Who pays what in an Italian condominio: the expense rules

Half past nine in the evening, the meeting room on the ground floor, item four on the agenda: replacing the lift. The ground-floor owner has already raised his hand (he never sets foot in the thing, so why should he pay?) and the owner of the penthouse fires back that without a lift the whole building loses value. It is the oldest argument in any Italian apartment block, and the Civil Code settled it long ago: under Article 1124, the cost of stairs and lifts is split half according to the ownership shares, the millesimi, and half in proportion to the height of each floor from the ground. The ground floor pays, but pays little; the penthouse pays the most because it climbs the furthest.

The lift is only the most famous quarrel, though. Working out who pays what in an Italian condominio comes down to a handful of provisions (Articles 1123, 1124 and 1126 of the Civil Code, plus the tenancy law when the flat is rented out) and knowing them before the meeting defuses half the arguments. Everything below reflects Italian law; other countries slice these costs quite differently.

How are expenses divided by millesimi?

The general rule sits in Article 1123: the costs of preserving and enjoying the common parts, of shared services and of improvements approved by the majority are borne in proportion to the value of each owner's property. That value is expressed by the tabelle millesimali attached to the building's regulations: an owner holding 25 millesimi out of a thousand pays 2.5 per cent of every general expense, from repainting the facade to insuring the building. The proportion applies unless there is a different agreement — and the word matters. Departing from the legal criterion requires the consent of every owner, in writing or by unanimous vote. A majority, however large, cannot decide that someone will pay more or less than the law assigns them: a resolution that tries is void, and that nullity can be raised at any time, with no deadline.

Article 1123 then adds two common-sense correctives.

Where a common element serves the owners to different degrees, costs are shared in proportion to the use each can make of it. And where an installation serves only some of them (staircase B, the courtyard of one wing) the related costs fall solely on the group that benefits.

Does the ground floor pay for the lift?

Yes, and not out of legislative cruelty. Article 1124 imposes the double criterion from the opening scene (half by millesimi, half by height from the ground) on the maintenance and replacement of stairs and lifts, and Italian case law applies it consistently to existing installations. The reason even the lowest flats contribute is that stairs and lifts do not serve the apartments alone: they lead to the roof, the terraces and the technical rooms, common parts for which every owner answers in proportion to their share.

The height corrective does the rest: in the half calculated by floors, the ground floor weighs almost nothing and the top floor weighs the most. It is the Code's way of turning presumed use into numbers without measuring anyone's actual journeys.

Legal note: the double criterion covers the upkeep and replacement of an existing installation. Fitting a lift where none existed is an improvement and follows different rules: it is apportioned under Article 1123, and owners who do not wish to benefit may stay out of it in the cases the law allows.

How are roof terrace costs shared?

The lastrico solare is the case where a single surface is one person's floor and everyone else's roof. When its use is not common to all, Article 1126 cuts the expense cleanly: whoever has exclusive use contributes one third of the cost of repairs or rebuilding; the remaining two thirds fall on the owners of the building (or the part of it) that the terrace covers, in proportion to the value of their units.

The logic mirrors the lift: the person walking on the terrace wears it down, the people below receive its shelter. Experienced administrators check one thing before apportioning: which units the terrace actually covers. Flats outside its vertical projection stay out of the two-thirds share, and that detail is where most of the litigation starts.

Extraordinary expenses: owner or tenant?

When the flat is rented out, Law 392/1978 comes into play: its Article 9 lists the oneri accessori, the service charges the tenant must bear. The underlying test is simple: the tenant pays for what they consume and the services they enjoy day by day, while the owner pays for whatever preserves the value of the property over time.

Unless the contract says otherwise, the tenant therefore covers:

• Cleaning of the common parts and drainage of cesspits
• The running and ordinary maintenance of the lift
• Water, electricity for the common areas, heating and air conditioning
• The porter service, up to 90 per cent of its cost

Everything else (redoing the roof, replacing the heating plant, structural work on the facade) is an extraordinary expense and belongs to the owner. A habit that saves landlords grief: ask the administrator for accounts that separate ordinary from extraordinary items, because forwarding the tenant a single lump sum is the fastest way to argue about it twice.

Legal note: towards the condominium, the owner is always the one who answers. The split with the tenant operates only inside the tenancy relationship: the administrator bills the registered owner, who then recovers the tenant's share under the lease.

Does a new owner answer for the seller's debts?

Yes, within a precise limit. Article 63 of the implementing provisions of the Civil Code makes whoever takes over a unit jointly and severally liable with the seller for the charges of the current year and the previous one. And "year" means the management year set by the owners' meeting, not the calendar year — a detail that moves real money either way.

In practice the administrator can claim those instalments directly from the new owner, including through a decreto ingiuntivo, the fast-track payment order, and the buyer must then recover from the seller whatever was never theirs to pay. That is why, before completion, it always pays to obtain the administrator's certificate on the state of payments: it is the document that tells you how much debt you are buying along with the keys.

Shares as the rule, actual use as the corrective, unanimity to change the deal: the way Italy splits condominium expenses is far less arbitrary than it feels at the end of a long meeting. Owners who arrive knowing which criterion governs their case (1123, 1124 or 1126) argue about figures rather than principles. And that is almost always a shorter argument.

Information current as of July 2026. This article is for information purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.