Special to the Palm Beach Post

AI-assisted summary The ownership of a condominium unit’s door does not solely determine who can modify it.

Even if a law requires a sign to be displayed, the condominium may only need to provide a reasonable accommodation, not necessarily allow placement on the door.

Live in a home governed by a condominium, co-op or homeowner’s association? Have questions about what they can and cannot do? Ryan Poliakoff, an attorney and author based in Boca Raton, has answers.

Question: I purchased my business condominium after having been a renter. I have been there for 20 years. Not once has the property manager ever maintained my front door in any way.

Due to the nature of my business, the department of health requires that I have my telephone number and license number visible outside of my unit. Instead of going through the expense of a new sign, I purchased a small tasteful sign that I could easily put on my front wood door instead of drilling the sign into the concrete under my present sign. The signs would also clash terribly, and appearance does matter to me.

The property manager along with a board member forbade me from putting the sign on the door, stating they own the door. They claimed that it’s common knowledge that in all business condominiums, the doors are owned by the building.

In my conversation, I was also informed that if I purchased a new sign it had to conform to a specific size. I don’t see either of these things in my condominium bylaws or rules. What rights do I have? Signed, J.B.

Dear J.B.,

While you sent a copy of your rules and governing documents, unfortunately I don’t have the ability within the scope of my column to do a thorough review of the documents and give you a full legal opinion. However, I can certainly spot the relevant issues for you so that, when you consult with an attorney (which I recommend), you know where to look.

First, it is not true that “in all business condominiums the doors are owned by the building.” There are no rules like that. The declaration of condominium will establish the unit boundaries, just like in a residential condominium. Sometimes doors and apertures are part of a unit, and sometimes not.

But the question of who owns your door is also not as relevant as you may think. Just because you own something in a condominium does not mean you get to do whatever you want with it. For example, you own your unit, but there are many regulations regarding what you can do with the unit, including what kind of a business can be operated inside. In one famous case, a Florida appeals court said that “every man may justly consider his home his castle and himself as the king thereof; nonetheless his sovereign fiat to use his property as he pleases must yield, at least in degree, where ownership is in common or cooperation with others.” This principle is just as true in the commercial context.

So ultimately, your focus on who owns your door is misplaced.

First, it’s quite common for maintenance responsibility for various elements in a condominium to be unrelated to ownership. For example, often unit owners are responsible for maintaining their limited common element balconies, even though they do not own them; and similarly, it’s not uncommon for a condominium to be responsible to maintain doors, windows and other elements that are otherwise a part of the unit.

The first question is whether your declaration has language regarding the exterior appearance of the door and, particularly, signage.

It’s extremely common for commercial condominiums to have signage restrictions and regulations, and you’re going to be obligated to follow them, even if you own your door. Further, the board likely has the ability to pass reasonable rules concerning the use and appearance of the property, and so a board-made rule prohibiting signs on unit doors would probably be enforceable, as well. (While I respect your aesthetic concerns regarding tacking the sign under your existing sign, I don’t think that’s likely to sway a judge.)

Now, even if these restrictions exist, I do think that, if local, state or federal law requires the display of your telephone number and license outside your unit, the condominium might have to accommodate that in some way. You did not suggest that adding the phone and license number to your existing sign would be a problem with the condominium, you just don’t prefer how it would look — which is valid but again it is not going to carry the day.

If the law says it literally must be on your front door, you might have something to work with, as even covenants must bow to public policy (I’m not saying this would be a bulletproof argument, but it’s worth exploring). But if instead it’s just that you bought a sign thinking that you would simply mount it to your door, and it turns out your condominium documents don’t allow that, but they would allow you to add the information to or below your existing sign, it may be that you made a small mistake to purchase the door sign, and you’re going to have to invest in something that you can add to the existing sign that looks good to you and that satisfies the law. And that may be a hard pill to swallow, but it’s part of living and working in a condominium environment.

It may well be worth engaging an attorney to do a full evaluation of this issue for you, but frankly that alone may cost more than buying another sign. It’s up to you whether the research and possible fight is worth that investment.

Ryan Poliakoff, a partner at Poliakoff Backer, LLP, is a Board Certified specialist in condominium and planned development law. This column is dedicated to the memory of Gary Poliakoff. Ryan Poliakoff and Gary Poliakoff are co-authors of “New Neighborhoods — The Consumer’s Guide to Condominium, Co-Op and HOA Living.” Email your questions to condocolumn@gmail.com. Please be sure to include your location.