Home Inspection: What is a Town home/Condo?

Recently I have been getting requests to inspect a town home/condo.   My question to the potential client was what is it?  Is it a town home or a condo?  To my surprise most didn’t know the difference.  So let’s understand what each is.   

What is a condominium?

A condominium, or condo, is a building or community of buildings in which units are owned by individuals, rather than a landlord.  Condo owners only own the interior of their unit. All other areas, including the building exterior, lawn and communal areas are property of the Homeowners Association (HOA).

What is a town home?

A town home is defined as conjoined units that are owned by individual tenants. They are architecturally similar to row houses in that owners usually share at least one or more walls.  In most town home communities, owners own their unit’s interior and exterior, including the roof, lawn and driveway, but not the communal areas.

The problem at hand is there are condo’s on the market that look like town homes and the buyers are not being instructed as to the difference.  So to summarize the difference and make this as simple as possible to understand.  No matter what it looks like, a condominium is walls in only, which is all that is being purchased.  Also when you call a home inspector for an inspection be sure what you ask for, you may be paying for more than you need.  Know what you’re buying.