[Avodah] No Right to Mezuzot at Condos

[Zev Sero]

Micha Berger wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 04:07:21PM -0400, Zev Sero wrote:
> : If the law gives your neighbours the right to prevent you from painting
> : your house with bright purple and yellow stripes, does that mean you
> : don't own it?  A condo (as opposed to co-op) owner owns his own apartment
> : absolutely; his neighbours can only object to what he puts in *their*
> : corridor.
 
> You're assuming that ba'alus means ownership. However, a rentor who has
> permission to hang a mezuzah is obligated to. Despite a lack of ownership.
> Or in the reverse, if you own the property but can't move the resident
> of the room around at will, you aren't obligated to hang a mezuzah.

OK, so would you say that if you can't paint your house any colour you
want, then you don't have enough ba'alus to obligate you in mezuzah?
If a restriction on painting the house doesn't strip you of ba'alus,
then why should a restriction on affixing things to the outside of the
doorway do so?

 
> : In this case the owners retain the right to put up a mezuzah, but only
> : inside; the fight is over whether they can put it up where lechatchila
> : it belongs, on the outside.  My sympathy is certainly with them, but in
> : the meantime they can put it up inside...
> 
> They /could/. I was repeating my old recollection of a theoretical
> discussion of whether they /must/.

If they can, then surely they must.  They certainly have enough ba'alus
to put whatever they like on the *inside* of the doorway, and that is a
valid place for a mezuzah, albeit not the best place, so on what grounds
could they be patur?

-- 
Zev Sero               Something has gone seriously awry with this Court's
zev at sero.name          interpretation of the Constitution.
                       	                          - Clarence Thomas