Intercom and Video Intercom Maintenance: Who Pays

The intercom system, and its version with a video intercom camera, connects the apartments to the outdoor keypad and the main door: it is a common part intended for collective use. Ordinary maintenance, such as repairing the outdoor unit, replacing the keypad or the transformer, is split among the units served, as a rule by ownership thousandths (millesimi) under Article 1123, first paragraph, of the Italian Civil Code. Allocation changes if some units are not connected to the system or if it is an upgrade rather than a repair.

The intercom is a common part

The intercom system is among the installations serving the building in common: it enables controlled access to the main door and communication with visitors. It follows that conservation and repair costs are a condominium expense. The common section includes the outdoor keypad, the power supply, the riser running up the building and the electric door lock; the internal branch and the handset inside the apartment are usually the individual's responsibility, who arranges their replacement at their own expense.

Maintenance allocation criterion

For maintenance of the common section the ordinary criterion is ownership thousandths, because the system serves the connected units indistinctly. Alternatively, some regulations provide for allocation by number of intercom users, that is in equal parts among the connected branches, on the assumption that each unit draws the same benefit from the system regardless of value. The choice between the two criteria depends on the condominium regulation or an owners' meeting resolution; absent either, the thousandths criterion prevails.

Units not connected to the system

If one or more units are not connected to the intercom system, for example a ground-floor shop with independent street access, those units draw no benefit from the service. Applying the third paragraph of Article 1123, the intercom maintenance expense falls only on the owners actually served. This is a frequent case in mixed residential and commercial condominiums, where premises with an independent entrance stay outside the allocation of the internal system.

Maintenance or upgrade

It is necessary to distinguish repairing an existing system from replacing it with a more modern one. Repair, such as changing a broken button or a faulty power supply, is ordinary maintenance and follows the criterion of the group served. Converting the old intercom into a video intercom, or moving to a digital system, is an innovation or extraordinary maintenance: it requires an owners' meeting resolution with the required majority and may involve assessing the proportionality of the expense to the benefit.

What falls in each category

• Repair of keypad, power supply, outdoor unit and electric lock: ordinary maintenance.
• Replacement of the deteriorated common riser: maintenance, on the group served.
• Switch from intercom to video intercom: innovation or extraordinary, with resolution.
• Handset inside the apartment and its branch: charged to the individual owner.
• Units with independent access not connected: excluded from the system allocation.

Privacy in the video intercom

A video intercom with a camera facing the common entrance must comply with data protection rules, EU Regulation 2016/679. Recording should be limited to the area strictly necessary to identify visitors, with adequate notice, avoiding framing public spaces or other units' doors. The system's compliance does not affect the allocation criterion, but it is a requirement the manager must oversee when approving the installation or upgrade.

Handling allocation without errors

The practical risk is charging intercom maintenance to units that are not connected, or applying the wrong criterion between thousandths and equal parts. Management software lets you define the group of owners served by the system and generate the installments with the resolved criterion, without manual calculations. With AmministraPro you set up the intercom system table excluding the units not served and produce a clear report: the allocation features are described on the /funzioni page and the plans on the /prezzi page.