Do you own the land under a Seattle townhome?

Two legal forms that look the same from the street

Most of the new townhomes in Ballard, Fremont, Crown Hill, the Central District and West Seattle were built on what used to be one house lot. An older bungalow came down, and three or four tall, narrow homes went up in its place with garages opening onto a shared concrete apron.

To sell them separately, the builder has to create each home as something a buyer can own, and there are two common routes.

The first is a unit lot subdivision. Seattle’s code lets a builder divide the original parcel, called the parent lot, into separate unit lots, one under each home. Each unit lot gets its own parcel number and its own tax bill. The zoning rules are measured against the parent lot as a whole, which is why a unit lot can be far smaller than anything the zoning would allow as a standalone lot.

The second is a condominium created under Washington’s condominium law. Each owner holds a unit defined by a recorded declaration and map. The land, and often parts of the building, belong to all the owners together as common elements, managed by an association.

From the sidewalk you can’t tell them apart. The differences are in the paperwork, and they reach into insurance, financing and what you can change later.

How to tell which one you’re buying: plat, title report and declaration

The listing is a hint. The property type and the remarks may say “fee simple” or “condo,” and they’re usually right. The legal record is in these documents:

• The preliminary title commitment. Look at the legal description. A unit lot reads as a numbered lot within a recorded subdivision or short plat. A condominium reads as a unit within a named condominium, according to a declaration recorded under a King County recording number.
• The recorded plat, for a unit lot. This map shows each lot, the access and utility easements, and notes that the city requires. One of those notes says, in substance, that the unit lots aren’t separate buildable lots and that further development on any one of them may be limited because the rules apply to the parent lot.
• The declaration, for a condominium. It defines where your unit ends and the common elements begin, who maintains what, how votes and costs are split, and what needs association approval.
• The maintenance agreement, for a unit lot. Most unit lot projects record a joint use and maintenance agreement covering the shared driveway, utilities and walls. Some also set up an owners association with a budget and dues.

The King County Assessor’s record for the address will generally show whether it’s a lot or a condominium unit too, and it’s a quick way to check before you tour. I ask for the recorded documents early, because reading them after the inspection period has ended leaves you with fewer options.

Shared driveways, walls and roofs: who maintains what

This is where the two forms feel most different day to day.

In a unit lot project, the shared driveway usually crosses several lots under an access easement, and the recorded agreement says how owners split the cost of resurfacing, drainage, lighting and the spot where garbage and recycling carts go. The walls between homes typically sit on the lot line and are governed by that same agreement or a separate party wall provision. Each owner generally owns their own roof, but roofs meet, and reroofing one home without the neighbor is harder than it sounds. When there’s no association, getting neighbors to agree and pay is up to the neighbors.

In a condominium, the declaration decides. In larger projects the association maintains the roofs, siding and driveway and collects dues for reserves. In small townhome condos, the declaration sometimes assigns most exterior upkeep back to each owner as a limited common element, which can look a lot like a unit lot arrangement with extra paperwork. The resale certificate, which the buying page explains alongside the review period that comes with it, is where you see the budget, reserves, insurance and any pending assessments.

What your insurance has to cover in each case

A unit lot owner generally carries a standard homeowners policy covering the whole structure they own, from the foundation to the roof, plus liability. Ask how the policy treats the shared wall, and check whether the maintenance agreement requires particular coverage.

A condominium owner usually carries a unit owner’s policy, which covers the interior and your belongings and can include coverage for your share of an association assessment. The association’s master policy covers the building up to a line the declaration draws. The master policy’s deductible matters, because some declarations let the association pass it through to the owner whose unit caused the claim.

Your insurance agent should read the declaration or maintenance agreement before quoting. The details vary by project, and they’re the person to confirm with.

Why lenders treat them differently

A unit lot townhome is usually underwritten much like any attached single-family home, with the focus on your finances and the appraisal.

A condominium adds a review of the project itself. Depending on the loan program, the lender may look at the association’s budget and reserves, its insurance, any litigation, how many units are owner-occupied, and whether the developer still controls the association. New and very small projects can have trouble meeting some program requirements, and government-backed loans may require the project to be approved.

Before you write an offer on a condominium townhome, send your lender the listing and ask whether the project will work for your loan.

Resale and changes to the building later

Everything above applies again when you sell. Your buyer’s lender will review a condominium project the same way yours did, and a thin reserve fund or a lawsuit that has come up in the meantime can narrow the pool of buyers. A unit lot resale tends to be simpler, though a shared driveway in poor repair or an unworkable maintenance agreement will come up in a buyer’s review too.

Changes follow the same split. On a unit lot, adding onto the home, enclosing a roof deck or building something in the small yard means city permits, and the parent lot limits and shared-wall provisions may rule some ideas out. Don’t assume the ADU rules that apply to detached houses carry over to a unit lot, since the parent lot was usually built to its capacity. In a condominium, most exterior changes need association approval, and expanding a unit may require amending the declaration.

Property taxes work the same way in both: each unit lot or condominium unit is assessed on its own. If a first assessment on new construction looks off, appealing a King County assessed value starts with the same comparable sales work a pricing decision does.