What is an office condo declarant?

Within anoffice condo there is a designation called a “Declarant” it is also found in the office condo regime paperwork as well found in the Texas Assoc of Realtors contracts for purchase. The word declarant comes from the formation of a community or a condominium. Whenever the developer of the land subjects the property to a restrictions in the declarations, the developer has an opportunity to reserve specific rights to themselves as the “Declarant”. The developer does not have to do this however it is a common practice to do so and it is unusual for a developer to form a condo project and not reserve these rights to themselves.   Also any person who holds any of the declared rights is a “Declarant” as well.

Declarant Rights

Declarant rights are reserved in the recorded condo declarations for the office condos and are part of the contract of the unit owners with the office condo project. Generally, the developer is free to restrict the real property as they see fit, only a few limiting circumstance restrict the Declarant .  If the declarant right is not specifically detailed in the office condo declarations, then a “Declarant” would not exist.  People may associate the developer as the default declarant, however the Declarant is often an entity, such as a corporation or a LLC.  A person may act for the corporation or LLC as the Declarant and be authorized to do so , however the declarant rights do not vest in this individual.  Another scenario would be where the declarant rights if they are assigned or by means of a transfer of those rights to the person.

Transfer of Declarant Rights

Rights can be transferred and original developer may not be the present Declarant. Typically the transfer of these rights are on public record so they can be investigated by anyone who examines them.  The way they are transferred from the transferor  to the transferee are pursuant to an Assignment of Declarations which is recorded in the Register of Deeds.

More than one Declarant?

Rights can be transferred in whole or in part and therefore there may be more than one Declarant of an office condo project in Austin. The rights are around the specific parcels of real property which is found in the office condo project.  There may be issues with more than one Declarant such as who is authorized to appoint members to the Condo Owners Association? You may see multiple Declarants in a master planned community that has condos or other sub-communities within them.

Declarant authority

A Declarant’s authority ends when all of the rights for that particular Declarant expire or terminate. Typically these rights go on until the termination period, this is important because it may be difficult for a Condo Owner’s Association to operate effectively if there are stale Declarant rights in place.  Usually the Declarant’s rights expire upon the sale of the last office condo within the project or the last unit sold in a planned community.

Shire Commercial specializes in representing Buyers for Office Condos in the Austin Texas area. More info on office condos.