2015 Connecticut General Statutes
Title 47 - Land and Land Titles
Chapter 825 - Condominium Act
Section 47-68a - Short title: Condominium Act of 1976. Definitions.

This chapter shall be known as the “Condominium Act of 1976”. As used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires:

(a) “Condominium” means real property and any incidents thereto and interests therein, lawfully submitted to this chapter by the recordation of condominium instruments pursuant to the provisions of this chapter.

(b) “Unit” means a part of the property including one or more rooms or designated spaces located on one or more floors or a part or parts thereof in a building, intended for any type of independent use, and with a direct exit to a public street or highway or to common elements leading to such street or highway.

(c) “Unit owner” means the person or persons owning a condominium unit or leasing a unit in a leasehold condominium, as hereinafter provided, and an undivided interest in the common elements specified and established in the declaration and the heirs, executors, administrators, successors and assigns of such person or persons, and a mortgagee or lienholder holding both legal and equitable title.

(d) “Condominium instruments” means the declarations, bylaws, survey maps and plans recorded and filed pursuant to the provisions of this chapter. Any exhibit, schedule, or certification accompanying a condominium instrument and recorded or filed simultaneously therewith shall be deemed an integral part of that condominium instrument. Any amendment or certification of any condominium instrument shall, from the time of the recordation or filing of such amendment or certification, be deemed an integral part of the affected condominium instrument, so long as such amendment or certification was made in accordance with the provisions of this chapter.

(e) “Common elements” means all portions of the condominium other than the units.

(f) “Recreation facilities” means that portion of the common elements intended for recreational, social and similar community use by the unit owners.

(g) “Limited common elements” means and includes those common elements designated in the declaration as reserved for the use of a certain unit or units to the exclusion of other units.

(h) “Common expenses” means and includes: (1) Expenses of administration, maintenance, repair or replacement of the common elements; (2) expenses declared common expenses by provisions of this chapter or by the condominium instruments; (3) expenses agreed upon as common expenses by the association of unit owners and lawfully assessed against the unit owners in accordance with the condominium instruments; (4) reasonable reserves established for the repair or replacement of capital improvements, or improvements with more than a single year life.

(i) “Common profits” means the balance of all income, rent, profits and revenues from the common elements remaining after the deduction of the common expenses.

(j) “Majority” or “majority of unit owners” means the owners of more than fifty per cent of the voting power in a condominium unit owners’ association. Any specified percentage of unit owners, unless otherwise stated, means such percentage in the aggregate of such voting power.

(k) “Person” means an individual, corporation, limited liability company, partnership, association, trustee or other entity capable of holding an interest in real property or any combination thereof.

(l) “Property” means and includes the land, all buildings, all improvements and structures thereon, and all easements, rights and appurtenances belonging thereto, which have been or are intended to be submitted to the provisions of this chapter.

(m) “Declarant” means the person or persons who execute the declaration or on whose behalf the declaration is executed. From the time of the recordation of any amendment to the declaration expanding an expandable condominium, all persons who execute such amendment or on whose behalf such amendment is executed shall also come within this definition. Any successors of the persons referred to in this subsection who acquire fee simple title to condominium units or title to leasehold condominium units and who come to stand in the same relation to the condominium as their predecessors or by whom rights of the declarant reserved in the condominium instruments which are different from other unit owners, other than rights to maintain model units and sales offices, have been exercised shall also come within this definition, except that each successor shall be responsible only for (1) prospective performance from the date a successor became a successor under covenants and agreements in the condominium and other instruments affecting the property which run with the land and which are recorded on the land records of the town within which the condominium is situated, and in accordance with the representations with regard to the construction and improvement of the condominium property in any public offering statement delivered to a purchaser as required by section 47-71b, (2) obligations expressly assumed, (3) warranties on the buildings and common elements, or the portions thereof, constructed by any successor after the date on which such successor became a successor, and (4) the acts and omissions of such successor, and any liability arising therefrom, from the date such successor became a successor. Notwithstanding the foregoing, no lending institution as a successor after acquisition of title to a condominium by foreclosure of a mortgage or acceptance of a deed in lieu thereof, shall be responsible for performance in accordance with any different representations in any public offering statement subsequent to the first public offering statement delivered to the first purchaser of a unit in the condominium unless written consent thereto of the lending institution shall be attached to each subsequent public offering statement, and if no such consent is attached, each subsequent public offering statement shall identify the different representations and state that if the lending institution becomes a successor it shall not be responsible for performance in accordance with such different representations. No declarant shall make any different representations in any public offering statement subsequent to the first public offering statement delivered to the first purchaser of a unit in the condominium with regard to the construction and improvement of the condominium property unless such construction and improvement has been completed prior thereto.

