Legal Definition of a Demising Wall, Case Study, Legal Precedent in American Court
Hello,

I am trying to find a legal case, where a legal definition of a demising wall has been established. 

I bought a little office in a commercial condo. The developer is trying to take advantage of the small business/condo owners. He is stating that the definition of a demising wall is only a wall between two condo owners. When I search Google, the definition of a demising walls comes up with this commonly used definition. 

A **Demising Wall** is the partition **wall** that separates one tenant's space from another tenant's space or from the building's common areas such as a public corridor, hallway or restroom. 

The developer agreed to pay for improvements to the demising walls. Now he is saying the wall between my office and the hallway of the building is not a demising wall. 

Any help would be greatly appreciated. 

Thank you
[{"id": "h2mnhqy", "text": "Probably not the answer you\u2019re looking for, but as is the answer to most CRE questions, it depends. \n\nSomething like this is typically negotiated and spelled out in detail in the Work Letter / Purchase and Sale Agreement. \n\nI would consult a local real estate attorney.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "h2mrr8b", "text": "Do you have a condominium declaration or any other governing documents to refer to? The project I just worked on stated that only the structural features of the interior walls were common elements. Not saying this is your answer, but providing an example of how the declaration should answer your question.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "h2nrc57", "text": "The developer may not have anticipated any of the condo units being subdivided by any demising walls. How big are the condo units and how big is the space that you're renting?", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "h2uv5n6", "text": "That\u2019s definitely a demising wall. Source: work in construction.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "h36rucr", "text": "Thank you all for your responses. \n\nThere is no definition of demising wall included in the condo docs.\n\nThe condo documents state below. \n\n(2)\tDemising walls provided shall be studs only.\tSound insulation batts shall be provided by Developer for installation by Unit Owners.\n\nVarious professional real estate organizations have different definitions. Some just state walls between tenants, and others state walls between tenant spaces as well as between tenants and common spaces, such as the building hallways.\n\nAt this point, I think the only choice I have is to take the developer to small claims court.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "h36s6d0", "text": "In Sales and Purchase agreement, the same is stated. \"Demising Walls provided shall be studs only. Sound insulation batts shall be provided by Developer for installation by Buyers.\"", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "h4gy6s2", "text": "Office and hallway is absolutely a demising wall. \n\nDemising wall demises one space from another - either one tenant from another tenant or one tenant from the core/corridor of the building space. Normally it has a different wall classification in the drawings as demising walls are treated differently by most building codes and often have a fire rating. \n\n99% of the time the landlord or developer will partially provide the demising wall; studs only, or studs with drywall on landlord side of the wall for corridor demising. The idea is that the wall on the tenant side is not drywalled so that they may make their own improvements (electrical, blocking, ect). Either way they have to provide studs. Good landlords and developers want a consistent corridor and need to maintain fire ratings for code and would not want a tenant doing this themselves.", "replies": [{"id": "h4gy7rl", "text": "\nHello! You have made the mistake of writing \"ect\" instead of \"etc.\"\n\n\"Ect\" is a common misspelling of \"etc,\" an abbreviated form of the Latin phrase \"et cetera.\" Other abbreviated forms are **etc.**, **&amp;c.**, **&amp;c**, and **et cet.** The Latin translates as \"et\" to \"and\" + \"cetera\" to \"the rest;\" a literal translation to \"and the rest\" is the easiest way to remember how to use the phrase. \n\n[Check out the wikipedia entry if you want to learn more.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Et_cetera)\n\n^(I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Comments with a score less than zero will be automatically removed. If I commented on your post and you don't like it, reply with \"!delete\" and I will remove the post, regardless of score. Message me for bug reports.)", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}]