Legal Question in Construction Law in California

My condo's declaration mentions, "Nothing shall be done in any unit or in, on , or to the common area which will impair the structural integrity of any building or which would structurally change any building within the projects.". I simply added an extra wall to partition my condo on the bottom floor, does this count as "structurally changing the building"


Asked on 6/21/16, 12:07 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

The first thing to do is determine if "structural integrity" and/or "structurally change" are defined terms in the declaration. If so you have to see if your wall fits inside or outside the definition. If they are not defined, my opinion is that it would depend on whether the wall is load-bearing in any way. If it is a purely architectural wall, i.e. affecting only the appearance and utility of the space rather than the engineering of the building, that neither bears a load nor adds any load to the structure, it should not be considered a structural change. You may, however, find that other provisions of the declaration requires HOA approval of architectural changes. Declarations have to be read as a whole in order to properly interpret and understand them.

Read more
Answered on 6/21/16, 10:32 am


Related Questions & Answers

More Construction Law questions and answers in California