Main instal·lations at home or in the owners' community which require an easement

1. Introduction : Is it necessary to repair damages at home or in the community when they break down?

The affirmative answer to the headline is obvious. However, the question serves to underline: not take any action is not an option because can have serious consequences. In this link our Facility Manager, Joan Clar, explains it.

In 2019 we wrote about the concept of easement which is defined as: 'the cession by an owner the right pass by his/her private property to fix something which it don't work inside another within the owners community'. We think, for example, of the optic fiber cabling which has to be fixed by the commercial company penetrating to our private property to repair it.

In another article we dealt with which repairs must be carried out in a rented apartment by the owner and which by the tenant. In this sense, the owner will be responsible for major repairs that it is very difficult that a tenant has broken during his/her stay, for instance, the boiler. On the other hand, the tenant will have to take care of small damages totally linked with day to day use, as for example the breakage of the handle of the door of the bathroom. However, as before, this damage cannot happen before the tenant's visit.

The above issues are linked because they are linked to repair. That said, their simple juxtaposition without any further explanation is confusing. Dear readers in Finques Feliu we can justify it because we will deal with a topic that solves the inconsistency: 'elements of the property or the community of owners subject to repair'.

2. What do we mean when we talk about private and common elements?

Before entering to treat the repairs of elements that can share housings and communities of proprietors we define to what we refer when we speak of elements of privative use and those ones with common use.

The privative elements are only destined to the use and enjoyment of a certain owner. Often, the fact that an element is privative derive in a wrong thought: 'a privative element must be inside of the owner property'. This is a necessary but not sufficient condition. Thus, the interior of an apartment, a legally closed terrace or the interior of a storage room are private, as are the architectural elements outside the property but adjacent to it. On the other hand, common elements are those shared by the whole community, such as corridors, elevators or gardens.

3. Does the repair of the TV antenna, the air conditioning or the gas corresponds to the Community of owners or to the individual owner?

The question that we always ask ourselves is, the repair to make corresponds to a common element or to a privative one. Depending on the case, the repair corresponds exclusively to the Community or to the owner, or a decision will have to be taken where both parts participate in the solution of the problem.

Everything will depend on how the installation is made. Specifically of:

- Its centralization

- Where the wiring goes through what the constitutive title, the own statutes of the community, as well as of, the decisions adopted by the owners' meeting will establish.

3.1. Intercom and video door entry systems

The whole intercom infrastructure and video door entry systems is part of the set of common elements. Due to the nature of these assets, the community of owners is therefore in charge of:

- The hiring

The installation purpose

- The modifications to be made both to the panel of the community gate and to the panels of the gates. Likewise, all the channeling and the wiring up to the door of the house must also be considered a common element.

On the other hand, when we cross the entrance of the house, everything is privative and is responsibility of the owner, it is very important to avoid problems between the owners that the responsibility of who has to fix or to undertake the cost of the breakdowns to the house is defined very well. In this circumstance it is preferable to indicate to the minutes of the community that the whole installation becomes the responsibility of the Community. Thus, we avoid unnecessary confrontations between the proprietors.

3.2. Telephone, ADSL, fiber optics:

To install the telephone switchboard and the wiring corresponds in the same company that installs it. They request through a document in the community that they let them pass their cables through the common elements of the community (that is to say, they ask for an easement). Common elements are all the ducts or voids through which the cables that are necessary for the provision of telephony, ADSL and fiber optic services pass.

Any installation of wiring by a company must be previously accepted by the Board of Owners. If by necessity it is previously signed by the President of the Community, it is convenient that it is ratified by the Meeting of Proprietors.

- Electricity:

The wiring of the electricity will have the consideration of common element and will be responsibility of the Community up to the one that is the entrance of the closet of the house.

- Gas:

As electricity, the whole installation is common from the meter to the entrance of the dwelling.

- TV antenna:

This normally runs through the façade, which is considered a common element. Both the antenna and the wiring up to the shunt, including the shunt, must be considered as a common element.

- Air conditioning:

In case of an air conditioning is only of one owner, the external unit is on the roof and the internal unit is inside the house and the one that exists are particular conduits that go through a common element, both the devices and the piping are privative and therefore the repair must be assumed by the owner.

In this case we insist, it will be important what the Statute or the Constitutive Title says on this subject. If what exists in the community is a cooling tower, cooling tower or air conditioning towers, these towers with their corresponding ducts, have to be considered common elements until the entrance in the particular property, from here the air distribution system becomes a private element.

We hope we have helped you.