Access to condominium records and the limits of privacy

An owner has the right to consult the management documents, from the annual report to the invoices, and the manager must allow it. But this right of access meets the privacy of the other owners: where does transparency end and the protection of others' data begin? The practical rule is that access is broad when it concerns the common management, but it cannot turn into an inquiry into the private lives of the neighbours. Let us see how the two interests are reconciled.

The basis of the right of access

The owner's right to be informed and to check the management is based on Articles 1129 and 1130-bis of the Italian Civil Code. The manager must keep the documents available and allow their examination and the taking of copies, at the requester's expense. The condominium report, in particular, must contain an accounting register, a financial summary and an explanatory note: tools designed precisely to make the economic performance transparent to all participants.

Why others' data appears in the documents

Management documents inevitably contain data of other people: the names of owners with their shares, the sums paid and those due, the suppliers' data. Consulting the accounts therefore means coming into contact with information concerning others. This does not make access unlawful: it is data functional to the common management, which each participant has an interest in knowing in order to verify that the accounts are correct.

Others' defaults are consultable

A frequent case concerns the debt situation of other owners. Because one owner's default affects the common accounts and the apportionment, an owner examining the report may lawfully learn who is up to date and who is not. This kind of internal access, functional to checking the management, differs from the public disclosure of defaulters, which remains forbidden. The line runs between knowledge by those with a title and disclosure to outsiders.

The limits: proportionality and excessive data

The right of access is not unlimited. It cannot be used for purposes unrelated to the management, nor to obtain data that exceeds what is necessary to check the accounts. Documents containing particularly sensitive information or matters unrelated to condominium life, such as health data or the personal situations of third parties, do not fall within the scope of ordinary access. In these cases the manager can and must consider redacting the non-relevant parts before handing over a copy.

• Access covers the common management documents, not the neighbours' private life.
• Other owners' accounting data is consultable because it affects the accounts.
• Public disclosure of defaults remains forbidden even if the data is accessible.
• Special or non-management data must be redacted before delivery.
• The cost of reproducing copies is borne by the requester.

Access to documents and the GDPR right of access

Two rights that are often confused must be distinguished. The right to access condominium documents arises from the Italian Civil Code and concerns the management. The right of access under Article 15 of the GDPR is instead a personal right, by which anyone may ask the controller what data concerning them is being processed and obtain a copy. With GDPR access the owner obtains information about their own data, not about others' data: they are two tools with different conditions and limits.

The manager's balancing role

It falls to the manager to reconcile the two interests reasonably. The manager must guarantee effective, non-obstructive access to those entitled to check the management, while at the same time preventing the documents from becoming a channel for collecting data about neighbours for other purposes. The key is to assess the relevance of the request to the management and, where needed, to limit the copy to the necessary parts only. An unjustified refusal is unlawful, just as an indiscriminate handover of excessive data is.

Making the report, the accounting register and supporting documents available in an orderly, traceable way, with profiled access for each owner, reduces disputes and privacy risks: AmministraPro offers an owner portal with documents that can be consulted securely. The features are described on the features page and the plans on the pricing page.