Condo Conversions in Novato, CA

A condominium is a subdivision of airspace, which means it is a survey product before it is a real estate product. Under the Subdivision Map Act, converting an existing building into separately owned units is a subdivision regardless of whether a shovel touches the ground, so the project needs a tentative map, a parcel or final map depending on unit count, and a condominium plan describing each unit's boundaries and the common area. The condominium plan is prepared and certified by a licensed surveyor or civil engineer and recorded alongside the map. In Novato the paths differ by product: older apartment buildings around downtown, Ignacio, and the 101 corridor come up as residential conversions, while the business-park and light-industrial buildings near Hamilton and Bel Marin Keys more often convert as commercial condominium regimes so owner-users can buy a suite instead of leasing one.

The hard part in a conversion is that the units already exist and rarely match anything on file. Partitions were moved, mezzanines were added, and the original drawings, if they survive, describe design intent rather than construction. We scan the building interior and exterior, register everything to site control, and derive unit boundaries directly from the measured surfaces — the finished faces, ceilings, and floors the plan will call out — so the recorded document describes the building that is there. The same cloud produces the diagrammatic floor plans, stacking sections, and common-area exhibits the map check and the CC and R drafting need, and it captures balconies, exclusive-use patios, storage, and parking as-located.

Deliverables are the condominium plan, tentative and final mapping, boundary resolution tied to recovered monuments, and layered CAD exhibits, recorded through Marin County. See Novato as-built surveys and our explainer on parcel maps versus tract maps.