condominium declaration

Definition

The master legal document that transforms a building from a single property into individual units that can be separately owned. It's the legal spell that lets you own apartment 3B without owning the whole building.

Example Usage

The developer filed the condominium declaration with the county, officially converting the building into 24 separately sellable units.

Origin

Derived from modern condominium laws first widely adopted in the United States in the 1960s

Fun Fact

Florida passed the first modern condo law in the U.S. in 1963, unleashing a tidal wave of beachfront conversions.

Source: Property law and condominium governance terminology

Related Terms

Beginner

subdivide

The real estate developer's favorite verb: to slice a large parcel of land into smaller, more profitable chunks like a capitalist playing Minecraft. This process transforms Farmer Joe's 40-acre field into 'Meadowbrook Estates,' featuring 200 identical homes and exactly three approved paint colors. It's the magic by which empty land becomes cookie-cutter suburbs and developers become very, very wealthy.

🏠 Real Estate

Advanced

partition action

A lawsuit filed by a co-owner to force the sale or physical division of jointly owned property when owners cannot agree on management or disposition. It's the legal sledgehammer for splitting property when co-ownership goes toxic.

🏠 Real Estate

Beginner

assessment

The official determination of value or worth, whether it's property taxes, student performance, or your likelihood of success in a new role. Assessments are how institutions quantify the unquantifiable and then make important decisions based on those numbers. It's the bureaucratic art of turning subjective judgment into objective-looking reports.

🏠 Real Estate

Beginner

CMA

Comparative Market Analysis—a report comparing similar properties to determine a home's market value. It's like Zillow's estimate, except prepared by an actual human who might know what they're doing.

🏠 Real Estate

Intermediate

Escrow

A financial limbo where your money sits in someone else's account while everyone argues about who gets what. It's basically a trust exercise designed by lawyers who don't trust anyone.

🏠 Real Estate

Intermediate

metes and bounds

A property description system using distances (metes) and directions (bounds) to define boundaries, starting from a point of beginning and returning there. The most complicated way possible to say 'here's where your fence goes.'

🏠 Real Estate

Translate This Term

See “condominium declaration” in Corporate Speak, Gen-Z Slang, Pirate Speak, and more.

Try the Translator

Share This Term

Post on X Share on Facebook Share on LinkedIn

Discover a Term

Beginner

gullible

Word used to describe one who will fall for anything....