(n) “Unit number” means the number, letter, or combination thereof, designating the unit in the condominium instruments.

(o) “Association of unit owners” means all of the unit owners acting as a group in accordance with the condominium instruments.

(p) “Building” means a structure or structures containing one or more units and comprising a part of the property.

(q) “Improvements” means any construction on or in any land included in the condominium, including, but not limited to, roads, buildings, poles, wires, sewers, drains, clubhouses, swimming pools, tennis courts, man-made lakes, ponds and watercourses.

(r) “Purchaser” means any person or persons who acquire, or enter into a nonbinding reservation agreement, bond for deed or contract for the purchase of, a condominium unit, including any person or persons who acquire or enter into a contract for the right to occupy a nonresidential condominium unit as a lessee in exchange for an initial payment to the seller of greater than twice the periodical payments and periodical payments thereafter.

(s) “Board of directors” means an entity consisting of natural persons elected by the unit owners to direct the operation of the condominium.

(t) “Officer” means any member of the board of directors or official of the unit owner’s association.

(u) “Offer” means any inducement, solicitation or attempt to encourage any person or persons to acquire any legal or beneficial interest in a condominium.

(v) “Nonbinding reservation agreement” means an agreement between the declarant and a purchaser which is in no way binding on the purchaser and which may be cancelled without penalty at the sole discretion of the purchaser by written notice to the declarant or to any agent of the declarant at any time prior to the formation of a contract for sale of a condominium unit or an interest therein. Such agreement shall not contain any provision for waiver or any other provision in derogation of the rights of the purchaser as contemplated by this definition, nor shall any such provision be a part of any ancillary agreement.

(w) “Size” means the number of cubic feet, or the number of square feet of ground or floor space, within each unit as computed by reference to the survey and plans and rounded off to a whole number. Certain spaces within the units including, without limitation, attic, basement, and garage space may but need not be omitted from such calculation or partially discounted by the use of a ratio, so long as the same basis of calculation is employed for all similar units in the condominium, and so long as that basis is described in the declaration.

(x) “Conversion condominium” means a condominium containing structures which were wholly or partially occupied more than six months before the recording of the declaration by persons other than those holding a contract for the purchase of a unit therein.

(y) “Expandable condominium” means a condominium to which additional land may be added in accordance with the provisions of the declaration and of this chapter.

(z) “Warranty deed” includes a warranty deed, executor’s deed, administrator’s deed, committee deed, or a deed ordered by any court of competent jurisdiction.

(aa) “Nonresidential condominium” means property submitted to the provisions of this chapter which contain no residential units other than units occupied by superintendents, janitors and like maintenance personnel.

(bb) “Lessee” means a unit owner of an undivided interest in a leasehold on a fee which has been submitted to the provisions of this chapter.

(cc) “Leasehold condominium” means property submitted to the provisions of this chapter by the fee owner, whereby unit leases are issued for a period not less than fifty years and provided, in a residential leasehold condominium, such lease provides that the lessee shall have the option to purchase the fee simple title to the demised property during the term of the lease at a price stated or by a method stated for subsequent determination of the total price.

(P.A. 76-308, S. 1, 36; P.A. 77-453, S. 1, 7; P.A. 95-79, S. 169, 189.)

History: P.A. 77-453 redefined “declarant” to specify successors who “acquire fee simple to condominium units or title to leasehold condominium units”, to add exceptions, to add provision re responsibilities of lending institutions as successors and to add provision prohibiting declarant’s making different representations in public offering statements subsequent to first offering statement except as specified; P.A. 95-79 redefined “person” to include a limited liability company, effective May 31, 1995.

Cited. 177 C. 295; 196 C. 596; 212 C. 147.

Cited. 7 CA 496.