In the Beginning

Welcome to your source for condominiums in Connecticut.

Rather than just jumping into issues, let's start with some background.

Do you know that condominium documents in Connecticut have generations?

The current generation are created under the Connecticut Common Interest Ownership Act (“CIOA”)  which became effective on January 1, 1984.  Prior to that, condominiums were created under the Connecticut Condominium Act and before that, the Unit Ownership Act.  It seems reasonable that each newer law would replace the older, but that is not the case.  Both the Condominium Act and the Unit Ownership Act are still in existence and apply to the condominiums that were created under that law.

CIOA is codified in Chapter 828 of the Connecticut General Statutes.  The Condominium Act is in Chapter 825.  The Unit Ownership Act is not in the General Statutes, but still remains as applicable law.  If you would like to look at these laws, the Connecticut General Assembly site has links to all of the Statutes.

Connecticut CIOA is based on the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act.  The Uniform Act is the creation of the Uniform Law Commission.   Here is a direct quote from their website:
“Diversity of Thought, Uniformity of Law

The Uniform Law Commission provides states with non-partisan, well conceived, and well drafted legislation that brings clarity and stability to critical areas of state statutory law.”

The Commissioners review, compare, criticize and assemble the best and the worst of all state laws on a particular subject.  Then, they draft and redraft a new law with the best and eliminating the problems.  They provide a detailed commentary on the reasons for every section and what they were thinking.

So, why is the law called the “Common Interest Ownership Act” and not just “Condominiums?”  Because CIOA is a combination of three other acts, the Condominium Act, the Cooperative  Act and the Planned Community Act.  What do condominiums, cooperatives and planned communities have in common?  In each type of community, there is commonly owned property.  In a condominium, the owners own their own units and the rest of the property is owned by all of the owners as tenants in common.  In a planned community, the owners own their own units and the rest of the property is owned by the homeowner’s association.  In a cooperative, the home owners association owns the whole thing and the “unit owners” own a share of the association and are given a right to live in a private residence.

As a lawyer friend once said, the differences types of ownership are no more than a “flick of a pen” under the Common Interest Ownership Act.   The impacts of having one type of ownership over another could be profound.