ABA Family Legal Guide

Home Ownership

Shared Ownership: Condos and Condominiums

Legal Rights and Restrictions

What else governs a common-interest community?

Federal and state laws govern common interest communities. In addition, each individual community is governed by its own declaration and articles of incorporation, a set of bylaws, and various rules, regulations, and decisions promulgated by the association board. Finally, given the extensive litigation over the authority of particular associations, various courts have interpreted statutes, rules, and regulations, often based on common-law (nonstatutory) principles.

A community association gains its authority from the legal documents that created it: the declaration, the articles of incorporation, and the bylaws. State statutes often back up that authority, whether in the statutes governing nonprofit corporations or the specific condominium or common-interest community act, or both. Broadly speaking, a community association may hold property, sue and be sued, receive gifts and bequests, make charitable contributions, make contracts, borrow or invest money, and assess unit owners for their share of the expense of maintaining and operating the community. Some state statutes grant even more far-reaching powers.