so all condos had to have buildings to be considered condos.
Under the new act, other types of condos will be allowed. Units will be defined by reference to buildings or other landmarks, which will clear the way for what are called bare land or vacant land condos and condos made up only of common elements.
In the first case, the units will be parcels of land within a condo corporation and owners will build their own homes on these parcels of land. The structures would be subject to restriction in the condo‘s declaration. For example, this would make it possible for a mobile home community to be a condo.
In the second, a condo corporation would have common elements only, but no units. Homes built in this type of community would be freehold, but roads, sewers, and recreational facilities could be common areas.
As these new types of condo development take hold in Ontario, it will become even more important for buyers to review a condo‘s documents to truly understand what they are buying and for owners to sort out what is part of a unit and what is part of the common elements.
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