f an individual doesn't keep up the payments on his own apartment or fails to his share of the building maintenance, foreclosure action can be started inst him. The institution or individual holding the mortgage on the apartment ild move in and take over the unit without affecting the other residents.

INTEREST INCREASING

The condominium concept was first incorporated in our national housing slation in 1961. The first FHA condominium project in the United States is k Layne Towers, a 60-unit building now under construction in Hallandale's den Isles development. Dozens of conventionally financed condominium jects have started in Broward County. The interest in this new type of home ership seems to double each month.

George DeFranceaux, a Washington mortgage banker, predicts, "Within ears the big majority of apartment units will be sold on a condominium is in all price ranges.'

The only hitch can come in the law. Some States have statutes that prohibit dominium ownership. Florida law doesn't say anything one way or the er and Attorney General Richard Ervin has ruled condominium agreements 1. Some municipal assessors, however, are uncertain about sending individual bills to apartment owners.

rvin says condominium residents will not be entitled to homestead exemp; that the $5,000 exemption will have to be divided among owners of the ding.

ankers and the life insurance companies have been assured of the legality, everybody involved would feel better about it if there were a condominium oling act in the Florida statutes.

The Florida Home Builders Association has already drafted a law and it will offered in Tallahassee in April when the current political rat race produces a lature. Also up for consideration at the session will be proposals to extend estead exemption to owners of co-op and condominium apartments.

n our cover this week is a rendering of the Shores, a 195-unit condominium e built by the Janis Corp.

liami Beach Federal Savings & Loan Association has issued a $1,300,000 struction loan for the five-story building, Miami Beach Federal has agreed ffer mortgages on apartments of 80 percent at 6 percent interest for 20 years. sing costs would be 11⁄2 percent of the mortgage amount.

eople buying apartments can pay all cash or go out and get a mortgage from source they want.

ernard Janis of the development company doesn't have his price schedule ed up, but he estimates the one-bedroom apartments will start at $16,500. price would be $25,000 for a deluxe apartment with two bedrooms and two 18. There will be 10 such units. The other 48 two-bedroom apartments be priced about $22,000.

am Elcook, Dade County assessor, says he will accept the deeds to individual tments and bill the taxes according to a schedule showing how great an rest in the common facilities each resident holds. That percentage of ownercan never change over the life of the building.

IT'S A BIG ONE FOR GALT MILE

(By Larry DeVine, Broward Business Writer)

Ort LauderdaLE.-Plans for a $6.5 million condominium apartment, a 16y addition to Coral Ridge Properties' high-rise lineup on the Galt Ocean Mile, announced here this week.

he condominium, to be called the Ocean Summit, is scheduled to be under truction within 30 days, said James S. Hunt, Sr., president of the big Broward nty development company.

nounced at the same time were plans for Coral Ridge's second new hotel in a year, also set for a beachfront lot on the northside Galt Mile. The hotel, still unnamed, follows the building of CRP's 150-room Coral Ridge el which opened here October 5.

he Ocean Summit, Coral Ridge's first condominum, will have 213 units. It designed by Charles McKirahan & Associates, Fort Lauderdale architects. ›e financed conventionally, the ap rtment is scheduled for completion in the ig of 1964.

Hunt also made public the planned sale of two of the expensive Galt lots, presumably for added high-rise construction. Together with the beachfront lots, Coral Ridge is also launching a mass sale next week of 500 residential lots in CRP subdivisions, with cuts as much as 50 percent of the original sale prices. Hunt said Coral Ridge was forced into the lot sale when the city of Fort Lauderdale notified the developers last week it would begin maintenance on the lots at an approximate $7,000 a month. Hunt also said the wholesale clearance was made in order to clear up the scattered, vacant homesites in the residential areas, lots now standing empty in areas not wholly sold out.

Mr. SCHWENGEL. I do not want to question Mr. Press, but I do want to say that I have known him for a long time, and I am aware of the interest and activity of the Metropolitan Washington Board of Trade, and it is a fine organization. And he has done so much for them and for the District.

I did want to ask this man a question to find out if he lived in the District.

Mr. GEISER. Yes, sir; in the District.

Mr. SCHWENGEL. Good.

Mr. HUDDLESTON. Now, that completes the list of witnesses that I have.

Unless there are other witnesses here who have not advised the committee of their desire to appear, that concludes the hearing, and the committee will now go into executive session.

(Whereupon, at 11:30 a.m., the committee proceeded into executive session.)

APPENDIX

[H. Rept. 288, 88th Cong., 1st sess.]

HORIZONTAL PROPERTY ACT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

he committee on the District of Columbia, to whom was referred the bill R. 4276) to provide for the creation of horizontal property regimes in the trict of Columbia, having considered the same, report favorably thereon hout amendment and recommend that the bill do pass.

