A common area is, in real estate or real property law, the "area which is available for use by more than one person..." The common areas are those "within a building that are available for common use by all tenants, (or) groups of tenants and their invitees." In Texas and other parts of the United States, it is "An area inside a housing development that is owned by all residents or by an overall management structure which charges each tenant for maintenance and upkeep."
Common areas often exist in apartments, gated communities, condominiums, cooperatives and shopping malls.
In any situation where there is a tenancy in common, all the tenants in common collectively own the common areas.
This differs from a commons or common land, as used in English law, which is owned by one person, but which may be used by a group of persons.
Read more about Common Area: Examples, Case Law, Residence Halls, Business Spaces, Real Estate Taxation of Common Areas
Famous quotes containing the words common and/or area:
“A man of rare common sense and directness of speech, as of action; a transcendentalist above all, a man of ideas and principles,Mthat was what distinguished him.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Many women are reluctant to allow men to enter their domain. They don’t want men to acquire skills in what has traditionally been their area of competence and one of their main sources of self-esteem. So while they complain about the male’s unwillingness to share in domestic duties, they continually push the male out when he moves too confidently into what has previously been their exclusive world.”
—Bettina Arndt (20th century)