What are the main characteristics of the divided co-ownership?

The divided co-ownership, also known under the name of condominium, is a form of ownership. In a divided co-ownership, the co-owner possesses a housing unit on which he exercises the normal rights of an owner; he can so arrange, decorate and proceed to minor works of renovation in his housing unit, as would do the owner of a single family house, without having to obtain the authorization of the other co-owners. The building in which is the housing unit does not belong exclusively to the co-owner of this housing unit. The building belongs, in proportions which can vary, to all the co-owners, from two to several tens as the case may be. To better visualize this concept, it is about a property, being the private portion (the housing unit) which is situated itself in another property being the common portion (the main building).

The common portion is thus the responsibility of all the co-owners who are organized in a syndicate of co-owners. It is the board of directors of the syndicate of co-owners that will authorize the works which affect the structure of the building or which could affect the other private portions. The divided co-ownership thus creates a right of ownership which is not absolute, but which must be exercised jointly with the other co-owners.

In this type of co-ownership, the co-owners have the ownership of their private portions and jointly exercise their right of ownership in the common portions and that, comparatively to the undivided co-ownership where all the co-owners jointly exercise the ownership of the entire property but can reserve for themselves a right of use on certain portions through an indivision agreement.