"The work is needed, everyone agrees, and nobody moves." We hear that often — usually because the building hasn't separated three concepts the law treats quite differently.
Conservation, innovation and urgency
Conservation works keep the building in the condition it should be in: repairing the roof, painting the façade, replacing risers, overhauling the common-area wiring. They are decided by simple majority in assembly and paid by everyone in proportion to permillage.
Innovations change what exists: enclosing a shared balcony, installing CCTV, creating parking where there was a garden, adding a lift to a building that never had one. They require a qualified majority — as a rule, two thirds of the building's total value.
Urgent works do not wait for a meeting. A burst riser, a jammed gate, a façade element at risk of falling: the manager orders the work and accounts for it afterwards. With no manager in place, any owner may do so and be reimbursed.
Confusing innovation with conservation is the expensive mistake: the work proceeds on the wrong majority, and any owner can challenge it after it has been paid for.
Who pays what
The general rule is each unit's permillage. There are important exceptions:
- Common parts used exclusively by some units — a garage entrance, for instance — may be borne only by those who use them, where the title or a resolution so provides.
- Damage caused to the common parts by one unit is that owner's responsibility.
- For innovations, owners who voted against may in certain cases be excused from contributing to works that are not of common interest — but they do not benefit from them either.
Before allocating costs, always check the constitutive title. That is where the permillages and your building's specific rules live.
Three quotes, one specification
Getting three quotes is worthless if all three describe different work. A simple specification — scope, materials, deadlines, warranties, payment terms — makes proposals comparable and avoids the classic "this one was cheaper but didn't include scaffolding".
Always ask for: the contractor's public liability insurance, the warranty period on the work, and who is responsible for clearing and making good at the end.
During the work
Someone has to supervise. Regular visits, a photographic record, measured valuations before each payment, and a written progress note for owners. Payments made in advance of work done are the fastest way to lose money.
What an in-house team changes
When the work is carried out by the manager's own crew, two layers of friction disappear: the wait for external quotes and the middleman's margin. Diagnosis, execution and inspection sit with the same team — and someone is always accountable for the result.
This article is for general information and does not replace reading the constitutive title and the applicable legislation.