PURPOSE OF THE BILL

he purpose of the bill is to establish within the District of Columbia a new te in property, known as "condominium," which is defined in the bill as ownership of single units in a multiunit structure with common elements." he bill permits fee simple ownership of a unit in a multiunit structure which be designed for residence, office, the operation of any industry or business, ny other type of use, with its accessory units-all of which is known as the zontal property regime or condominium project. Not only does the person in fee simple the space referred to, but he has an undivided interest in the ic portions of the building, which include the roof, the walls, the ceiling, dors, stairways, basement, heating and air-conditioning plants, and all other ents of common use.

der the bill, persons would be enabled not only to purchase and convey, but ase and encumber, units in a building in the same manner as other real propand purchasers would be entitled to deeds conveying said units to them along an undivided share in the common elements referred to.

he bill provides for the creation of condominium projects which consist of or more apartments, rooms, office spaces, or other units in existing or proposed ings, so that they may be offered for sale. Units thereof may consist of one ore rooms of any closed space, occupying all or part of a floor or one or more 8, regardless of whether the building is designed for residency, office, industry siness, or any other type of independent use.

e bill is essential to provide for separate real estate taxation of the individual and to permit the creation of horizontal subdivision plats. While these ary purposes are being accomplished, the bill also contains detailed auty for the creation of a quasi-corporation to manage the building; to restrain tion; to provide means to levy, collect, and enforce the lien for common exes; to provide for separate release of the individual units from the liens of nents or mechanics' liens-all to the end that the ownership of an individual will be as similar as possible to the incidents of ownership of an individual = or business property.

e concept of ownership of real estate by condominium was recognized as as the Code Napoleon of 1812. Legislation similar to the reported bill has approved in the following jurisdictions: Alaska, Arkansas, Arizona, Georgia, aii, Indiana_Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Oklahoma, à Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and the nonwealth of Puerto Rico. Such legislation is also pending in 22 other stimony at the public hearing held on May 6, 1963, established that connium has a flexibility which permits individual financing, and an individual aser can either pay cash for his unit, obtain a conventional loan, or an FHA ed loan, and he will have freedom in repaying the loan or in making whatever cial arrangements he desires.

s.

ndominium has advantages over cooperative projects which impose restricon resale, whereas there is no such restriction on the resale of a condominium Cooperative projects usually require a downpayment of at least one-third e cost, whereas under FHA and other financing the downpayment is much

less. Cooperatives involve a stock or membership transaction, whereas condominium involves a real estate transaction, and the member of the condominium when transferring ownership, has freedom in setting the selling price, etc.

The Board of Commissioners of the District of Columbia endorse the principle and purpose of condominium legislation for the District. The bill was fully supported at the hearing by the District of Columbia Bar Association, the Federal Housing Administration of the Housing and Home Finance Agency, Lawyer's Title Insurance Corp., Washington Board of Realtors, Home Builders Association of Metropolitan Washington, Mortgage Bankers Association of Metropolitan Washington, and Metropolitan Washington Board of Trade.

The committee feels this to be meritorious legislation that will enable the District of Columbia to keep apace with the surrounding jurisdictions in this recent development in property ownership.

Section 2. Definitions:

SECTION-BY-SECTION-ANALYSIS

(a) “Unit" or "condominium unit" means an enclosed space, consisting or one or more rooms, occupying all or part of a floor in buildings of one or more floors or stories regardless of whether it be designed for residence, for office, for the operation of any industry or business, or for any other type of independent use, and shall include such accessory units as may be appended thereto, such as garage, storage space, balcony, terrace or patio: Provided, That said unit has a direct exit to a thoroughfare or to a given common space leading to a thoroughfare.

(c) "Condominium project" means a real estate condominium project: a plan or project whereby five or more apartments, rooms, office spaces, or other units in existing or proposed buildings or structures are offered or proposed to be offered for sale.

Section 3. Horizontal property regimes: Conforms this new concept of ownership to the prevailing District of Columbia custom of subdivision by plat rather than the use of filed floor plans. The legislation recently enacted in Utah and Maryland also follows this form.

Section 4. Status of condominium units within a horizontal property regime: This provides that once the regime is established, the individual units may be conveyed, leased, or encumbered, may be inherited and devised by will, the same as any other real estate.

Section 5. Joint tenancies, tenancies in common, tenancies by the entirety: This section provides that title can be held like any other real estate, by joint tenancy, tenancy in common, tenancy by the entirety, or individually.

