Urgent Works by the Manager and Assembly Ratification

The final paragraph of Article 1135 of the Italian Civil Code states that the manager may not order extraordinary maintenance works unless they are urgent, and in that case must report them to the first owners' meeting. In practice, when facing an unavoidable job the manager acts immediately, without waiting for a prior resolution, and then submits the action to the owners. The meeting's ratification consolidates the expense and definitively charges it to the condominium.

What Article 1135 says about urgent works

Article 1135 gives the owners' meeting authority to resolve on extraordinary maintenance works and to set up the special fund required for them. The general rule is therefore a prior collective decision. The exception concerns urgency: when a delay would expose the building or the owners to harm, the manager orders the work independently. This is not a derogation from the meeting's powers, but a substitute power limited to what is needed to address the critical situation.

Urgency must be understood objectively: the work must be such that it cannot be postponed without prejudice. Mere convenience or the comfort of acting at once is not enough. The urgent nature is measured by the concrete risk of worsening damage, the safety of persons, or the interruption of an essential service.

The difference between acknowledgment and ratification

Acknowledgment and ratification are not the same. Acknowledgment is the communication by which the manager accounts to the owners for work already carried out, a duty that falls within the general obligation to report on management. Ratification, instead, is the approval by which the meeting adopts as its own an act that in principle would have required its prior authorization, curing the excess over the mandate.

The distinction has practical effects. Even without ratification, the manager keeps the right to reimbursement of expenses recognized as genuinely urgent, because the action fell within the power granted by law. Ratification nonetheless remains advisable: it strengthens the manager's position, closes off possible disputes, and allows the meeting to resolve on how to finance the work.

What the manager must do after the intervention

Once the urgent work is done, the manager must convene the meeting without delay and place the report on the intervention on the agenda. Prompt convening is an integral part of correct conduct: putting off the discussion with the owners for months weakens the transparency of the management.

• Describe the nature of the fault or hazard and the reason for urgency
• Attach quotes, invoices, and photographic documentation of the work
• State the total amount and the criterion for allocation among the owners
• Propose the ratification resolution and the financing of the expense
• Report any advances made to pay the contractor

What happens if the expense was not urgent

If the meeting finds that the intervention was neither urgent nor indispensable, it may refuse ratification. In that case the manager who exceeded their powers risks being liable for the unauthorized expense, because they acted outside the mandate. For this reason the assessment of urgency must be documented before ordering the work: a technical report, a professional's warning, or the finding of a present danger all support the choice.

It is good practice to limit the urgent intervention to what is strictly necessary to remove the danger, deferring to the meeting any completion or improvement works that can wait. An oversized intervention is harder to justify as urgent.

Urgency and the special works fund

For extraordinary maintenance works, Article 1135 ordinarily requires setting up a special fund equal to the amount of the works. In an emergency the execution precedes the resolution, so the fund cannot be created beforehand. Financing is resolved afterwards, at ratification, together with the allocation among the owners according to the thousandths (millesimi) or the criteria applicable to the work. The manager must handle the transitional phase carefully, avoiding advancing sums they cannot recover.

Keeping the intervention traceable

A well-documented urgent intervention is the manager's best defense. Keeping quotes, minutes, communications, and supporting documents in order turns ratification into a formality rather than a battleground. A management platform like AmministraPro helps archive the documentation, track expenses, and prepare the ratification resolution with the allocation already calculated: the features are described on the /funzioni page, while plans for firms of every size are on /prezzi.