Wrong Declaration Posted

[As of 18 August 2009, the correct Declaration--the Declaration that is recorded in the land records at the deed book and page cited in the original post below--is posted on the official website. That is good! For now, I'll leave this post up, largely because the weblinks are still useful. Sincerely, Paul Rasmussen, unit 305]

Our Market Street at Town Center Condominium Unit Owners Association recently posted a wrong Declaration on its official website. The posted document, which was superseded by later revisions, has no official standing whatsoever and is binding on no one. Our Association should instead post a facsimile of the “Declaration of Market Street at Town Center Condominium” that is recorded in County of Fairfax land records beginning at page 1991 of deed book 16608 and, because it is recorded, is thus legally binding on us Unit Owners.

An example of a difference I have noticed between the official recorded Declaration and the wrong version the Association posted is with regard to the Commercial Unit. The recorded Declaration envisions one Commercial Unit, whereas the posted version envisions multiple Commercial Units. Consequently, the (wrong) posted version speaks of “Individual Commercial Limited Common Elements” whereas the official recorded version does not. But the main point is that we Unit Owners can’t rely on the currently posted version because we don’t know where all it may differ from the official, legally-binding, recorded Declaration.

You can view the wrong version [correct version as of 18 Aug 09] of the Declaration currently posted on the Association website at http://www.marketstreetattowncenter.com/docs/CMC.pdf. You will notice that the wrong Declaration version the Association posted shows dates in fine print in the lower left corner of each page, and that the latest date shown in that fine print in that wrong version is 12/24/02. In contrast, the official recorded Declaration includes the later dates 10/23/03, 11/10/03 and 7/15/04 as well as the notation "v4clean.doc" in the fine print in the lower left corner of each page. And, of course, the recorded Declaration shows the deed book number and page number at the top of each page of the Declaration.

While it isn’t good that management posted a wrong version, it is good that our Association has at least made a good effort to post the Declaration on its website. The Declaration is the most fundamental of the condominium instruments that apply to us as Unit Owners, and its presence on the Association website is long overdue. Now we will anxiously await the appearance of the official recorded version of the “Declaration of Market Street at Town Center Condominium” on the Association website.

In the foregoing paragraph and in other posts on this blog, I have used the term "condominium instruments." As defined in § 55-79.41 of the Virginia Condominium Act, "condominium instruments" is a collective term referring to the declaration, bylaws, and plats and plans, recorded pursuant to the provisions of that Act.

You can view the Virginia Condominium Act at http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?000+cod+TOC55000000004000020000000

You can view information regarding our Declaration in my post at http://mstc-uoa.blogspot.com/2008/01/governing-documents-our-declaration.html

If you own a unit in our Market Street at Town Center Condominium and wish to comment on this or any Unit Owner Association issue, I strongly urge you to do so in my forum at http://mstcuoa.proboards.com/. I really would like to see some comments from other unit owners posted there. Also, I encourage you to email me at rasmussen305@gmail.com

In conclusion, I urge our Board of Directors to direct the posting on our Association website of a facsimile of the “Declaration of Market Street at Town Center Condominium” that is recorded in County of Fairfax land records beginning at page 1991 of deed book 16608.