Condominium mailboxes: who pays for replacement

Replacing the bank of mailboxes in the entrance hall is a condominium expense, not an individual one: the mailboxes serve all the units and belong to the common property. The cost is therefore split among the owners, normally in equal shares or by thousandths (millesimi), as decided by the owners' meeting. Because it is a replacement, and therefore extraordinary maintenance, the cost falls on the owner and not on the tenant. Let us look at the legal basis and the practical cases that raise the most doubts.

Mailboxes are common property

Article 1117 of the Italian Civil Code lists among common property the works, systems and fixtures intended for common use and service. The bank of mailboxes placed in the entrance hall falls into this category: it is a fixture installed to serve the delivery of mail for the benefit of all owners. From this follows the main practical consequence: maintenance, repair and replacement are borne by the condominium community and not by the individual who happens to report the fault or the breakage of their own box.

A different case is the single box damaged through the fault of an owner, for example forced or broken during a move. In that situation the person who caused the damage is liable, according to the general principles of liability, while the condominium expense remains reserved for work affecting the whole fixture due to age or upgrading.

How the cost is split among owners

The general rule of allocation is set by Article 1123, first paragraph, of the Italian Civil Code: expenses for the preservation and enjoyment of common property are divided in proportion to the value of each owner's property, that is by thousandths. Mailboxes, however, offer a substantially uniform benefit: each unit has one box, regardless of its size. For this reason it is very common, and fully legitimate, for the owners' meeting to resolve to split the cost in equal shares, an identical amount for each unit served.

The two most common methods are therefore:

• Allocation by general thousandths, applying Article 1123, first paragraph, as for most common expenses;
• Allocation in equal shares, justified by the equal use of the service, if the owners' meeting approves it with the required majority;
• Allocation only among the units served, when some units (for example a shop with a separate entrance) do not use the common mailboxes at all.

The choice must be made at the meeting and recorded in the minutes, to avoid disputes when the annual accounts are drawn up. In the absence of a specific resolution, the fallback criterion is the thousandths.

Does the owner or the tenant pay?

When the unit is rented out, the question becomes: is the new bank of mailboxes paid by the owner or by the tenant? The full replacement of the fixture is extraordinary work, which increases or restores the value of the common asset. As for other extraordinary work, the cost remains with the owner. The tenant is responsible only, under the split between ordinary and extraordinary charges applied to leases, for minor maintenance and use costs, which in the case of mailboxes are effectively negligible.

In practice, the manager charges the replacement share to the owner of the unit, who remains the party liable towards the condominium under Article 63 of the implementing provisions of the Italian Civil Code. Any internal agreements between owner and tenant cannot be enforced against the condominium.

Architectural decorum and a single model

Replacing the mailboxes is also an opportunity to standardise the model, colours and materials. Here architectural decorum comes into play: Article 1122 forbids individuals from carrying out works that harm the decorum of the building, and Article 1120 draws the meeting's attention to preserving the overall appearance. Choosing a single bank consistent with the style of the hall is therefore not only good aesthetic practice but also protection against future disputes. The resolution approving the new model binds all owners.

What majority is required at the meeting

Replacement due to age or breakage is maintenance, not innovation: it falls among acts of ordinary conservative management and is approved with the ordinary majorities set by Article 1136 of the Italian Civil Code for meeting resolutions. If instead new functions are added, for example a digital delivery system or a structure that significantly changes the entrance, one may approach the concept of innovation, with higher majorities. In the vast majority of cases, however, replacing broken mailboxes is simple maintenance.

How to handle it without accounting mistakes

The most common mistake is to charge the expense using a criterion different from the one resolved, or to place it on the tenant instead of the owner. To avoid this it helps to link the supplier's invoice from the outset to the correct allocation table and to the liable party. With AmministraPro the manager sets the allocation criterion for the single expense, in equal shares or by thousandths, and the software automatically generates the shares for each unit and the related bookkeeping entry, reducing the risk of disputes. To see how automatic expense allocation works you can review the features on /funzioni and compare the available plans on /prezzi.