Posted:
Arthur,
It is confusing, no doubt about it. Lets see if we can at help a little.
First, there are basically only 3 broad types of associations - condominium, cooperative and everything else. Remove all of the pictures from your mind. The differences are the legal structures, not the physical ones.
Condominium - the owner usually purchases an air space or the area within the perimeter of the outside walls. All of the owners, in common, own the rest of the property, which often includes the exterior walls and roofs of the units. Sometimes the owners have an exclusive right to use some of the common property outside of the walls, such as a patio, or front porch, but they don't own it. This is often called "Liimited Common Area" or "Exclusive Use" common area. Some condominiums are detached, so they have no common walls. You might think that would be a homeowner association, but the developer may have created a condo (or "site condominium"). In a condominium association, the association maintains the common areas, the owner covers what's inside the unit, and the documents will spell out who and how the exclusive areas are to be handled. I believe (although without checking I can't swear to it) almost all states have some form of legislation governing condos. These may be called Condominium Act, Horizontal Real Property Acts, or Unit Owner Acts. Condo's have other names, in different geographic areas. For example, they may be called "townhomes" in some areas of the country, but, if the association takes care of everything outside the interior walls, they are, in fact, condo's. The governing documents of a condo may be called the "Master Deed and Bylaws" or they may use the term CC&R's (see below).
I'll skip the cooperative for now.
The "everything else" covers those associations where the owner owns the structure (home), and/or the land its on. There will be some common areas, such as roads, sidewalks, playgrounds, pools etc., which are owned by the association, of which each owner is a member. These may be called homeonwer associations (HOA), Property owner associations (POA), planned community, master community and so on. The difference is in the ownership structure of the homes (or lots) and the common areas. Not every state has an act governing this type of housing, so the critical documents are the Covenants, Conditions & Restrictions's (CC&R's) or just "governing documents". They are sometimes called simply "deed restrictions". These will spell out who owns what, who's responsible for what and how things will (should) operate.
Most associations (but not all), whether they are condo or "everything else" are incorporated. Even though they could do business as an unincorporated entity, incorporation as a not-for-profit affords some additional measure of protection to the owners and board members.
I don't know if this helped or confused you more, but this is one of the reasons we so often ask about which state people are from, and a little bit more description of their documents, to help us in determining the best answer to give.
JosephW