The condo attorney will give you the best information.

That said, an LCE does usually transfer with the title. My guess is, the next question is figuring out which units can prove they control a parking spot. Should be fun....

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Sounds to me that if any Unit owner that thinks they are entitled to their own parking spot should be able to produce proof of paying the extra "cost of acquisition of such rights to the parking space."

If they never paid anything extra then they are not entitled to the right to the parking spot.

If they don't have something in writing from the sale clearly showing that the parking space is part of the package, then I would think they do not actually have "deeded" parking spots. Why wouldn't every owner suddenly claim that they too had been told they were deeded a spot?

If I was an owner who thought I had a deeded spot, I would be prepared to sue. If I was an owner who didn't think I had one and have to watch as they are handed over to other owners at no charge, I would be prepared to sue. If I was an owner who bought via resale and understood that I had deeded parking (and therefore paid more for the unit), I would be prepared to sue.

This is a really unfortunate situation for all involved. I hope for everyone's sake that those owners who think they have paid for parking spots have something in writing in their sale documents. Even if it wasn't done entirely correctly upfront, it seems like it will be easier to resolve.

As someone else mentioned, my experience is that we have a separate document/contract for the parking space. In our building, it is not actually deeded property (i.e., I don't own the physical space), I have a contract that gives me the right to use that physical space which is a limited common element.

While your counsel should definitely be able to interpret this, it sounds like similar language to the condo I lived in. The language you present is typically also what balconies are considered. Basically, the unit owner "owns" the space and it must be transferred with the unit, but when it comes to "building" maintenance, such as cleaning the garage and restripping spots, the association handles it.

If there were any leftover spots, meaning that unit owners did not purchase all of the spots from the developer, they go to the association.

We had an issue when someone tried to sell their spot to someone else in the building and that couldn't be done. The bylaws were amended to now allow that type of transaction though.

Certainly Counsel should be able to come to an informed opinion. It's certainly dicey especially for those unit owners who believe they own a space. As much as "grandfathering" might sound fine, you are talking about a massive amount of money (esp if you are downtown) that you could be getting for these spaces and using as association income for other things in the building. It's not uncommon for parking spaces to go well above 20-30k per space in dtjc, so you can do the math!

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No-one neccessarily disagrees; the previous managing agent (who was the majority shareholder who bought the development from the original developer after they went bankrupt) was notorious for their mis-management, complicity in their tenants as well as other owners and tenants evading the rules, etc. Now that there is "new blood" on the Board, and new Management, we are trying to sort this mess out.

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I've seen the floor plans in the Master Deed, and no - the parking spaces are shown as a Limited Common Element, and are simply numbered 1 to 22 with no reference to specific units. We've reached out to the Association's counsel for a reading on this.

Agree with below. Usually in Master Deed, there should be a floor plan for every single unit and unless that floor plan indicates a parking space tied with a unit, I would think that the parking is all common. Otherwise I would ask the owners who claim they have parking to prove in their closing docs somewhere it indicated the space is included.

Yikes. There's no easy way to handle this. Does the association have an attorney? Best to seek his/her advice on this. No matter what you guys decide, there are going to be people unhappy with the outcome. Based on the wording of the master deed you provided, it sounds like unit owners would need to prove in their own deeds that they were indeed assigned a specific parking spot with their respective units. Because the parking spaces are designated as "limited common elements," it's not really deeded parking, per se. In my building, the deeds for the parking spaces are separate from the condo unit, and I even get a separate property tax bill from the city for the parking space. This means owners can sell their condo units and parking spaces to different buyers, if they wish.

The bylaws for your building may allow you to make alterations to the usage of limited common elements, although that may require some sort of super-majority vote of unit owners (two thirds or three quarters). You need to check the master deed carefully. Again, I'd consult with an attorney well versed in NJ condo law.

Sounds like deed says sale of condo goes hand-in-hand with the parking space and the two shall remain in common ownership in perpetuity. ie: Unit A has parking space A now and forever.

I can't tell from your post who, if anyone, disagrees with this interpretation.

This is a thorny topic in my building, where I'm on the Association Board. In a nutshell - the original developers provided 22 parking spaces - enough to get their variance - for a 54 unit building. Most residents believed there was a "waiting list" to get a parking spot in the garage, in practice there never was. Of those 22, one is owned by the Association, and a number of the unit owners maintain they were "deeded" their parking spot when they bought their units, and pass it to someone who buys or rents their unit.

Here is what the Master Deed has to say about the parking spaces:

"Any parking space located on land in which the Association has aquired a possessory interest shall be a Limited Common Element appurtenant to the Unit whose Owner has borne the cost of acquisition of such rights to the parking space..."

Our managing agent has punted this back to the Board, and we are struggling to settle this fairly - do we treat the "deeded" parking spaces as gradfathered? If so, what is an acceptable way of proving that? Is there legal recourse agains the sponsor if they handled this completely contrary to the Master Deed? Any advice or suggesstions from the many savvy readers will be welcomed!