Reprinted from
Common Ground Magazine

Owners at the 300 unit Place One Condominium don’t have to pay for balcony repairs if they don’t own a balcony. That was the decision reached in July by the Circuit Court for the City of Alexandria.

The board of directors passed a resolution earlier this year assessing all unit owners for balcony repairs. The owners were assessed based on their percentage of ownership interest in the building. Those owners without balconies objected, saying the balconies were part of the units, not part of the common elements.

According to Beau Brincefield, whose Alexandria firm Brincefield, Hartnett & Associates, P.C. represented the minority nonbalcony owners, the condominium’s master deed was somewhat ambiguous with respect to unit boundaries. However, the master deed did say that the balconies were part of the units to which they were appurtenant. The judge ruled that this language should be given legal effect, and that the repair costs should be assessed only against the nearly 200 unit owners with balconies. The decision will require the association to reallocate more than $200,000 of the repair costs.