Adapting Condominium Lobbies and Entrances for Access

The entrance is the first point where a person with mobility difficulties meets the condominium's barriers: raised thresholds, heavy doors, doorways that are too narrow, manoeuvring spaces insufficient for a wheelchair. Adapting the lobby and entrances is often a cheaper intervention than a lift and has an immediate impact on residents' autonomy. Decree 236/1989 sets the technical requirements, while Law 13/1989 facilitates the meeting resolution.

Typical entrance barriers

The lobby of many buildings features obstacles that go unnoticed by those who walk without difficulty but become impassable for wheelchair or walker users. The most frequent are the main-door threshold, the connecting step between street and lobby, heavy or narrow hinged doors, recessed mats with sharp edges and the lack of space to turn the wheelchair in front of the lift.

The technical requirements to respect

Decree 236/1989 sets minimum measurements that make a space truly usable by those with reduced motor capacity.

• Clear door width suitable for the passage of a wheelchair
• Reduced or eliminated thresholds, with gentle-gradient connections where needed
• Sufficient manoeuvring and rotation spaces in front of doors and lift
• Handles and locks operable with one hand and without effort
• Non-slip, level flooring free of sudden level changes

The main door matters too: a leaf that is too heavy or a closing spring that is too strong prevents independent opening. The solution can be an automatic or motorised door opener, controlled from the intercom or an accessible button.

Solutions to overcome the threshold

The level change between street and lobby, where it exists, is overcome with a low-gradient ramp or an inclined-plane connection. If the space in front of the door is limited, a multi-section ramp with an intermediate landing is considered, or a platform lift for modest level changes. Each solution must be chosen according to the available space and respect for escape routes.

The resolution at the meeting

Adapting the lobby and entrances falls among the works aimed at removing architectural barriers and is approved with the reduced majority of Article 1120, second paragraph, of the Italian Civil Code: majority of those present representing at least half the value of the building. Being interventions that improve everyone's access, they rarely meet well-founded resistance. The limits of unusability, safety and decorum remain, though they are usually not a problem for works of this kind.

If the meeting fails to act

The individual's right applies to the entrance too: if the meeting does not resolve within three months of the written request or votes against, the owner with a disability may carry out the adaptations at their own expense, within the limits of Articles 1120 and 1121 of the Italian Civil Code. A work affecting the lobby, the common part par excellence, must nonetheless leave everyone the ability to continue using it.

Costs and incentives

When the intervention is resolved for common benefit, the cost is shared among all owners in proportion to thousandths (millesimi) of ownership, because the lobby serves the whole building. Accessibility works benefit from a reduced VAT rate and the dedicated tax deductions. It is important to keep the project, resolution, permits and traceable payments for the incentives and any checks.

Managing resolutions, millesimi-based allocations and documents of a lobby intervention is easier with management software. AmministraPro calculates the allocation of common costs, minutes the meetings and stores the intervention deeds: the features are on /funzioni and the plans for managers and firms on /prezzi.