Side by side duplexes (actually called twins) were very common both in Philadelphia where I grew up and in Montreal where I have lived for 57 years. They were just separately owned although I suppose a problem with the common wall might require a discussion. But it was so ordinary that I never gave it a thought. My house in Montreal, before I moved to a condo, was south of the other one and I guess I benefitted from the windbreak.
South FL has lots of side-by-side duplexes in gated communities. People refer to their neighbors as roofmates. Granted, the communities are responsible for some of the common areas such as roofs, but for the most part each owner is responsible for their unit.
I think the side by side duplexes mentioned are what I know as “semi-detached houses” . “Semi”because they are attached on only one side. Attached houses are attached on both sides. There will be a semi-detached house on each end of a row, and the houses in between (if any) are attached. But they are two separate houses , on two separate lots and they are usually owned by different people. They share a wall and nothing else.
As far as the single building with two ( or three or four) units, in my area the owner(s) typically rent the units they aren’t using. It’s not at all unheard of for the owner(s) to use more than one unit - maybe two sisters own a two family house or maybe the owners live in one apartment and their adult children/grandchildren live in the others.
I have in the past few years seen condos advertised in three unit buildings , but not buildings with two units, at least not yet.
Sure there are. Any semi-detached house is an example of that. Or condominium townhouses.
That said, I grew up in an area with lots of duplexes (and triplexes) and AFAIK they were all single-owner. The typical model was the owner lived on the main level and the upstairs was a rental (one apartment, or for what was called a triplex, the second level subdivided into two apartments). There were sometimes two entrances but in older designs, just one front door to a common stairway.
That sounds like what’s defined as a semi-detached here in North America.
I grew up in an area of Montreal where duplexes were very common, and come to think of it, many of them were also semi-detached. Meaning you had one residence with one owner and one or two rental apartments on the second floor, and an attached equivalent unit. I’d never heard the term “twin”, but they were semi-detached duplexes. Sounds like high-density housing, but some of them were in very nice new suburban neighbourhoods.
Apartments are generally occupied by renters. Condominiums or co-ops are usually purchased by individuals, although some places allow units to be rented out.
As for insurance, as an example, I live in an apartment, and the owners have insurance on the building proper. Tenants have to carry renter’s insurance and submit proof to the leasing office, or pay a monthly surcharge.
After the 2020 derecho that hit the upper Midwest, I found out that two buildings in my complex had NOBODY call the utility company to say their power was out, and one unit was occupied by someone on home dialysis! Everyone assumed the rental office would do it, and they did, for that office building. My power was out for 3 days.
It’s in Utah and we have always called it a duplex.
In city environments it is not uncommon to hear people owning their apartment and apartments for sale. I really don’t know how that works, but someone needs to own it, it would seem like the occupant can, and sounds likely occasionally does.
Both condos (where the shared space, like the roof over stacked units, and usually the structural components of the building) is owned by the condo association, or a coop, where everything is owned by the coop corporation and the people living in each unit buy the right to use the unit, are common forms of joint ownership in NYC. Condos, at least, are common throughout the US.
And I’ve known a couple of people who owned a one of two or three units in a building, maybe all as condos.
No, that’s how it’s often done. And the owner of each unit sits on the “board”, and they argue about repairs.
One of my siblings has made a fortune condo-izing three and four unit buildings which he first purchased as 3-4 unit rentals or as a single three story + basement house which he renovated into three or four units.
In each conversion he had to set up a condo board before he could sell any units. There was an awkward phase when he would control a majority on the board. For example, when he had sold one unit out of three but still had two as rentals. Awkward for the other people, not for him.
Yup, I owned the middle unit in a Boston triple-decker, and each owner had a 33% vote (the top unit got %34). So any two owners could outvote the other, but we worked on concensus. Some friends owned a up/down duplex before they bought out the upper unit owners. It was easier to keep the duplex entity in place but they now own both units so it’s only like that for tax purposes.
I don’t think a condo corporation is necessary for a side by side duplex. Everything regarding the common side can be legally covered by a party wall agreement registered on the 2 properties.
For a duplex here in Alberta, Insurance and repairs treat the sides as two separate structures. For example we have replaced shingles on one side of a roof only many times. The other side is up to that owner and their insurance/ contractor. If damage travels from your neighbor’s side to yours, for example, damage to your home is still handled by your insurance and your contractors. Subrogation is the business of the insurers for the most part.
A duplex simply refers to any structure that is divided into two distinct properties, a two unit ‘multi-family’. It can be up/down or side by side. What people most commonly refer to as a duplex is a semi-detached home. The two sides will share a foundation and roof but there is an actual one inch gap between the two sides connected only by exterior sheathing.
Condos introduce a third party with their own insurance and contractors and a bunch of documents to declare what is whoose responsibility. They are lots of fun.
Ah. When i think of a “duplex”, i think of units on top of each other, as that is much more common here. So both units share a single, indivisible roof, and a single, indivisible foundation. I don’t really have a name for two separate units that share a wall between them. If it’s more than two, they may be “rowhouses”. But two is just, “two houses that share a wall” to me.
“Duplex” has too many meanings. In NYC, two units one on top of the other is a two-family house, two separate houses that share a wall are semi-detached houses and a duplex is an apartment with two stories and an internal staircase.
Yes, I was intending to differentiate the architectural term from the colloquial usuage, not taking into account that the colloquial term is going to vary depending on regional construction.
Wood framed side by side ‘duplexes’ are going to be semi-detached homes, and the two sides are largely structurally independent. You can completely tear down one side without disturbing the other. Not so with up / down duplexes. Fire travels up and water travels down so vertically divided multi-family structures tend to suffer a lot of third party damage.
The one our family owns doesn’t have a condo association. I would have to ask my mom, but I believe that formally we just have the common wall agreement. All the other things are just done by agreement.
Apparently there were a number of problems with the neighbor after I moved out and a sibling and partner moved in.
Even without condo associations there are ways of spending useless time and energy.