You Can’t Put That There… Or Can You?

For condominium associations in a world post Kandil-Elsayed and Janini, master deeds and bylaws are important in establishing potential duties owed to co-owners. If a co-owner surrenders control of the common areas to the association, they will be an invitee and a duty of reasonable care is owed. If an association has a duty of reasonable care and that duty is not discharged or assumed by another party to a contract, the association will still have a duty to exercise reasonable care. However, that duty sounds in premises liability, not in ordinary negligence or in negligent performance of a contract. And if you are a contractor in the midst of all this, you must perform your contractual obligations with ordinary care and recognize a duty of care to third parties foreseeably injured by your negligent performance of a contract.