Opinion ID: 884038
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Whether real property adjacent to a condominium development, which was never submitted to Montana's Unit Ownership Act by description on the condominium declaration or amendment thereto, is subject to the act and the declaration.

Text: Big Sky claims that the District Court erred in finding that the land owned by HVI is not subject to the Big Sky Hidden Village Condominium declaration or bylaws, and thus is not subject to Montana's Unit Ownership Act, Title 70, chapter 23, MCA. HVI argues that the District Court correctly determined that the ten-year time limit in the declaration only applies to land included in that declaration or added by amendment thereto and does not limit HVI's right to develop its remaining land. Section 70-23-103, MCA, sets forth the applicability of the Unit Ownership Act establishing a condominium as follows: Applicabilitysubmission by declaration required. In order to submit any property to the provisions of this chapter, the sole owner or sole lessee or all of the owners or all of the lessees thereof shall execute, acknowledge, and record a declaration in the office of the recording officer of the county in which the property is located. The declaration shall be executed in accordance with XX-XX-XXX. Section 70-23-102(6), MCA, provides that a declaration is the instrument by which property is submitted to the provisions of the Unit Ownership Act. Actual filing of the declaration is the action which subjects the property in question to the provisions of the act. Jordan v. Elizabethan Manor (1979), 181 Mont. 424, 430, 593 P.2d 1049, 1053. A declaration shall contain among other things a description of the land, whether leased or in fee simple, on which the building is or is to be located. Section 70-23-301, MCA. A certificate of survey, on the other hand, is not a declaration and does not submit land to the Unit Ownership Act. Accordingly, the declaration for the Big Sky Hidden Village Condominium and not COS 1605 determines the land subject to the provisions of the Unit Ownership Act. Specifically, the original declaration included only Tract I-A. Subsequent amendments to the declaration included Tracts I-XI and the Recreation Tract. Big Sky concedes that if the property in question is not on Big Sky Hidden Village Condominium land, then it is not subject to the declaration. However, Big Sky argues that the description of property in the original declaration is incomplete and therefore COS 1605 properly determines the property included in the Big Sky Hidden Village Condominium. While section II of the declaration broadly states that the property included in the Condominium is located in the SW 1/4 of Section 35, Township 6 South, Range 3 East, M.P.M., Gallatin County, Montana, the original site plan (Exhibit B), incorporated within the original declaration and recorded with it, specifically includes a metes and bounds description of the property submitted to the act. Similar site plans were submitted with each amendment to the declaration. Therefore, the declaration contained a complete and specific description of the property. HVI argues that the ten-year limitation contained in the declaration only governs the addition of units to the Big Sky Hidden Village Condominium, not development of land outside the Condominium. HVI further argues that the term expansion in the declaration refers to the addition of units or land to the Condominium and not to other property owned by HVI. Moreover, HVI notes that the ownership and voting section of the declaration states that [t]he Hidden Village Condominium consists of the real property described above.... Exhibit C to the declaration shows the proposed or projected location of the additional buildings and lands which may be added by the declarant. Therefore, for other land to be included within the Condominium, it would have to be added by amendment. Because the amendments to the declaration do not include HVI's land in question, HVI argues that the land is not part of the Condominium. There are no provisions within the declaration that purport to prevent HVI from developing land not placed within the Big Sky Hidden Village Condominium. The ten-year limitation in the declaration only governs the addition to units to the Big Sky Hidden Village Condominium, not the separate development of HVI's land outside the Condominium. Thus the term expansion and the limitation thereof, applies only to additional units to the Big Sky Hidden Village Condominium, not the separate construction of separate improvements on land owned by HVI outside the Condominium. The Gallatin Board of County Commissioners approved 198 units; Lone Mountain Springs agreed to provide service for 198 units, and RID 305 agreed to provide service for 198 units. The Gallatin County Clerk and Recorder has the declaration on file to give notice to any interested party exactly what land is included in the Big Sky Hidden Village Condominium. Accordingly, we hold that the District Court correctly found that HVI's real property adjacent to the Big Sky Hidden Village Condominium was never submitted to Montana's Unit Ownership Act by description on the Condominium declaration or amendment thereto.