Do you own your parking space in a new Miami condo?

Usually not in the way a house owner owns a garage. In most new Miami condominiums the space is a limited common element: owned by all the owners together, assigned to your home by the declaration or by the developer's assignment at closing, and passing with the home when you sell. In a few buildings spaces are separate units with their own deeds and their own share of the budget, which can be bought and sold apart from the home. In others the space is licensed or leased from the association, which can change the terms. And in a valet only garage there is no space of yours at all, only a right to have the car parked. Which of the four you are buying is in the purchase agreement's parking exhibit and the declaration, not in the brochure, and it decides what you may sell, what you insure and whether you may install a charger.

A deeded parking unit is real property: it has its own legal description, pays its own assessment share, and may be sold or leased to another owner in the building under the declaration's rules, which is the form a collector with three cars prefers and the rarest. A limited common element space is the usual form: the declaration or an exhibit to the deed assigns a numbered space to a numbered home, the association maintains the garage as a common expense, and the assignment travels with the home; whether it may be swapped between owners depends on the declaration, usually with board approval and a recorded amendment. A licensed space is a contract with the association for the use of a space for a term, sometimes for a fee, which the association may not renew on the same terms. And a valet only garage holds cars without assigning spaces, so an owner's right is to service, not to a square of concrete. Read limited common elements and storage at The Perigon and at Rivage, and is the private rooftop deeded for the same question asked of the terrace above.

In three places that must agree. The purchase agreement, usually in an exhibit or a schedule that names the number of spaces, and sometimes their location or whether they are tandem, and says whether the assignment is made at contract or at closing and by whom. The declaration of condominium, in its definition of limited common elements and its parking clause, which says how spaces are assigned, whether they may be reassigned and who maintains and insures the garage. And the deed, or the assignment recorded with it, which is what the next buyer's title agent reads. A buyer who finds the number of spaces only in a sales brochure has found nothing. Among the buildings on our file Cassia publishes assigned parking included; Cipriani Residences Miami and Ocean House Surfside publish EV charging, and Ocean House a private garage for six cars with 24 hour valet; Olara in West Palm Beach publishes two assigned full sized spaces with EV capability per home; most publish no count. Read parking, EV and storage at Cassia, at Cipriani, at Ocean House and at Olara, and the five sections of condominium documents.

Two things: where the car is, and who answers for it. In a valet garage the association or its operator takes the keys, and the garage keeper's liability for damage or theft sits with the operator's insurance and the rules' disclaimers, which usually limit it; the owner's own auto policy covers the rest. The rules also set hours, the wait a resident should expect, whether a resident may self park at all, and what a second car or a guest's car costs. A building that publishes 24 hour valet, as Ocean House does, is publishing a service; whether the resident may also reach their own car at three in the morning is a rules question. Read deliveries and arrivals at Ocean House and concierge and services at the Shoreclub, whose published driver's room is the other end of the same question: where the chauffeur waits while the car is parked.

Florida's condominium statute addresses it: an owner may, at their own expense and under conditions the statute and the association set, install an electric vehicle charging station within the boundaries of their limited common element parking space, with the association able to require insurance, a licensed installer and a separate meter or a method of paying for the electricity. The right attaches to a space that is the owner's limited common element, which is one more reason the form of ownership matters; a valet garage or a licensed space is a different conversation with the board. A building that publishes EV charging, as Cipriani and Ocean House do, or EV capability at assigned spaces, as Olara does, is publishing infrastructure, not ownership; ask whether the charger at your space is yours, the association's or a shared network with its own billing. The wording of the statute and its conditions are for counsel; the question for the sales team is in writing before reserving. Read which West Palm Beach condo suits a collector of cars and wine and which Brickell condo suits a collector of cars, wine and design for the garage read building by building.

Seven questions, each answered by a document. How many spaces come with the home, and are any tandem. Which of the four forms is each space held in. May additional spaces be bought, from whom, in which form and when. Are spaces assigned at contract, at closing or by lottery, and may a buyer choose. May spaces be swapped or sold between owners, and with whose approval. What are the valet rules and who is liable for the car. And whether a charger may be installed at the space, and who pays for the power. The same questions apply to a storage locker, which is held the same four ways. A buyer who has the answers in writing has a garage; one who has a brochure has a hope. Read documents before closing on a new Miami condo, how to read a Miami floor plan for the garage level on the drawings, and how Miami resale behaves after delivery for why a second deeded space is read by the next buyer. The desk reads the parking exhibit and the declaration's clause with the buyer before the reservation.