As used in this chapter unless the context otherwise requires:

     (1) "Apartment" means a part of the property intended for any type of independent use, including one or more rooms or spaces located on one or more floors (or part or parts thereof) in a building, or if not in a building, a separately delineated place of storage or moorage of a boat, plane, or motor vehicle, regardless of whether it is destined for a residence, an office, storage or moorage of a boat, plane, or motor vehicle, the operation of any industry or business, or for any other use not prohibited by law, and which has a direct exit to a public street or highway, or to a common area leading to such street or highway. The boundaries of an apartment located in a building are the interior surfaces of the perimeter walls, floors, ceilings, windows and doors thereof, and the apartment includes both the portions of the building so described and the air space so encompassed. If the apartment is a separately delineated place of storage or moorage of a boat, plane, or motor vehicle the boundaries are those specified in the declaration. In interpreting declarations, deeds, and plans, the existing physical boundaries of the apartment as originally constructed or as reconstructed in substantial accordance with the original plans thereof shall be conclusively presumed to be its boundaries rather than the metes and bounds expressed or depicted in the declaration, deed or plan, regardless of settling or lateral movement of the building and regardless of minor variance between boundaries shown in the declaration, deed, or plan and those of apartments in the building.

     (2) "Apartment owner" means the person or persons owning an apartment, as herein defined, in fee simple absolute or qualified, by way of leasehold or by way of a periodic estate, or in any other manner in which real property may be owned, leased or possessed in this state, together with an undivided interest in a like estate of the common areas and facilities in the percentage specified and established in the declaration as duly recorded or as it may be lawfully amended.

     (3) "Apartment number" means the number, letter, or combination thereof, designating the apartment in the declaration as duly recorded or as it may be lawfully amended.

     (4) "Association of apartment owners" means all of the apartment owners acting as a group in accordance with the bylaws and with the declaration as it is duly recorded or as they may be lawfully amended.

     (5) "Building" means a building, containing two or more apartments, or two or more buildings each containing one or more apartments, and comprising a part of the property.

     (6) "Common areas and facilities", unless otherwise provided in the declaration as duly recorded or as it may be lawfully amended, includes:

     (a) The land on which the building is located;

     (b) The foundations, columns, girders, beams, supports, main walls, roofs, halls, corridors, lobbys, stairs, stairways, fire escapes, and entrances and exits of the building;

     (c) The basements, yards, gardens, parking areas and storage spaces;

     (d) The premises for the lodging of janitors or persons in charge of the property;

     (e) The installations of central services such as power, light, gas, hot and cold water, heating, refrigeration, air conditioning and incinerating;

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

     (g) Such community and commercial facilities as may be provided for in the declaration as duly recorded or as it may be lawfully amended;

     (h) All other parts of the property necessary or convenient to its existence, maintenance and safety, or normally in common use.

     (7) "Common expenses" include:

     (a) All sums lawfully assessed against the apartment owners by the association of apartment owners;

     (b) Expenses of administration, maintenance, repair, or replacement of the common areas and facilities;

     (c) Expenses agreed upon as common expenses by the association of apartment owners;

     (d) Expenses declared common expenses by the provisions of this chapter, or by the declaration as it is duly recorded, or by the bylaws, or as they may be lawfully amended.

     (8) "Common profits" means the balance of all income, rents, profits and revenues from the common areas and facilities remaining after the deduction of the common expenses.

     (9) "Declaration" means the instrument by which the property is submitted to provisions of this chapter, as hereinafter provided, and as it may be, from time to time, lawfully amended.

     (10) "Land" means the material of the earth, whatever may be the ingredients of which it is composed, whether soil, rock, or other substance, whether or not submerged, and includes free or occupied space for an indefinite distance upwards as well as downwards, subject to limitations upon the use of airspace imposed, and rights in the use of the airspace granted, by the laws of this state or of the United States.

     (11) "Limited common areas and facilities" includes those common areas and facilities designated in the declaration, as it is duly recorded or as it may be lawfully amended, as reserved for use of certain apartment or apartments to the exclusion of the other apartments.

     (12) "Majority" or "majority of apartment owners" means the apartment owners with fifty-one percent or more of the votes in accordance with the percentages assigned in the declaration, as duly recorded or as it may be lawfully amended, to the apartments for voting purposes.

     (13) "Person" includes any individual, corporation, partnership, association, trustee, or other legal entity.

     (14) "Property" means the land, the building, all improvements and structures thereon, all owned in fee simple absolute or qualified, by way of leasehold or by way of a periodic estate, or in any other manner in which real property may be owned, leased or possessed in this state, and all easements, rights and appurtenances belonging thereto, none of which shall be considered as a security or security interest, and all articles of personalty intended for use in connection therewith, which have been or are intended to be submitted to the provisions of this chapter.

[1987 c 383 § 1; 1981 c 304 § 34; 1965 ex.s. c 11 § 1; 1963 c 156 § 1.]

NOTES:

     Applicability of RCW 64.32.010(1) to houseboat moorages: "The provisions of section 34 (1) shall not apply to moorages for houseboats without the approval of the local municipality." [1981 c 304 § 35.]

     Severability -- 1981 c 304: See note following RCW 26.16.030.