Chapter 4 - § 4.2 • UNIT BOUNDARIES

• Jurisdiction: Colorado

§ 4.2 • UNIT BOUNDARIES

A declaration is required to contain a description of the boundaries of each unit created in a condominium or planned community.⁹ The term "boundary" is not defined by the CCIOA, but one Colorado court has followed the Black's Law Dictionary definition: a boundary is "a separation that delineates the confines of real property."¹⁰ The description of the boundaries may be by a plat or map and must include the unit's identifying number. For a cooperative, a declaration must include a description, which may be by plat or map, of each unit created by the declaration. The description must include the unit's identifying number, its size or number of rooms, and its location within a building if it is within a building containing more than one unit.¹¹ These requirements are substantially similar to those in the Uniform Act — except that the latter does not refer to a "plat or map." A commentary notes that the phrase "created by the declaration" is used in both the Uniform Act and the CCIOA to refer to condominium, cooperative, and planned community units, which means that in an expandable project, new units may be created in the future by amendments to the declaration, but that until they are actually added they are not units, as that term is defined, and need not be described.¹²

The CCIOA provides, by statute,¹³ a very specific description of unit boundaries that is applicable unless the declaration provides otherwise.¹⁴ The CCIOA statute states that if walls, floors, or ceilings are designated as boundaries, "all lath, furring, wallboard, plasterboard, plaster, paneling, tiles, wallpaper, paint, and finished flooring and any other materials constituting any part of the finished surfaces thereof are a part of the unit, and all other portions of the walls, floors, or ceilings are a part of the common elements."¹⁵ Where chutes, flues, ducts, wires, conduit, bearing walls, bearing columns, or other fixtures lie partially within and partially outside the designated boundaries of a unit, the portion serving only that unit is designated a limited common element allocated solely to that unit, and any portion serving more than one unit or any portion of the common elements is a part of the common elements.¹⁶ Subject to that requirement, all spaces, interior partitions, and other fixtures and improvements within the boundaries of a unit are a part of the unit.¹⁷ Finally, shutters, awnings, window boxes, doorsteps, stoops, porches, balconies...