Common parts maintenance: organising it, budgeting for it, checking it

An entrance hall that smells damp, a lift stuck on a Friday evening, a gutter that overflows with every storm: many major co-ownership projects start with maintenance that never happened. Yet common parts maintenance is neither a vote nor a heavy procedure. It is a budget line, a calendar, and a few contracts that need reopening from time to time.

Our view: maintenance depends less on money than on regularity, and it needs someone who keeps the list. This page describes what shared maintenance covers, how it is decided, which checks the regulations require in Flanders and Brussels, and how to keep track of it all between two general meetings. The legal framework is the same in every region: the Civil Code, Book 3. What differs are the technical obligations linked to the building.

Which parts of the building have to be maintained jointly?

The starting point is not the task list but the building plan. The owners' association (VME/ACP) exists to preserve and manage the building, and it takes care of everything that falls within the common partsGlossaryParts of the building or land that belong to all co-owners according to their shares, such as the roof, the entrance hall or shared pipes. Where the title deeds are silent or contradictory, parts intended for the use of all or some co-owners are deemed common. See the glossary: roof, façades, stairwell, entrance hall, lift, communal boiler room, shared pipework, corridor lighting, outdoor areas. Each co-owner contributes according to the criteria set by the co-ownership regulations, usually their shares (Art. 3.85, § 1).

The boundary is rarely disputed for a roof and often for everything else. Three situations come up again and again.

The first is exclusive right of useGlossaryRight of exclusive use over a common part, such as a garden or a roof terrace, granted to a unit by the articles. The element remains a common part; the co-ownership regulations specify how its costs are shared. See the glossary: a terrace, a garden, a roof accessible from only one apartment. The element remains common; only the allocation of the related costs can be adjusted by the statutes. Read the regulations before you decide, not the use you observe.

The second is mixed installations. A drainage stack is common; the connection running from a kitchen sink is not. A window frame can be private while still being subject to common rules on appearance. The page on private and common parts sets out this dividing line in detail.

The third is damage caused by an occupant. That is no longer maintenance but a question of liability, and it is dealt with separately from the annual budget.

Routine maintenance or building works: where is the line?

The distinction is not cosmetic, because it changes how the decision is taken.

Routine maintenance is decided once a year, as a whole, through the vote on the budget. The syndic prepares two separate envelopes, and the general meeting approves them.

“to prepare the budget estimate for routine expenditure on the maintenance, operation and administration of the common parts and common installations of the building, as well as a budget estimate for foreseeable extraordinary costs; these budget estimates are put to the vote of the owners' association every year”

Art. 3.89, § 5, 16°, Civil Code

Once the budget estimateGlossaryEstimate prepared by the syndic of the routine costs of maintaining, running and managing the common parts, and of foreseeable extraordinary expenses. It is put to the vote of the general meeting. See the glossary has been voted, the syndic orders the services it covers without going back to the general meeting each time a technician calls. How these two envelopes are built is explained on the page on the co-ownership budget, and how they turn into calls for funds in the section on co-ownership service charges.

Works affecting the common parts follow a different logic: they are voted on, by a two-thirds majority in principle, and by an absolute majority when they are required by law or constitute protective measures and acts of provisional management (Art. 3.88, § 1, 1°, b)). The full timeline of a project is set out in co-ownership building works, and how to count the votes in voting rules and majorities.

In between comes the emergency. The syndic must carry out all protective measures and all acts of provisional management (Art. 3.89, § 5, 2°). A downpipe torn off in a storm is repaired the same day, without waiting for the next meeting. A planned boiler replacement is not.

What should a maintenance contract contain?

A reasonably equipped building soon accumulates several contracts: lift, boiler room, water softener, garage doors, fire detection, cleaning, grounds maintenance. They are signed once and renew themselves for years, which makes them the easiest item to let drift.

Above an amount set by the general meeting by a two-thirds majority, competitive tenderingGlossaryObligation to compare several offers for contracts above the threshold set by the general meeting by a two-thirds majority. The syndic must then present several quotes. See the glossary becomes mandatory for contracts, and the syndic presents several quotes based on a previously drawn-up specification (Art. 3.88, § 1, 1°, c), and Art. 3.89, § 5, 11°). If that applies to you and your general meeting has never set this amount, we recommend putting it on the agenda of the next meeting: without it, tendering is never mandatory.

Lift and heating: the checks required by regulation

Two installations fall outside the scope of an ordinary private contract, because legislation itself sets out how they must be checked.

For the lift, the owner or manager must have preventive maintenance carried out by a maintenance company, regular preventive inspections by an external technical inspection service, a risk analysis every fifteen years, and any necessary modernisation work. They must also compile and keep a file containing these documents. These rules are federal and therefore also apply in Flanders. The modernisation deadlines set for existing lifts have all passed: depending on the date the lift was put into service, they ran until 31 December 2014, 2016 or 2022 (FPS Economy). A building that has not yet taken stock would do well to start by asking for the lift's file.

For heating, routine servicing and the regulatory certificate are two different things. Servicing cleans and adjusts the installation; the certificate proves that the mandatory maintenance has been carried out in accordance with the rules. The frequency depends on the region and the fuel.

Sources: Vlaanderen.be for the Flemish Region, Brussels Environment for the Brussels-Capital Region. In Flanders, gas and oil boilers are serviced by a technician approved for the fuel concerned, who issues a cleaning certificate and a combustion certificate (reinigingsattest and verbrandingsattest); solid fuel installations are serviced by a trained professional, who issues a cleaning certificate. Keep at least the last two certificates with the building's documents. In Brussels, too, the work must be done by a technician approved for the fuel concerned.

Fire detection, extinguishers and evacuation follow yet other rules, regional and municipal: the page on fire safety in apartment buildings deals with them separately.

Keeping records between two general meetings

Maintenance that is properly done but not documented gets paid for twice: once to the technician, and once on the day you have to prove it happened.

Keep a simple log, installation by installation, with the date of the last call-out, the next due date and the contractor's name. This document fits on one page and is enough to prepare the following year's budget without reconstructing the history from invoices.

File inspection reports, inspection certificates and warranties in the same place. These are the documents a prospective buyer asks for, and the ones the insurer relies on when a claim arises. How they are passed on in a sale is covered in documents required for a sale.

Between two general meetings, the co-ownership council, mandatory in buildings with at least twenty units, cellars, garages and parking spaces not included, monitors how the syndic carries out their duties. In a small building without a council, a co-owner who volunteers to walk round the common areas twice a year provides the same service.

Finally, report in writing. A damp patch mentioned in passing in the hall commits no one; the same observation sent to the syndic by email dates the finding and opens the file. If it concerns a leak, the next steps are described in water damage and leaks. To place maintenance within the wider life of the building, go back to the page on apartment building management, and for improvement works that build on maintenance, see energy renovation and grants.