Section 34.07.450 - DefinitionsIn this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires,
(1) "apartment" means a part of the property intended for any type of independent use, including one or more rooms or enclosed spaces located on one or more floors, or part or parts of the floors, in a building, regardless of whether or not it is destined for a residence, an office, the operation of any industry or business, or for any other use not prohibited by law, and that has a direct exit to a public street or highway, or to a common area leading to the street or highway; and the boundaries of an apartment are the interior surfaces of the perimeter walls, floors, ceilings, windows, and doors thereof, and the apartment includes both the portions of the building so described and the airspace so encompassed; and interpreting declarations, deeds, and plans, the existing physical boundaries of the apartment as originally constructed or as reconstructed in substantial accordance with the original plans shall be conclusively presumed to be its boundaries rather than the metes and bounds expressed or depicted in the declaration, deed, or plan, regardless of settling or lateral movement of the building and regardless of minor variance between boundaries shown in the declaration, deed, or plan and those of apartments in the building;(2) "apartment number" means the number, letter, or a combination of them, designating the apartment in the recorded declaration;(3) "apartment owner" means the person or persons owning an apartment in fee simple absolute or qualified, or by way of a periodic estate, or in any other manner in which real property may be owned in this state, together with an undivided interest in a like estate of the common areas and facilities in the percentage specified and established in the recorded declaration;(4) "association of apartment owners" means all of the apartment owners acting as a group in accordance with the bylaws and with the recorded declaration;(5) "building" means a building, containing two or more apartments, or two or more buildings each containing two or more apartments, and comprising a part of the property;(6) "common areas and facilities" unless otherwise provided in the recorded declaration includes (A) the land on which the building is located;(B) the foundations, columns, girders, beams, supports, main walls, roofs, halls, corridors, lobbies, stairs, stairways, fire escapes, and entrances and exits of the building;(C) the basements, yards, gardens, parking areas, and storage spaces;(D) the premises for the lodging of janitors or persons in charge of the property;(E) the installations of central services such as power, light, gas, hot and cold water, heating, refrigeration, air conditioning, and incinerating;(F) the elevators, tanks, pumps, motors, fans, compressors, ducts, and in general all apparatus and installations existing for common use;(G) the community and commercial facilities as provided for in the recorded declaration;(H) all other parts of the property necessary or convenient to its existence, maintenance, and safety, or normally in common use;(7) "common expenses" includes(A) all sums lawfully assessed against the apartment owners by the association of apartment owners;(B) expenses of administration, maintenance, repair, or replacement of the common areas and facilities;(C) expenses agreed upon as common expenses by the association of apartment owners;(D) expenses declared common expenses by the provisions of this chapter, or by the recorded declaration, or by the bylaws;(8) "common profits" means the balance of all income, rents, profits, and revenues from the common areas and facilities remaining after the deduction of the common expenses;(9) "declaration" means the instrument by which the property is submitted to provisions of this chapter and as it may be, from time to time amended;(10) "land" means the material of the earth, whatever may be the ingredients of which it is composed, whether soil, rock, or other substance, and includes free or occupied space for an indefinite distance upwards as well as downwards, subject to limitations upon the use of airspace imposed, and rights in the use of the airspace granted by the laws of the state or of the United States;(11) "limited common areas and facilities" includes those common areas and facilities designated in the recorded declaration, as reserved for use of certain apartment or apartments to the exclusion of the other apartments;(12) "majority" or "majority of apartment owners" means the apartment owners with 51 percent or more of the votes in accordance with the percentages assigned in the recorded declaration to the apartments for voting purposes;(13) "property" means the land, the building, all its improvements and structures, all owned in fee simple absolute or qualified or by way of a periodic estate, or in any other manner in which real property may be owned in the state, and all easements, rights, and appurtenances belonging to it, none of which shall be considered as a security or security interest, and all articles of personalty intended for use in connection with it, that have been or are intended to be submitted to this chapter.