Section 6. Ownership of condominium units, of common elements; declaration: voting; indivdiual unit deeds: Provides for the exclusive fee simple ownership of a condominium unit with the owner having a common right to share, with other, coowners, an individual fee simple interest in the common elements of the property equivalent to the percentage representing the value of the unit to the value of whole property.

Section 7. Indivisibility of common elements; limitation upon partition: Restrains judicial partition of the project while the same is subject to a horizontal property regime. This is an essential element to assure purchasers or lenders of the continued existence of the particular project in condominium form. In case the building is destroyed two-thirds or more by fire or other disaster, 75 percent of the coowners of the condominium project can decide whether to have the building rebuilt or the insurance money divided proratably among the coowners.

Section 8. Use of elements held in common, right to repair common elements: Is common to the legislation enacted in other States and designed to prevent one unit from becoming a hazard to other owners or to the public.

Section 9. Condominium subdivision: Details the form to be used in the creation of a plat of condominium subdivision. It parallels existing District of Columbia Code provisions for land subdivisions, permits condominiums only upon duly subdivided lots in order that the units dividing lines may be definitely fixed by the surveyor to established lot lines.

Section 10. Reference to plat: Provides for a short form of description of individual units to avoid metes and bounds descriptions of a cube to the end that the present short code form of deed may also be used in conveyance of condominium units.

Section 11. Termination and waiver of regime: Provides for termination of the horizontal property regime. A method of judicial termination has been added

nit termination where the coowners neglect or refuse to act in a situation a partially damaged or destroyed building may become a hazard to the The regime cannot be terminated without the consent of all the coowners sole owner of the building. It is felt that it would be difficult to finance the qual condominium units if the regime could be destroyed without the t of all the owners.

ion 12. Merger no bar to reconstitution: Provides for reconstitution and non to the legislation of the other States.

on 13. Bylaws, availability for examination.

ion 14. Necessary contents of bylaws; modification of system: Sections 14 authorize the adoption of bylaws, a copy of which must be annexed to laration under which the condominium regime is established and recorded the land records. Thus each condominium owner will have public notice provisions of the bylaws and his rights and obligations thereunder and the of noncompliance with the bylaws. The bylaws should also spell out r in the event the owner of a unit desires to sell it the other coowners should me first refusal. In some jurisdictions this matter is covered by statute and al proviso is that the remaining owners of units have the right to meet ered purchase price within 10 days. This is a protection to the other and in this fashion they have some control over the ownership of particular on 15. Books of receipts and expenditures; availability for examination: rovides for the keeping of accurate books of account which are open to all rs during reasonable business hours. Books are to be kept according to d accounting practice.

on 16. Common profits, contributions for payment of common expenses of stration and maintenance: This section spells out the responsibilities of rs to contribute toward the maintenance of the common elements and the and extent thereof and the responsibility for making repairs. No owner cape contributing toward the upkeep of common elements by giving up or enjoyment of the individual unit belonging to him or her. on 17. Priority of liens: This spells out the creation of liens and the enforceliens for nonpayment toward the expenses of the common elements. on 18. Joint and several liability of purchaser and seller for amounts owing ection 16; purchasers' recovery, purchasers' or lenders' right to a statement forth amount due: This section sets out the right of a purchaser or lender ve a statement from the management setting forth the unpaid assessments the seller or borrower.

on 19. Supplementary method of enforcement of lien: This is a suppley method to enforce the lien for common expenses, to provide for a quick of enforcement in a form parallel to the District of Columbia method of ures under deeds of trust.

on 20. Insuring building against risks; individual rights of coowners: s for insurance and follows the FHA model act.

on 21. Application of insurance proceeds to reconstruction; pro rata tion in certain cases; rules governing: This follows previously enacted

on.

on 22. Sharing of reconstruction cost where building is not insured or ce indemnity is insufficient; modification of section of resolution: This a revised to conform to HHFA technical comments.

on 23. Separate taxation: Parallels existing District of Columbia Code ns for assessment and taxation of real property and provides for separate of the individual units. This fulfills an essential need.

on 24. Actions; right to separate release of judgment.

on 25. Mechanics' and materialmen's liens, enforcement thereof; removal en; effect of part payment: These two sections provide for an orderly of litigation and enables individual owners to obtain separate releases ments or mechanics' liens. Section 25 now conforms to HHFA's technical ts following the FHA model act.

n 26. Zoning: This is intended to prevent zoning regulations being thwart establishment of condominium subdivision, yet permit regulation Zoning Commission of the project when considered as an entity.

n 27. Supplement of existing code provisions: Is to supplement the code to the end that section-by-section revision will not be necessary the present code to this new concept and to give the horizontal property exemption, where necessary, from existing code provisions such as the Inst perpetuities. n 28. Severability: Is a standard severability provision.

O