Condominium Title Research: 7 Checks Beyond the Unit

A condominium deed is the shortest document in real estate. It conveys Unit 412 together with an undivided interest in the common elements, and it tells you almost nothing about what that means. Everything that actually defines the property is in two other recorded documents the deed merely references: the declaration, with every amendment, and the recorded plat or plans.

This note deliberately leaves assessment liens aside, since those have their own sequence in our guide to HOA lien title searches. What follows is the structural review, which is the part most often skipped.

What a unit actually consists of

Three components, and the third surprises people.

The unit as bounded by the recorded plans, which may run to the paint, to the studs, or to some plane a drawing defines. What is inside the boundary is the owner’s; what is outside is not.

An undivided interest in the common elements, expressed as a percentage or a fraction, which typically also sets the vote and the assessment share.

Limited common elements, which are common property assigned to the exclusive use of one unit: a parking space, a storage locker, a balcony, a rooftop terrace. These are frequently assigned by the declaration or by a separate instrument rather than described in the deed, which is exactly how a buyer ends up without the parking space they believed they bought.

The 7 checks we run

1. Get the declaration and every amendment, in full

Not a summary and not the current bylaws. Amendments change percentages, add phases, reassign limited common elements, and impose restrictions, and they are recorded separately. Missing one is the usual root cause on these files, the same document-copies point our guide to what a title search covers.

2. Read the plat or plans that bound the unit

This is the description. Confirm that the unit number on the deed matches the plans, and that any garage, storage, or balcony the client believes is theirs actually appears as assigned rather than as general common element.

3. Verify the percentage interest

Check the deed and the declaration against each other. Percentages are amended during phased development, and a deed reciting an interest from the original declaration can conflict with the schedule in force today.

4. Search the association’s own parcels

In many projects the association holds separate lots in fee for private roads, drainage basins, a clubhouse, or open space, each with its own parcel number and its own chain. An encumbrance recorded against one of those never appears under the unit’s description, and it reaches every owner through assessments.

5. Look for transfer restrictions and rights of first refusal

Declarations sometimes require board approval, grant the association a right of first refusal, or restrict leasing. Any of those can defeat or delay a closing, and the analysis is the one in our guide to purchase options and rights of first refusal.

6. Check whether declarant rights have lapsed

Phased projects reserve rights to the developer: to add land, to build additional units, to control the board, to grant easements. Determine whether those rights expired, were exercised, or are still outstanding, because an unexpired right to expand changes what a buyer’s percentage interest is worth.

7. Read the termination and de-annexation provisions

Statutes and declarations set out how a regime can be terminated or property withdrawn, and after a decade of large-building litigation this is no longer an academic clause. It belongs in the review.

Where these files go wrong

Three patterns recur.

• Relying on the resale certificate alone. It is prepared by the association and it is a disclosure, not a title examination. It does not substitute for reading the recorded declaration.
• The missing parking space. A limited common element the seller has used for fifteen years may never have been formally assigned, and use does not convey it.
• Ignoring the association’s parcels. A judgment or a recorded claim against the association is not in the unit’s chain and still affects the buyer.

What the record will not settle

A search reports what was recorded and indexed in that county over the period searched, with copies. It cannot tell you the association’s financial condition, the reserve balance, or what is in the minutes and the engineering reports, because those are association records rather than county records. It does not report unrecorded litigation, and it does not assess the building. Whether a particular restriction is enforceable against a particular owner is a legal conclusion for counsel.

Read the declaration before you clear the file

AFX Research performs in-person searches, certified abstracts, and full document copies from any U.S. county — delivered in 12–72 hours and backed by our search guarantee. On condominium files the full document copies are the deliverable: the declaration and its amendments are the property description, and no index entry reproduces them.

Order a title search on the unit and the association parcels, or compare our search products if the file needs the full chain rather than a current-owner report.