2019 US Virgin Islands Code
Title 28 - Property
Chapter 33 - Condominium Act
§ 901. Definitions
- As used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires:
(a) “Apartment” or “condominium unit” means a part of the property intended for any type of independent use, including one or more rooms or enclosed spaces located on one or more floors (or part or parts thereof) in a building and with a direct exit to a public street or highway or to a common area leading to such street or highway.
(b) “Apartment owner” means the person owning, or the persons owning jointly or in common, an apartment and the common interest appertaining thereto; Provided, That to such extent and for such purposes, including the exercise of voting rights, as shall be provided by lease filed with the board of directors, a lessee of an apartment shall be deemed to be the owner thereof.
(c) “Apartment number” means the number, letter, or combination thereof, designating the apartment in the declaration.
(d) “Association of apartment owners” means all of the apartment owners acting as a group in accordance with the bylaws and declaration.
(e) “Building” means a building or group of buildings having a total of five or more apartments, and comprising a part of the property.
(f) “Common areas and facilities”, unless otherwise provided in the declaration or lawful amendments thereto, means and includes:
(1) the land on which the building is located, whether leased or in fee simple.
(2) the foundations, columns, girders, beams, supports, main walls, roofs, halls, corridors, lobbies, stairs, stairways, fire escapes, and entrances and exits of the buildings;
(3) the basements, yards, gardens, parking and areas and storage spaces;
(4) the premises for the lodging of janitors or persons in charge of the property;
(5) installations of central services such as power, light, gas, water collection, storage and distribution system, hot and cold water, refrigeration, air conditioning and incinerating;
(6) the elevators, tanks, pumps, motors, fans, compressors, ducts and in general all apparatus and installations existing for common use;
(7) such community and commercial facilities as may be provided for in the declaration; and
(8) all other parts of the property necessary or convenient to its existence, maintenance and safety, or normally in common use.
(g) “Common expenses” means and includes:
(1) all sums lawfully assessed against the apartment owners by the Association of Apartment Owners;
(2) expenses of administration, maintenance, repair or replacement of the common areas and facilities;
(3) expenses agreed upon as common expenses by the Association of Apartment Owners;
(4) expenses declared common expenses by provisions of this chapter, or by the declaration or the bylaws.
(h) “Common profits” means the balance of all income, rents, profits and revenues from the common areas and facilities remaining after the deductions of the common expenses.
(i) “Condominium” means real property within given bounds with separate ownership of individual units thereon and with all the unit owners owning, as tenants in common, an interest in common areas.
(j) “Declaration” means the instrument by which the property is submitted to the provisions of this chapter, as hereinafter provided, and such declaration as from time to time may be lawfully amended.
(k) “Limited common areas and facilities” means and includes those common areas and facilities designated in the declaration as reserved for use of certain apartment or apartments to the exclusion of the other apartments.
(l) “Majority” or “majority of apartment owners” means the apartment owners with 51 percent or more of the votes in accordance with percentages assigned in the declaration to the apartments for voting purposes.
(m) “Person” means individual, corporation, partnership, association, trustee or other legal entity.
(n) “Property” means and includes the land, the building, all improvements and structures thereon, whether leasehold or in fee simple, and all easements, rights, and appurtenances belonging thereto, and all articles of personal property intended for use in connection therewith, which have been or are intended to be submitted to the provisions of this chapter.
