A condominium declaration is the recorded legal document that creates a condominium and functions as its constitution: it defines every unit’s boundaries, establishes shared ownership of the common areas, sets the rules all owners must follow, and gives the owners’ association the power to enforce them. Because it is recorded in the county land records and “runs with the land,” buying a unit means accepting everything in the declaration, whether you read it before closing or not.
The practical consequence: the declaration decides what you own, what you share, what you pay, what you can do inside your unit, and what happens if you don’t pay or don’t comply. It outranks the bylaws and board rules, and it can only be changed by a supermajority vote of the owners.
What the Declaration Defines About Your Unit
Every declaration opens with a legal description of the property, usually paired with a survey, plat maps, and graphic depictions of each building. Without that recorded description, the condominium does not legally exist as a distinct form of ownership.
From there, the declaration draws the line between what each owner owns individually and what everyone owns together. In most condominiums, you own the interior airspace of your unit, measured from the interior surfaces of the walls, floors, and ceilings. Everything outside those surfaces belongs to the community. That line matters more than most buyers realize. A dispute over whether a leaking pipe is “yours” or “the building’s” is almost always resolved by looking at how the declaration drew the boundary.
Common Elements and Limited Common Elements
Common elements are the shared portions of the property: the structural components, roof, hallways, elevators, lobby, recreational facilities, and the land itself. Every owner holds an undivided interest in them. No one owner can claim a specific stretch of the lobby.
Limited common elements sit in between. These are shared areas reserved for the exclusive use of one or a few units. Assigned parking spaces, storage lockers, balconies, and patios are the usual examples. The association still owns and maintains them, but only the designated unit gets to use them.
Your Percentage Interest
Each unit receives a percentage interest, sometimes called an ownership share. That single number drives three things that hit your wallet: your share of monthly assessments, your voting power in association decisions, and your proportional share of any insurance or sale proceeds if the building is destroyed and not rebuilt. The percentages across all units must add up to exactly 100%. The formula is usually based on unit size, though some declarations use equal shares or factor in floor and location.
What You’ll Pay: Assessments, Liens, and Reserves
The declaration creates the unit owners’ association and grants it authority to manage the property, maintain common areas, buy insurance, enforce rules, and collect the money to pay for it. That money comes from assessments.
Regular assessments fund the operating budget and are calculated using each unit’s percentage interest. The declaration also authorizes special assessments for unexpected repairs or capital projects that exceed what the operating budget covers. A new roof, an elevator replacement, or an uninsured loss can produce a special assessment amounting to thousands of dollars per unit with little warning.
Not paying is serious. In every state, the association can record a lien against a delinquent owner’s unit, and if the balance stays unpaid, it can foreclose and force a sale. This power exists even when the owner is current on the mortgage, and it catches many owners off guard.
Reserves sit alongside regular assessments. The declaration typically authorizes the association to collect reserve funds for long-term capital expenses like roof replacement, elevator modernization, and repaving. How aggressively reserves are funded depends on the declaration, state law, and board decisions. Underfunded reserves are the usual source of surprise special assessments, which is why buyers should ask for recent reserve studies alongside the declaration itself.
Rules That Govern How You Live in the Unit
A large portion of the declaration consists of covenants, conditions, and restrictions, commonly called CC&Rs. They are legally enforceable and bind every owner.
Use Restrictions
These address daily living. Declarations frequently limit pets by number, size, or breed. Many prohibit or cap rentals, particularly short-term vacation rentals, to maintain an owner-occupied community. Home-based businesses that generate foot traffic or noise are often restricted as well.
Architectural and Aesthetic Controls
Declarations often dictate what is visible from outside the unit: acceptable paint colors, approved window treatments, how long holiday decorations can stay up, and what can be placed on balconies. Any renovation that touches the building’s exterior or structural components usually requires advance approval from an architectural review committee established in the declaration.
Nuisance Provisions
Noise, odors, and trash disposal fall under nuisance provisions. The standard is usually whether conduct “unreasonably disturbs” other residents. The declaration gives the association authority to fine violators and, in persistent cases, seek a court order to stop the behavior.
Where Federal Law Overrides the Declaration
Declaration restrictions are not absolute. Federal law preempts certain association rules, and owners who don’t know this sometimes comply with restrictions they could legally challenge.
