Condo package deal question

[Account Closed]

I am pursuing a deal of 16 condos that are fully leased out in a condo community of 88 total condos. That is not the attractive part about this deal. What pulled me in is that it comes with land within the same community, large enough to build 20-30 condo units and sell. My question is: how do I find out if there are any restrictions when it comes to building on this land. I just want to make sure there are no surprises later when I am about to construct the condo units. Any advice is appreciated.

[Dion DePaoli]

Shaun this sounds like you are purchasing the remaining assets from the developer. In that case it would be presumable that the condos are a part of the condo project with their own set of deeds and the land is a separate deed as well. The post does not provide enough detail to understand what you are up against.

If not the land and condo's are not separate deeds, we would need a better idea how the deeds are structured since it is uncommon for a condo to include some parcel of land away from the location of the condo.

In general, you will want to pull the deeds and plat map and see what is what. Condo projects and units carry a deed restriction which will refer to the master deed or the CC&R a.k.a. "condo docs". So you sort of want to reform the land prior to restriction to start to make the story come to life.

Was the land split off to make the condo's from a larger parcel which then came under a master deed and then subsequent individual deeds for each condo where the end result looked something like:

Larger Parcel to 1/2 large parcel to Condo Project to Condo Unit, where the other 1/2 of large parcel remains unrestricted. If that happened the restrictions are separate from the land and you have a normal land development situation. They are just being sold together as a function of sale.

If they restricted the entire Larger Parcel and then built the Condo Project, so that the vacant land is covered with some form of restrictions as well, you will have to see what rights the developer retained within the CC&R to further develop the next phase of the project or to see what requirements you might have to meet in relation to build.

Or for some reason each condo owns some piece of land not adjacent (or perhaps it is, not in post) to the land which the condo resides. Again, this is not normal or typical.

The restrictions are not zoning restrictions or building approvals which is a separate matter with your city or county department. So you will want to also check what has been approved and what can be approved for the vacant land as a separate matter.

Again, its really tough to say what you have without a little more detail in your post. I will also recommend that you obtain an experienced RE attorney as sometimes these matters are difficult to understand and unwind.

Hope that helps.