2023 District of Columbia Code › Title 42 - Real Property › Chapter 19 - Condominiums › Subchapter I - General Provisions › § 42–1901.06. Eminent domain

§ 42–1901.06. Eminent domain.
(a) If any portion of the common elements is taken by eminent domain, the award therefor shall be allocated to the unit owners in proportion to their respective undivided interests in the common elements, except that the portion of the award attributable to the taking of any permanently assigned limited common element shall be allocated by the decree to the unit owner of the unit to which that limited common element was so assigned at the time of the taking. If that limited common element was permanently assigned to more than 1 unit at the time of the taking, then the portion of the award attributable to the taking thereof shall be allocated in equal shares to the unit owners of the units to which it was so assigned or in such other shares as the condominium instruments may specify for this express purpose. A permanently assigned limited common element is a limited common element which cannot be reassigned or which can be reassigned only with the consent of the unit owner or owners of the unit or units to which it is assigned.
(b) If 1 or more units is taken by eminent domain, the undivided interest in the common elements appertaining to any such unit shall thenceforth appertain to the remaining units, being allocated to them in proportion to their respective undivided interests in the common elements. The court shall enter a decree reflecting the reallocation of undivided interests produced thereby, and the award shall include, without limitation, just compensation to the unit owner of any unit taken for his undivided interest in the common elements as well as for his unit.
(c) If portions of any unit are taken by eminent domain, the court shall determine the fair market value of the portions of such unit not taken, and the undivided interest in the common elements appertaining to any such units shall be reduced in the case of each such unit, in proportion to the diminution in the fair market value of such unit resulting from the taking. The portions of undivided interest in the common elements thereby divested from the unit owners of any such units shall be reallocated among those units and the other units in the condominium in proportion to their respective undivided interests in the common elements with any units partially taken participating in such reallocation on the basis of their undivided interests as reduced in accordance with the preceding sentence. The court shall enter a decree, reflecting the reallocation of undivided interests produced thereby, and the award shall include, without limitation, just compensation to the unit owner of any unit partially taken for that portion of his undivided interest in the common elements divested from him by operation of the first sentence of this subsection and not revested in him by operation of the following sentence, as well as for that portion of his unit taken by eminent domain.
(d) If, however, the taking of a portion of any unit makes it impractical to use the remaining portion of that unit for any lawful purpose permitted by the condominium instruments, then the entire undivided interest in the common elements appertaining to that unit shall thenceforth appertain to the remaining units, being allocated to them in proportion to their respective undivided interests in the common elements, and the remaining portion of that unit shall thenceforth be a common element. The court shall enter a decree reflecting the reallocation of undivided interests produced thereby, and the award shall include, without limitation, just compensation to the unit owner of such unit for the unit owner’s entire undivided interest in the common elements and for the unit owner’s entire unit.
(e) Votes in the unit owners’ association, rights to future surplus funds, and liabilities for future common expenses not specially assessed, appertaining to any unit or units taken or partially taken by eminent domain, shall thenceforth appertain to the remaining units, being allocated to them in proportion to their relative voting strength in the unit owners’ association, rights to future surplus funds, and liabilities for future common expenses not specially assessed, respectively, with any units partially taken participating in such reallocation as though the voting strength in the unit owners’ association, right to future surplus funds, and liabilities for future common expenses not specially assessed, respectively, had been reduced in proportion to the reduction in their undivided interests in the common elements. But in any case where votes in the unit owners’ association were originally assigned on the basis of equality (subject to the exception for convertible spaces) votes in the unit owners’ association shall not be reallocated. The decree of the court shall provide accordingly.
(f) The decree of the court shall require the recordation thereof among the land records of the District of Columbia.
(Mar. 29, 1977, D.C. Law 1-89, title I, § 106, 23 DCR 9532b; Mar. 8, 1991, D.C. Law 8-233, § 2(e), 38 DCR 261.)
Prior Codifications
1981 Ed., § 45-1806.
1973 Ed., § 5-1206.
Section References
This section is referenced in § 42-1903.10.