Editing Condominium (section)

{{Short description|Form of ownership of real property}}
{{About||a territory|Condominium (international law)|other uses|Condominium (disambiguation)|and|Condo (disambiguation)}}
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[[File:Blue building from above (65768p).jpg|thumb|[[Blue Condominium]] on the [[Lower East Side]] of [[Manhattan]]]]
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A '''condominium''' (or '''condo''' for short) is an ownership regime in which a [[building]] (or group of buildings) is divided into multiple units that are either each separately owned, or owned in common with exclusive rights of occupation by individual owners. These individual units are surrounded by [[common area]]s that are jointly owned and managed by the owners of the units. The term can be applied to the building or complex itself, and is sometimes applied to individual units. The term "condominium" is mostly used in the US and Canada, but similar arrangements are used in [[#By country|many other countries]] under different names.

Residential condominiums are frequently constructed as [[apartment]] buildings, referred as well as Horizontal Property.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Congress |first=United States |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nL8jAQAAMAAJ |title=Reports and Documents |date=1961 |pages=17 |language=en}}</ref> There are also [[rowhouse]] style condominiums, in which the units open directly to the outside and are not stacked. Alternatively, detached condominiums look like [[single-family detached home|single-family homes]], but the yards (gardens), building exteriors, and streets, as well as any recreational facilities (such as a pool, bowling alley, tennis courts, and golf course), are jointly owned and maintained by a [[community association]]. Many [[shopping mall]]s are commercial condominiums in which the individual retail and office spaces are owned by the businesses that occupy them, while the common areas of the mall are collectively owned by all the business entities that own the individual spaces.  

Unlike apartments, which are [[lease]]d by their [[leasehold estate|tenants]], in most systems condominium units are owned outright, and the owners of the individual units also collectively own the common areas of the property, such as the exterior of the building, roof, corridors/hallways, walkways, and laundry rooms, as well as common utilities and amenities, such as the [[HVAC]] system and elevators. In other property regimes, such as those in [[Hong Kong]] and [[Finland]], the entire buildings are owned in common with exclusive rights to occupy units assigned to the individual owners. The common areas, amenities, and utilities are managed collectively by the owners through their association, such as a [[homeowner association]] or its equivalent.

Scholars have traced the earliest known use of the condominium form of tenure to a document from first-century [[Babylon]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/02/nyregion/fighting-dog-owners-discourtesy-with-dna-in-brooklyn.html|title=Using DNA to Fight Dog Owners' Discourtesy in Brooklyn|first=Ginia|last=Bellafante|newspaper=The New York Times |date=July 30, 2015}}</ref> The word ''[[Wiktionary:condominium#Latin|condominium]]'' originated in [[Latin]].
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