Splitting an urgent expense not approved by the meeting

An urgent expense incurred without a prior resolution of the owners' meeting is still borne by all owners when it concerns common parts or services and the work could not be postponed. The source is Article 1135, final paragraph, of the Italian Civil Code, which allows the condominium manager to order urgent extraordinary works provided he reports them promptly to the meeting. Allocation follows the ordinary criteria of Article 1123 and following, based on the nature of the asset involved, and does not depend on the absence of a prior resolution.

Why urgency allows immediate action

As a general rule, common expenses must be decided by the owners' meeting, the sovereign body in condominium management. Urgency introduces an exception: if waiting for the meeting would worsen the damage or endanger safety, the law allows the work to be brought forward to protect the building and the owners. It is not a shortcut to bypass the meeting, but a tool for preserving the common parts.

Urgency must be assessed concretely: a leak flooding the premises below, an unstable cornice, a failure interrupting an essential service such as water or the lift in a building with vulnerable residents. Outside these cases the expense is not urgent and must be resolved beforehand.

Who may order the urgent work

In most cases it is the manager who orders urgent works, by virtue of his powers of preservation under Article 1130 and Article 1135 of the Italian Civil Code. If the condominium has no manager or he is unreachable, an individual owner may also step in, but here a stricter rule applies.

Article 1134 of the Italian Civil Code provides that an owner who has taken over the management of common parts without authorisation is entitled to reimbursement only if the expense is urgent. Outside of urgency, anyone who advances funds on their own initiative risks obtaining nothing from the other owners.

Ratification by the meeting

Urgent action does not remove the role of the meeting, it postpones it. The manager must report to the first available meeting, which reviews his conduct and ratifies the expense. Ratification formally cures the absence of a prior resolution and consolidates the right to be reimbursed for the amounts advanced.

If the meeting refuses ratification despite a real and documented urgency, the matter may go before a judge, who will verify whether the conditions of urgency existed and whether the expense was reasonable. This is why it is essential to document promptly the state of the premises, the cause of the work and the quotes obtained.

By what criteria it is split

An urgent expense has no allocation criterion of its own: the same method that would have been used with an ordinary resolution applies, depending on the asset or service involved:

• Thousandths (millesimi) of ownership for the preservation and enjoyment of common parts, under Article 1123, first paragraph.
• In proportion to use for assets serving owners to differing degrees, under Article 1123, second paragraph.
• Charged to the group concerned only for parts intended to serve a portion of the building, under Article 1123, third paragraph.
• Special criteria where provided: Article 1124 for stairs and lift, Article 1125 for floors and ceilings, Article 1126 for a terrace roof in exclusive use.

The split between owner and tenant then follows the ordinary or extraordinary nature of the work. An urgent failure of the common system involving extraordinary maintenance normally remains the owner's responsibility.

Mistakes to avoid

The first mistake is confusing convenience with urgency: a repair worth doing now, but not undeferrable, does not justify skipping the resolution. The second is failing to document: without proof of the state of necessity, the manager or the owner who advanced funds risks bearing the expense alone. The third is improvised allocation, for example dividing equally an expense that should be split by thousandths.

An owner who disputes the expense may challenge the ratification resolution if he believes the urgency did not exist or the split is wrong. Prevention means acting proportionately, informing owners at once and keeping every document.

Managing and splitting the expense traceably

Recording the urgent expense promptly, attaching invoices and quotes, generating instalments with the correct thousandths split and bringing everything to the meeting for ratification is what turns a delicate intervention into transparent management. AmministraPro automatically generates the split according to the correct criterion and keeps documents, resolutions and cash movements together. The features are described on the /funzioni page and the plans on the /prezzi page.