The Fair Housing Act prohibits condominium associations from discriminating in the sale, rental, or terms of housing based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, familial status, or disability.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. United States Code Title 42 – 3604 Two collisions with declarations come up most often:
- Assistance animals. Even when a declaration flatly bans pets, the association must allow assistance animals as a reasonable accommodation for residents with disabilities. The association cannot charge a pet deposit or fee for an assistance animal and cannot impose breed or weight restrictions on one.2U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Fact Sheet on HUD’s Assistance Animals Notice
- Familial status. A declaration cannot prohibit families with children from purchasing or occupying units unless the community qualifies as housing for older persons under the Act’s narrow 55-and-older exemption.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. United States Code Title 42 – 3604
The Act also requires associations to allow reasonable modifications to a unit’s interior when a disabled resident needs them for full enjoyment of the property, even if the declaration would otherwise prohibit the alteration.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. United States Code Title 42 – 3604
Federal regulations also protect satellite dishes. An association cannot impair the installation or use of a satellite dish one meter or smaller on property within a resident’s exclusive use or control.3eCFR. Code of Federal Regulations Title 47 – 1.4000 For condo owners, that means your balcony, patio, or any other limited common element assigned to your unit. The rule also bars most prior-approval requirements before installation.4Federal Communications Commission. Installing Consumer-Owned Antennas and Satellite Dishes Associations can still restrict installations on true common elements like the roof or exterior walls.
How Insurance Splits Between the Association and You
The declaration divides insurance obligations between the association and individual owners, and misunderstanding this split can leave you massively underinsured after a loss.
The association carries a master policy, funded through assessments, that covers the building’s structure and common areas. Individual owners need their own policy, often an HO-6, to cover personal property, liability inside the unit, and any interior components the master policy excludes.
The critical detail is where the master coverage ends and yours begins. Some declarations use a “bare walls” approach: the master policy covers the structure up to and including the drywall, and everything inside (flooring, cabinets, plumbing fixtures, appliances) falls on the owner. Others use a “walls-in” or “all-in” approach, where the master policy covers the building’s original interior finishes as well. Either way, upgrades beyond the original specifications are the owner’s responsibility.
Deductibles matter too. Master policy deductibles commonly range from $2,500 to $25,000, and when a loss originates in one unit but affects common areas or neighbors, who absorbs that deductible depends entirely on what the declaration says. Read this section before closing.
How the Declaration Ranks Against Other Governing Documents
A condominium is governed by several overlapping documents, and they follow a strict hierarchy when they conflict.
- Federal and state law. Always supreme. A declaration provision that violates the Fair Housing Act, FCC rules, or state condominium statutes is unenforceable regardless of what it says.
- The declaration (CC&Rs). The highest-ranking document the community creates. It controls over everything below it.
- Articles of incorporation. Establish the association as a legal entity; if they conflict with the declaration, the declaration wins.
- Bylaws. Govern internal operations such as board elections, meeting procedures, and officer duties. Bylaws cannot contradict the declaration.
- Rules and regulations. Day-to-day operating rules adopted by the board. These sit at the bottom and must conform to everything above them.
When a board passes a rule that contradicts the declaration, the declaration controls. When the declaration contradicts state law, the statute controls. Owners who think a rule is invalid should trace it up this ladder.
How a Declaration Gets Changed
The declaration can be amended, but deliberately not easily. The board alone cannot do it. Amendments require a vote of the unit owners, and the threshold is almost always a supermajority: most commonly 67% to 75% of all owners, not just those who show up. Some declarations set the bar higher, occasionally requiring 80% or unanimous consent for fundamental changes like unit boundaries or percentage interest allocations.
Once approved, the amendment must be recorded in the county land records to take effect. Recording is what makes the change binding on future purchasers who would otherwise have no way of knowing about it. Amendments that affect lender interests, such as changes to insurance requirements or assessment priorities, may also need mortgage lender consent. This is one reason outdated declaration provisions often sit unchanged for decades.
How to Get the Declaration and What to Look For
Prospective buyers should obtain the declaration during the due diligence period before closing. A buyer’s agent typically requests it along with other governing documents from the seller or the association as part of the disclosure package. The association may charge a preparation fee that varies by jurisdiction.
Current owners can request a copy from the association or its management company. Because the declaration is a recorded public document, it is also available at the county recorder’s office where the property is located, though navigating land records without a document reference number takes patience.
When you read it, concentrate on the sections most likely to affect daily life and finances: pet and rental restrictions, the assessment formula, insurance responsibilities and deductible allocation, architectural approval requirements, and any special rights the developer has reserved if the project is new. The sections that feel dry on review are the ones that produce the most expensive surprises after closing.