THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, January 21, 1995 TAG: 9501190273
SECTION: REAL ESTATE WEEKLY PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Common Ground
SOURCE: G. Robert Kirkland and Michael A. Inman
LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines
I bought a unit in a high-rise condominium. We have six different size units. The units are assessed a condo fee according to size. How does the council of co-owners arrive at the percentage to be used in sharing the operating and maintenance costs for the common areas? When each co-owner has access to all the common areas, why is one co-owner being charged more than the other? What can the co-owners do to change this unfair percentage?
You have asked us three questions, the first of which is not entirely clear. However, we will assume that you mean to ask why the developer picked the percentages set forth in your master deed, a copy of which you sent to us.
It is shown that there are six types of unit, identified by letters. A type A unit pays 0.41 percent, and a type F, presumably the largest unit, pays 1.33 percent. The developer drafted the documents and recorded them prior to the creation of the council of co-owners.
You ask why one unit would be charged more than another. There are a couple of bases for utilizing this method. The developer may have expected that the smaller units would be occupied by only one or two people; whereas the larger units would be occupied by three or four people, and would, therefore, have the opportunity to use the common areas (such as elevators, swimming pool, parking facilities) at two or three times greater frequency than the occupants of the smaller units.
Also, it is not uncommon for developers to anticipate that larger units will consume more exterior wall space, window area and/or roof area - all involving more common expenses for maintenance than a smaller unit. On these bases alone it would seem to justify the variance in maintenance cost.
On the other hand, if a census shows that most units are occupied by one or two persons, regardless of size, then perhaps there is cause for reconsideration of the method of assessment. If you wish to pursue this, we think you would need to do some research on the level of occupancy of various units in order to determine whether the larger units are using the common areas three times the amount of the smaller units.
Your third question has to do with changing what you consider an unfair percentage. In order to change the percentage, you must amend the master deed. To do this, you have to obtain the consent of 100 percent of the owners. That is generally very difficult.
Naturally, you are going to run into some serious resistance from the owners of the smaller units who are paying less money than the larger units. Your condo seems to have been created under the Horizontal Property Act, which is the predecessor to the Virginia Condominium Act, the latter having more provisions covering a wide variety of topics.
The condo act requires 100 percent of owners to consent to a change involving the method of assessments, and the Horizontal Property Act is subject to the Condominium Act. Therefore, you will need the consent of all owners in order to make the change. MEMO: G. Robert Kirkland, president of a Virginia Beach property management
consulting firm, and attorney Michael A. Inman specialize in Virginia
community association issues and are affiliated with the Southeastern
Virginia chapter of the Community Associations Institute. Send comments
and questions to them at Real Estate Weekly, 150 W. Brambleton Ave.,
Norfolk, Va. 23510. To submit questions by phone, call 446-2033; fax:
446-2531. by CNB