Bearing Walls and Foundations: Structural Common Parts

Foundations, bearing walls, pillars and load-bearing beams are common parts of the building under Article 1117 of the Italian Civil Code. They are the elements that support the construction and ensure its stability: precisely because of this function they belong to all owners, regardless of the unit served, and no single owner may weaken or remove them. The costs for their conservation fall on everyone in proportion to their thousandths (millesimi).

Why they are common by law

Article 1117 lists among the common parts the works intended to support the whole building. Foundations transfer the construction loads to the ground, bearing walls and pillars carry the floors, beams connect the vertical elements. Removing or altering one of these components means putting the entire building at risk. Common ownership therefore arises from their structural function, not from their location within one unit or another.

A practical principle follows: even a bearing wall running inside an apartment, delimiting it, remains common as regards its load-bearing part. The owner enjoys it as the boundary of their unit, but is not the exclusive owner of its structure.

Bearing walls and perimeter walls

Bearing walls are the load-bearing walls that support the floors and discharge the weight onto the foundations. They must be distinguished from simple internal partitions, which have no structural function and remain the individual owner's property. Perimeter walls too, when they serve to support or delimit the whole building, fall among the common parts: they contribute to stability and protect the property from external agents.

The distinction has concrete effects on costs. Maintenance of an internal partition falls to the apartment owner, while repair of a load-bearing or perimeter wall is borne by the community.

What a single owner cannot do

The use of the common asset is governed by Article 1102 of the Civil Code: each owner may use it, but without altering its purpose and without preventing equal use by others. On bearing walls and load-bearing structures this limit is particularly strict, because every intervention affects common safety.

• Opening a passage or a niche in a load-bearing wall without technical verification and authorization endangers stability
• Cutting deep channels or demolishing portions of a pillar may amount to damage to the common asset
• Anchoring significant loads to a load-bearing beam requires structural assessment, it is not free use
• Works that weaken the structure may be ordered removed and entail liability for damages

Works such as opening a door in a bearing wall are allowed only if an expert report shows they do not impair the statics and if they respect architectural decorum; otherwise the meeting or the affected owner may object.

Allocation of structural costs

The conservation and repair costs of foundations and bearing walls are divided among all owners in proportion to ownership thousandths, under Article 1123 of the Civil Code. The floor-based criterion of Article 1124, which concerns stairs, does not apply, nor does that of Article 1126 on terraces in exclusive use: since these elements serve the whole building, the general allocation applies. Only a contractual regulation may provide different criteria.

Structural consolidation works are extraordinary maintenance and must be resolved by the owners' meeting with the legal majorities. If a danger to stability emerges, the administrator has the duty to intervene urgently, ordering the indispensable works and reporting to the first available meeting under Article 1135.

Liability for collapses and detachments

Load-bearing structures fall among the assets in the condominium's custody: if a subsidence of the foundations or a structural detachment causes damage to third parties or to the units, the condominium is liable under Article 2051 of the Civil Code, save for fortuitous events. This is why preventive maintenance and periodic checks are not an avoidable cost, but protection against far more serious liability.

Documenting works, expert reports and resolutions on structural parts is essential to prove the administration's diligence. Software like AmministraPro gathers technical reports, quotes and minutes in a single archive, linking them to the condominium and the correct thousandths allocation of costs. The available features are described on the /funzioni page, while the plans with transparent costs are on the /prezzi page.