Condo Media - June 2019 - 55

We looked to this condominium's declaration which fortunately defined the
patios as limited common elements, that
is, per the Rhode Island Condominium
Act, this patio area was to serve a single
unit. While the patios were one matter,
the backyard definition was quite another. This condominium's declaration
was silent with respect to the backyard
spaces directly in front of the patios to
the rear boundaries of the property itself.
Since the declaration itself was not much
help, we abstracted the title to the property and found the plats and plans which
were recorded with the declaration.
When we looked at the original
plans, we discovered that the declarant had described the grassy area in
front of each of the patios as limited
common elements. That would mean
that each unit owner had the exclusive
right to use the area in front of his or
her deck to the exclusion of the other.
So then, the non-Frisbee throwing
unit owner was right so far, his backyard space was indeed for his exclusive
use. However there was no marking or
other indication of a boundary dividing the grassy area. Here, I advised
them and the board to simply draw an
imaginary line from the middle of the
unit and decks and run it to the edge of
the grass at the rear boundary, in effect
squaring it off. That was not enough
for these two unit owners. They
wanted a fence installed.
FENCING DILEMMA
However, in this condominium,
it would not make much sense to
fence off the area as it would materially interfere with the landscapers who
needed to cut the grass. Specifically,
if the landscaper had to go around
the fence, patio and unit to access the
area to be cut, it would dramatically
increase the landscaping cost and
budget. Here, the burden of absorbing
a substantial increase in landscaping
outweighed the benefit of the fence.
Reasonable use here would be for the
kids to try their best not to "overthrow
the Frisbee" or at least wait until their
neighbor wasn't home, etc., and for
the other unit owner to realize that
kids will be kids and an occasional
encroachment into "his" yard was

The two unit owners were
apparently not able to
work out this dispute
amongst themselves.
So they came to the board
with their complaints.
not unreasonable. With all this in
mind, the board, with my blessing, essentially told the feuding unit owners
to learn to live with it, and with each
other, else they would be charged the
additional cost of fencing in the area.

I haven't heard from the association
so I assume things are going well.
I did, however, hear from a developer
who wanted me to review his engineer's plans for a new condominium.
You can bet that one of the first items
I commented on was that the plans
had missing boundary lines defining
the grassy area in front of his proposed
unit's decks and patios.
You can guess which revision I had
him make on that plan.
n FRANK A. LOMBARDI, ESQ., CCAL,
IS A PARTNER WITH THE LAW
FIRM GOODMAN, SHAPIRO &
LOMBARDI, LLC.

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is second nature to NSB

Peter Kitsakos, Gemini Property Management
and North Shore Bank Commercial Loan Oﬃcer,
Lisa Scopa at Bartlett's Reach in Amesbury, MA

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clients have found a true partner in North Shore Bank.
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June 2019 CONDOMEDIA

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Condo Media - June 2019

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