Meeting-Approved Regulations: Content and Approval Quorum

Meeting-approved regulations are those the owners' meeting approves by majority to govern the use of common parts, the division of expenses, the protection of decorum and the ordering of services. Article 1138 of the Italian Civil Code makes them mandatory when there are more than ten owners and sets their limits: they can regulate condominium life, but cannot impair individuals' rights over their exclusive property, nor depart from a set of non-derogable rules. They are approved with the majority under Article 1136, second paragraph.

When regulations are mandatory

Article 1138 provides that, when the number of owners in a building exceeds ten, regulations must be drawn up. The count refers to the owners, not to the property units. If they are missing, any owner, or the administrator, may take the initiative for the meeting to adopt them; in case of inaction the regulations may be drawn up with the intervention of the judicial authority. With ten or fewer owners regulations are not mandatory, but they can still be adopted voluntarily.

The mandatory nature answers a practical need: the larger the community grows, the more a set of written rules is needed to prevent conflicts over the use of common assets and the sharing of costs.

What they can govern

Meeting-approved regulations, under Article 1138, contain the rules on the use of common things and the division of expenses, according to the rights and obligations of each owner, as well as the rules protecting the building's decorum and those on administration. It is the tool that organises coexistence: hours, ways of using courtyards and entrance halls, rules for common spaces, operational criteria for management.

• Use of common parts and services
• Criteria for dividing expenses
• Protection of the building's architectural decorum
• Rules on administration and the organisation of management

What meeting-approved regulations cannot do

Here lies the decisive limit. Regulations approved by majority cannot affect owners' rights over their exclusive property: they cannot impose use bans, limits on the enjoyment of the individual unit or constraints that compress the ownership right. Such limits require contractual nature, meaning the consent of all. Article 1138 also expressly forbids the regulations from banning the possession or keeping of domestic animals: such a clause in meeting-approved regulations is void.

Meeting-approved regulations also cannot depart from the rules that Article 1138 and other provisions declare non-derogable, including those protecting the functioning of the meeting and owners' participation rights.

The approval quorum

Meeting-approved regulations, and their amendments, are approved with the majority set by Article 1136, second paragraph, recalled by Article 1138: a majority of those present representing at least half the value of the building, namely five hundred thousandths. This is the same majority needed to amend them later. Different is the fate of any contractual clauses present: those, affecting individual rights, remain amendable only unanimously.

Regulations and penalties for breaches

Effective regulations do not merely state rules, but provide for the consequences of breaching them. Article 70 of the implementing provisions allows the regulations to set financial penalties up to 200 euros, and up to 800 in the case of a repeat offence, resolved by the meeting. Without an express regulatory provision, however, this power to penalise cannot be exercised: that is why the drafting or revision of the regulations is the right moment to introduce a clear catalogue of prohibited behaviour and its consequences.

Adopting, updating and enforcing the regulations is easier with software that keeps the text, attachments, approval minutes and communications to owners together. With AmministraPro the manager stores the regulations, documents their amendments and manages communications in a traceable way: the features are described on /funzioni and the plans on /prezzi.