Case Law Summaries

D’Elia v. Roxbury Condominium Association, Inc.

• Opinion Date: June 27, 2000
• Real Property Law
• E-Mail

CONDOMINIUMS; LANDLORD-TENANT; FORCED ENTRY—Where a condominium unit owner uses a storage area that is part of the common elements, it is not forced entry for the association to enter the area and the unit owner’s tenant has no cause to complain about such an entry.

The tenant of a condominium unit owner complained that representatives of the association or its management company unlawfully resorted to “forced entry” by gaining access to a “storage area” in which the tenant had been storing personal property. The tenant also alleged that the same individuals entered the unit “without permission or authority.” The Appellate Division held against the tenant because a prior Chancery Division default judgment disposed of the claim that the unit owner was the owner of the storage area, having concluded that the storage area was a “common element.” The tenant was in privity with the unit owner and therefore was bound by the default judgment. Consequently, the tenant’s claim of a right to “possession” of the storage area was subsumed in the determination that the area was owned by the association, not by the unit owner. The fact that the judgment was entered by default was of no consequence to the Appellate Division. At the time that the association or its management company’s employees sought entry into the storage area, they observed an “electrical thermostat wire attached to the deadbolt lock inside the storage area.” They traced the wire from the storage room to the apartment. A police officer called to the scene, observed the “suspicious” wire “leading” into the tenant’s condominium unit. The association employees decided to enter to the unit for the welfare of the condominium complex. When they did so, they disconnected the wire. According to the Court, an association and its agents are authorized under the Condominium Act to “enter a unit to prevent damage to common elements or to other units.” Thus, the court held that because the employees reasonably believed that the suspicious wire posed a danger to the common elements and to units owned by others in the complex, they had the right to enter the unit and the tenant’s complaint in that regard was also dismissed.

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