Have you ever been confronted with a situation where an owner who owns two adjacent units wants to merge the units together, or a situation where two owners want to reallocate their unit boundaries? If so, Section 212 of CCIOA provides guidance with respect to this process if your declaration is silent.
Keep in mind that Section 212 only applies to post-CCIOA communities. Thus, if your particular community was created prior to July 1, 1992, you will need to rely solely on the association’s declaration for this process. However, if your community is a post-CCIOA community, you can take advantage of the below process.
Specifically, Section 212 authorizes the reallocation of unit boundaries as long as the pertinent owner(s) of the unit(s) submit an application to the board containing the following information:
- Evidence showing compliance with any applicable ordinances and local rules;
- The proposed reallocation does not violate terms of any document evidencing a security interest;
- Proposed reallocation of interests (i.e. interest in common area or allocation of assessments and votes);
- Proposed form of amendment for declaration and/or plat;
- Deposit against attorney fees and costs (as reasonably estimated by the board); and
- Such other information as may be requested by the board.
Assuming the owner/applicant has submitted all of the above information to the board, the board can review the submission and either approve or deny the request.
One important thing to remember with respect to the declaration amendment in this case, is that it falls under an exception to the owner approval requirement (Section 217(1)(a)(III)(C)) and does not require approval from owners in the community. Therefore, if the requesting owners and board approve the reallocation of boundaries, the declaration may be amended with no additional approvals.
Finally, Section 212 provides that any legal fees or costs incurred by the association in this process must be paid by the applicant(s).
For more information about the boundary reallocation process, please contact a Altitude Community Law attorney at: 303.432.9999.