The adaptation of the institution of apartment ownership to civilian property law structures in the mixed jurisdictions of South Africa, Sri Lanka and Louisiana
Date
2008-02
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Juta Law Publishing
Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Since the maxim superficies solo cedit disallows separate ownership of
land and parts of a building, special legislation was necessary in South Africa,
Sri Lanka and Louisiana to breach this principle of accession and legitimize
the institution of apartment ownership in these mixed jurisdictions. At the
time when urgent housing shortages, especially near centers of employment,
compelled these jurisdictions to promulgate statutes to regulate apartment
ownership, the most attractive workable precedents available were the common
law statutes of New South Wales, British Columbia and certain United
States’ statutes. The great success which especially New South Wales enjoyed
in providing housing to thousands of Australians led to the transplantation of
the New South Wales statute to South Africa and Sri Lanka. The impetus for
the first generation Louisiana Horizontal Property Act of 1962 was the availability
of Federal Housing Authority insured mortgages for condominiums in
states where condominium regimes were authorized by local law. This Act is
copied almost verbatim from the Arkansas Property Act, which in turn borrowed
from the Puerto Rican statute altering the civilian terminology in that statute to suit common law requirements. Because of numerous shortcomings,
the Horizontal Property Act was replaced by the Condominium Act of
1974 and finally the Condominium Act of 1979. Although these second and
third generation Louisiana statutes conform to the terminology of the Civil
Code, the latest Act borrowed heavily from the Uniform Condominium Act
approved by the Commissioners on Uniform State Laws in 1977. The Uniform
Condominium Act and the New South Wales strata legislation are the two
most sophisticated common law statutes in the world.
Description
CITATION: Van Der Merwe, C.G. 2008. The adaptation of the institution of apartment ownership to civilian property law structures in the mixed jurisdictions of South Africa, Sri Lanka and Louisiana. Stellenbosch Law Review = Stellenbosch Regstydskrif 19(2):298-313.
The original publication is available at https://journals.co.za/content/journal/ju_slr
The original publication is available at https://journals.co.za/content/journal/ju_slr
Keywords
Common law statutes of New South Wales, Apartments -- Private ownership, Apartment houses, Cooperative -- Law and legislation, Land subdivision -- Law and legislation
Citation
Van Der Merwe, C.G. 2008. The adaptation of the institution of apartment ownership to civilian property law structures in the mixed jurisdictions of South Africa, Sri Lanka and Louisiana. Stellenbosch Law Review = Stellenbosch Regstydskrif 19(2):298-313.