staggered townhomes & deck attachments

[John Dirks Jr]

Have you ever found deck ledger boards attached to adjoining properties? For instance, on the rear of staggered town homes. Consider a ledger bolted across the back as normal, and another bolted to the side staggered portion of the neighbors.

What could be the situations or problems around these arrangements?

I had a person call me about this and I didn't know quite what to say. I told them I couldn't really comment with accuracy without actually seeing the setup. I mentioned that it could be a free standing deck not not actually attached to the house at the side.

[Richard Moore]

John, are we talking about someone adding a single deck to an existing row of townhouses, or is this a "newer" condo-type construction and all the units came with similar decks? If the latter, and they were installed properly (flashing, etc), I don't see any particular issues. It depends on how the HOA has it set up, but the exteriors are often common areas.

Did this person have a particular concern?

[Tom Corrigan]

The person who called you probably owns that portion of the wall.

The "property line" is usually in the center of the common wall. This is called the demising line. This means that the caller owns the wall.

Tom Corrigan

[John Dirks Jr]

The person was getting ready to put an offer in on a town home. He was looking at pictures and saw that the neighbors deck was against the staggered wall of the place he was considering.

He didn't mention a specific concern and I'm not sure of the exact arrangement. If he calls back and schedules, maybe I'll find out the details.

[hausdok]

Hi,

I'd always been told that the condo owner owns paint-to-paint and that, unless there is a specific agreement from day 1, the "common areas" - the exterior envelope, balconies, decks, exterior cladding, windows, roofs, foundation, crawlspaces and attics - were the purview of the HOA.

Demising wall or not, I'd say that, unless there's specific language in the rules for that condo, that he/she isn't entitled to object to anything that the HOA does on the exterior unless it violates those specific rules that apply to the "common" areas.

What's been the experience/education of the other brethren?

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[Tom Corrigan]

Mike,

Reread the first post. The question was about a townhouse.

Don't confuse a type of ownership with a type of building. There are single family detached buildings that are part of a condo association. A townhouse can be a condo, or maybe not.

Tom Corrigan

[kurt]

Originally posted by hausdok

Hi,

What's been the experience/education of the other brethren?

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

That all the condo documents are scrambled, it's not always clear where the lines fall, or if there are lines, if there is justice in the parting out of responsibilities, action not necessarily being taken regardless of responsibilities, and sometimes having to chase drunkards and nutmeg dealers through civil courts in desperate attempts to gain satisfaction of ones righteous claims for a decent and orderly abode.

Whew..........

Depends on the condo documents. They can be surprisingly different. Or not. There can be single little specific weirdness'es buried within pages of the most generic and simpleton pap.

I know this......... You want to read those documents really carefully if you're buying a condominum.

[Richard Moore]

Originally posted by Tom Corrigan

Mike,

Reread the first post. The question was about a townhouse.

Don't confuse a type of ownership with a type of building. There are single family detached buildings that are part of a condo association. A townhouse can be a condo, or maybe not.

Tom Corrigan

I think it's a safe bet that Mike is aware of that. Townhouses are a fairly recent phenomenon around here. I can’t think of any area of the city that has the row-houses you might find back east or the stately townhouses (townhomes?) of Washington, DC. I think it’s safe to say that every townhouse I’ve ever inspected has essentially been a condominium with many common areas. I have never seen a new roof over a single unit or fresh paint on less than a block at a time. John’s description of “staggeredâ€

[hausdok]

Originally posted by Tom Corrigan

Mike,

Reread the first post. The question was about a townhouse.

Don't confuse a type of ownership with a type of building. There are single family detached buildings that are part of a condo association. A townhouse can be a condo, or maybe not.

Tom Corrigan

Yes, I know that; but it sounds like this townhouse is an attached type where they share a marriage wall between units and, being staggered, the exterior side wall of this person's house extends beyond the back wall of the unit next to it and one side of the deck is attached to that wall. That's not unusual, I've seen it dozens of times on attached townhomes here. It still depends on the rules that they live under and most of the time those rules here apply to the exterior - even with detached townhouses.

You'd probably not like it here where neighborhoods of detached homes - not condos - have HOA's and CCRs that regulate how some homeowners can remodel their home, what kind of roofing materials they must use, etc..

It's all stuff that they agree to when they purchase their homes. The person that called John probably just needs to pull out his or her copy of the paperwork that was signed at purchase and read it to find the answer.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike