Connecticut General Statutes 47-70 – Declaration. Covenants, easements and liens on conveyances limited
(a) The declaration shall contain the following information:
Terms Used In Connecticut General Statutes 47-70
- Association of unit owners: means all of the unit owners acting as a group in accordance with the condominium instruments. See Connecticut General Statutes 47-68a
- Building: means a structure or structures containing one or more units and comprising a part of the property. See Connecticut General Statutes 47-68a
- Common elements: means all portions of the condominium other than the units. See Connecticut General Statutes 47-68a
- Common expenses: means and includes: (1) Expenses of administration, maintenance, repair or replacement of the common elements. See Connecticut General Statutes 47-68a
- Common profits: means the balance of all income, rent, profits and revenues from the common elements remaining after the deduction of the common expenses. See Connecticut General Statutes 47-68a
- 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. See Connecticut General Statutes 47-68a
- Condominium instruments: means the declarations, bylaws, survey maps and plans recorded and filed pursuant to the provisions of this chapter. See Connecticut General Statutes 47-68a
- Declarant: means the person or persons who execute the declaration or on whose behalf the declaration is executed. See Connecticut General Statutes 47-68a
- Expandable condominium: means a condominium to which additional land may be added in accordance with the provisions of the declaration and of this chapter. See Connecticut General Statutes 47-68a
- Fee simple: Absolute title to property with no limitations or restrictions regarding the person who may inherit it.
- 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. See Connecticut General Statutes 47-68a
- 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. See Connecticut General Statutes 47-68a
- 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. See Connecticut General Statutes 47-68a
- 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. See Connecticut General Statutes 47-68a
- 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. See Connecticut General Statutes 47-68a
- 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. See Connecticut General Statutes 47-68a
- Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
- Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
- 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. See Connecticut General Statutes 47-68a
(1) The name by which the condominium is to be identified, which name shall include the word “condominium” or be followed by the words, “a condominium”;
(2) A description of the land on which the buildings and improvements are, or are to be, located together with the title of and reference to a survey of such land prepared and certified substantially correct by a licensed surveyor or engineer and filed prior to or simultaneously with such declaration and the plans for the buildings and improvements constructed or to be constructed thereon, as more fully described in § 47-71;
(3) A description of each building constructed or to be constructed on the condominium property, or appurtenant to such property, stating for each such building the number of stories and basements, the number of units and the principal materials of which it is, or is to be, constructed;
(4) A general description of each unit, including its location, approximate area, and any other data necessary for its proper identification;
(5) A description of the common elements, together with a designation of those portions of the common elements that are limited common elements and the unit or units to which the use of each is restricted; or the method of determining to which unit or units the use of each is restricted;
(6) The percentage of undivided interest in the common elements appertaining to each unit and its owner and the method of apportioning the same, as provided in § 47-74. The total percentage of the undivided interests of all of the units shall equal one hundred;
(7) The percentages of common expenses and common profits appertaining to each unit and its owner, as provided in § 47-74;
(8) The name of the association of unit owners and whether or not it is incorporated, and the name of a person to receive service of process in the cases hereinafter provided;
(9) The bylaws of the association of unit owners;
(10) Any further details in connection with the property which the persons executing the declaration may deem desirable to set forth consistent with this chapter;
(11) The method by which the declaration may be amended, consistent with the provisions of this chapter;
(b) If the condominium is an expandable condominium the declaration shall also contain the following:
(1) The explicit reservation of an option to expand the condominium;
(2) A statement of any limitations on that option, including, without limitation, a statement as to whether the consent of any unit owners shall be required, and if so, a statement as to the method whereby such consent shall be ascertained; or a statement that there are no such limitations;
(3) A time limit, not exceeding seven years from the recording of the declaration, upon which the option to expand the condominium shall expire, together with a statement of the circumstances, if any, which will terminate that option prior to the expiration of the time limit so specified;
(4) A description of all land that may be added to the condominium, henceforth referred to as “additional land”;
(5) A statement as to whether, if any of the additional land may be added to the condominium, all of it or any particular portion of it must be added, and if not, a statement of any limitations as to the portions which may be added or a statement that there are no such limitations;
(6) A statement as to whether portions of the additional land may be added to the condominium at different times, together with any limitations fixing the boundaries of those portions or regulating the order in which they may be added to the condominium;
(7) A statement of any limitations as to the locations of any improvements that may be made on any portions of the additional land added to the condominium, or a statement that no assurances are made in that regard;
(8) A statement of the maximum number of units that may be created on the additional land. If portions of the additional land may be added to the condominium and the boundaries of those portions are fixed in accordance with subdivision (6) of this subsection, the declaration shall also state the maximum number of units that may be created on each such portion added to the condominium. If portions of the additional land may be added to the condominium and the boundaries of those portions are not fixed in accordance with subdivision (6) of this subsection, then the declaration shall also state the maximum number of units per acre that may be created on any such portion added to the condominium;
(9) A statement, with respect to the additional land and to any portion or portions thereof that may be added to the condominium of the maximum percentage of the aggregate land and floor area of all units that may be created thereon that may be occupied by units not restricted exclusively to residential use;
(10) A statement of the extent to which any structures erected on any portion of the additional land added to the condominium will be compatible with structures on the submitted land in terms of quality of construction, the principal materials to be used, and architectural style, or a statement that no assurances are made in those regards;
(11) A description of all other improvements that will be made on any portion of the additional land added to the condominium, or a statement that no assurances are made in that regard;
(12) The name of the condominium shall include “an expandable condominium”;
(13) If under this subsection (b) a statement that there are no limitations, no termination of rights, no assurances given, or no maximum amount of land is designated, there shall also appear on the first page of the condominium declaration following the title, but prior to any text the words in letters which are conspicuously larger than used in the text: “Warning this is an expandable condominium in which there is no assurance or limitation on (hereafter specify the reserved power).” The same words shall conspicuously appear on purchase agreements for units subject to this declaration immediately above the purchaser‘s signature.
(c) The declaration may include such covenants and restrictions concerning the use, occupancy and transfer of units as are permitted by law with reference to real property; provided, however, that the rule against perpetuities and the rule restricting unreasonable restraints on alienation shall not be applied to defeat any rights given by the condominium instruments or by this chapter.
(d) The property submitted to a condominium declaration pursuant to this chapter, other than a nonresidential condominium, shall be conveyed by the declarant to purchasers in fee simple absolute, subject only to covenants, easements and liens, limited as follows:
(1) Property reservation which land developers commonly convey or dedicate to local bodies, public or private utilities or other easements, for the purpose of bringing utilities to or through the condominium, access to or through the condominium, and drainage to, from, and through other land in the vicinity of the condominium, and drainage to, from and through other land in the vicinity of the condominium;
(2) Taxes and assessments imposed by any public body having authority to assess and tax property, or by a property owners’ association, which under law constitute liens before they are due and payable;
(3) Mutually beneficial property restrictions which would be enforceable by other owners in the subdivision or project of which the condominium is a part for more than five years after the first declaration in a planned project. Such restrictions shall not give declarant or any other person more power per unit owned than that which is proportionately equal to his fraction of the number of similar units planned or constructed in such subdivision or project, and the property shall not be subject to leasehold or reversionary interest.