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Terms Used In 21 Guam Code Ann. § 45102

  • Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
  • Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
  • Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
  • Fee simple: Absolute title to property with no limitations or restrictions regarding the person who may inherit it.
  • Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). Source: OCC
  • Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
  • Personal property: All property that is not real property.
Unless it is plainly evident from the context that a different meaning is intended, as used herein:
(a) Apartment means a part of the property intended for any type of use or uses, and with an exit to a public street or highway or to a common element or elements leading to a public street or highway, and may include

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such appurtenances as garage and other parking space, storage room, balcony, terrace, and patio.
(b) Apartment owner means the person owning, or the persons owning jointly or in common, an apartment and the common interest appertaining thereto; provided, that to such extent and for such purposes, including the exercise of voting rights, as shall be provided buy lease filed with the Board of Directors, a lessee of an apartment shall be deemed to be the owner thereof.
(c) Association of apartment owners means all the apartment owners acting as a group in accordance with the bylaws and declaration.

(d) Building Official means the Director of Public Works, or his deputy.

(e) Commission means the Territorial Land Use Commission of Guam, as provided in Chapter 60 of this Title.

(f) Common elements, unless otherwise provided in the declaration, means an includes:
(1) The land included in the horizontal property regime, whether leased or in fee simple;

(2) The foundations, columns, girders, beams, supports, main walls, roofs, halls, corridors, lobbies, stairs, stairways, fire escapes, and entrances and exits of the building or buildings;
(3) The basements, flat roofs, yards, gardens, recreational facilities, parking areas, and storage spaces;

(4) The premises for the lodging or use of janitors and other persons employed for the operation of the property;

(5) Central and appurtenant installations for services such as power, light, gas, hot and cold water, heating, refrigeration, air conditioning, and incinerators;

(6) The elevators, escalators, tanks, pumps, motors, fans, compressors, ducts, and in general all apparatus and installations existing for common use;

(7) Such facilities as may be designated as common elements in the declaration; and

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(8) All other parts of the property necessary or convenient to its existence, maintenance, and safety, or normally in common use.
(g) Common expense means and includes:

(1) Expenses of operation of the property; and

(2) All sums designated common expenses by or pursuant to this
Chapter, the declaration or the bylaws.

(h) Common interest means such percentage of the undivided interests in the common elements appertaining to each apartment, as expressed in the declaration, and any specified percentage of the common interests in the aggregate.
(i) Common profits means the balance of all income, rents, profits, and revenues from the common elements remaining after the deduction of the common expenses.
(j) Condominium means the ownership of single units, with common elements, located on property within the horizontal property regime.
(k) Project means a real estate condominium project: a plan or project where a condominium of two or more apartments located within the horizontal property regime are offered or proposed to be offered for sale.
(l) Declaration means the instrument by which the property is submitted to this Chapter, as hereinafter provided, and such declaration as from time to time amended.
(m) Developer means a person who undertakes to develop a real estate condominium project.

(n) Limited common elements means and includes those common elements designated in the declaration as reserved for the use of a certain apartment or certain apartments to the exclusion of the other apartments; provided, that no amendment of the declaration affecting any of the limited common elements shall be effective without the consent of the owner or owners of the apartment or apartments for the use of which such limited common elements are reserved.
(o) Majority or majority of apartment owners means the owners of apartments to which are appurtenant more than fifty per cent (50%) of the common interests, and any specified percentage of the apartment owners means the owners of the apartments to which are appurtenant such percentage of the common interests.

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(p) Master deed or master lease means any deed or lease showing the extent of the interest of the person submitting the property to the horizontal property regime.

(q) Operation of the property means and includes the administration and operation of the property and the maintenance, repair, and replacement of, and the making of any additions and improvements to, the common elements.

(r) Person means an individual firm, corporation, partnership, association, trust, or other legal entity, or any combination thereof.

(s) Property means and includes the land, whether leasehold or in fee simple, to the extent of the interest held therein by the owner or lessee submitting such interest to the horizontal property regime, the building or buildings, all improvements and all structures thereon, and all easements, rights, and appurtenances belonging thereto, and all articles of personal property intended for use in connection therewith, which have been or are intended to be submitted to the regime established by this Chapter. A property may include two or more parcels of land separated only by public streets or ways.

(t) To record means to record in accordance with Chapters 29 through
39 of this Title.

(u) All pronouns used herein include the male, female, and neuter genders and include the singular or plural numbers, as the case may be.
(v) Completion of construction means the issuance by the Building
Official of a certificate of completion.
SOURCE: CC ‘63102.