Security and Guarding in a Condominium: How to Split It

More and more condominiums entrust security to a private surveillance or guarding service: night patrols by a security firm, an attendant watching the entrance, access control. It is a common expense, a service benefiting the whole building, usually split by ownership thousandths (millesimi) under Article 1123, first paragraph, of the Italian Civil Code. The service must be approved by the owners' meeting and differs from the traditional concierge service, which involves an employment relationship and often a service apartment.

Surveillance, guarding and concierge

The concierge service involves a doorkeeper employed by the condominium, with an employment contract, custody duties and, often, use of an apartment in the building. Private surveillance or guarding is instead a service entrusted to an external firm or a specialized company, without an employment relationship: a fee is paid for a surveillance service. The difference matters for contribution and management obligations, but in terms of allocation both are common expenses for a service benefiting everyone.

The ordinary allocation criterion

Since surveillance protects the common parts and the security of the whole building indistinctly, the ordinary criterion is the thousandths one: each owner contributes in proportion to the value of their unit. This reflects the fact that the service protects common assets and that the benefit is considered uniform. The condominium regulation may provide a different criterion, for example in equal parts or by number of units, but absent a specific rule the thousandths prevail.

An owners' meeting resolution is needed

Activating a security service is a decision for the owners' meeting, because it introduces a continuous expense not previously provided for. The resolution identifies the service, the provider, the fee and the allocation criterion. A service activated by the manager alone without a meeting mandate, save for emergencies, would expose to disputes. The meeting can also set the contract's duration and renewal conditions, so as to keep control over the expense.

Service benefiting only one part

If surveillance concerns only a portion of the building, for example watching an underground garage or a separate building block, the expense can fall only on the owners who draw a benefit, applying the third paragraph of Article 1123. This is the case of a supercondominium with a guarding service limited to a specific common area. In these cases a table dedicated to the group served is needed, so as not to burden everyone with the cost of partial protection.

Elements to define in the contract

• Scope of the service: patrols, fixed presence, access control, connected video surveillance.
• Periodic fee and how it is adjusted over time.
• Allocation criterion among owners, usually by thousandths.
• Duration, renewal and withdrawal from the security contract.
• Processing of personal data when the service includes video surveillance.

Security and video surveillance

When the guarding service comes with a video surveillance system of the common parts, the obligations of EU Regulation 2016/679 come into play: notice, signs, limiting recording to the necessary area, adequate image retention times. Installing the system is in turn an expense to be approved and allocated, separate from the surveillance service fee. Keeping the two items separate in the report helps transparency and cost control.

Handling fees and allocations over time

A security service generates periodic fees that must be recorded, split with the resolved criterion and reported clearly. Management software lets you set up the recurring expense, apply the correct table and distinguish the group served when protection is partial. With AmministraPro you manage service contracts, fees and surveillance allocation tables in an orderly way: the accounting and allocation features are described on the /funzioni page and the plans on the /prezzi page.