Turning a Duplex into two separate condos or townhouses

[Kyle Pierce]

I have been working with a seller to purchase his duplex, however the only way I see it working is if I can purchase the duplex then convert it into two separate condos/townhouses. The duplex is in salt lake city. Does anyone have any experience with this? Does it just depend on the zoning? It is currently a legal duplex. Is this something I need to just call the county on? Is it as simple as going to an attorney and have him draft up some documents thats allows me to sell them individually?

Thanks!

[Jarod Hall]

If it is truly a legal duplex then it is mostly just a lawyer and a licensed surveyor. From my experience with SLC code, if apartments are allowed than condos are allowed. Double check at the planning desk at SLC to make sure. I haven't done an existing building conversion, but as far as the building code is concerned apartments and condos are built to the same standard. So unless there are currently code infractions you shouldn't have to do additional work. On the condo projects I have worked on the utilities are separated just like an apartment, i.e. gas and electric to each unit and everything else on a combined meter.

Here is a basic rundown of the process. The Surveyor would measure the property and draw the condo plat (basically the new property boundaries). Then the lawyer would take the plat and write the articles of organization, the declaration of condo, and the bylaws for the homeowners entity. All of that along with the proper city application forms get turned into the city. The city process to make this approval is going to be long. Probably at least 2 months. Because the property boundaries are changing there will need to be a 30 day public comment period. After all of that (assuming there are not legitimate reasons you can't do the condo plat) it is a couple of week process to get all of the city department signatures. Then it is off to the county and the state to have the plat recorded and get the HOA entity set up. All of that said it is probably going to be close to 10k+ and 3-4 months minimum to do the condo conversion.