Managing disabled parking in a condominium

The legal basis: Article 1120 and Law 13/1989

Article 1120, paragraph 2 of the Civil Code lists among the innovations subject to reduced majorities those aimed at removing architectural barriers and improving mobility for people with disabilities. Lawmakers intentionally lowered the required majority for these innovations, since the goal is to facilitate accessibility rather than obstruct it with high quorums.

Law 13 of 1989 specifically governs interventions to remove architectural barriers in private buildings, including condominiums, and sets out a streamlined procedure when the request comes from a co-owner with a disability or their legal representative. If the assembly does not resolve within the statutory deadlines, the law allows the applicant to proceed at their own expense anyway, provided the work complies with urban planning rules.

Assigning a reserved parking space: what the assembly can resolve

A different situation arises when reserving a specific parking space for a co-owner with a disability within a common area already used for parking: here the issue is not removing a physical barrier but granting a more intensive use of a common part to a single co-owner, which falls under Article 1102 of the Civil Code on the use of common property.

In practice, the assembly can resolve to reserve one or more spaces, identifying them precisely in the floor plan attached to the minutes, as long as this does not prevent other co-owners from making equally full use of the remaining common areas. Good practice includes verifying that enough spaces remain for other co-owners after the reservation, recording in the minutes the duration of the assignment, often tied to the persistence of the disability or to ownership of the unit, and providing for horizontal and vertical signage of the reserved space, with costs split according to ownership shares or, if specifically requested by one co-owner, charged to them.

Majorities and quorums at the assembly

For innovations aimed at removing architectural barriers under Article 1120, the resolution can be approved with the majority of those present representing at least one third of the building's value, a reduced quorum compared with ordinary innovations, precisely to favor accessibility.

For the simple reservation of an exclusive-use parking space, which does not fall under barrier-removal innovations but remains an act of managing common parts, the ordinary majorities applicable to the administration of shared property generally apply, unless the condominium regulation provides otherwise. It is the property manager's task, when calling the meeting, to correctly classify the resolution under the right category, since an incorrect quorum exposes the decision to challenge.

The condominium regulation as an ordinary management tool

Once the assignment has been resolved, it is advisable to incorporate it into the condominium regulation, so the rule becomes stable and enforceable against future owners as well as current ones. The regulation can govern how to request the reserved space, the documentation to submit, the procedure when the condition justifying the reservation ends, and penalties for anyone who occupies the reserved space without entitlement.

A delicate point concerns handling data about the applicant's health condition: this falls under special categories of data under the GDPR, so the property manager should limit verification to confirming the entitlement, such as the disabled parking permit, without storing or disclosing detailed health information, and should keep any documentation received with care proportionate to its sensitive nature.

What to do in case of conflict or non-compliance

If a co-owner systematically occupies the reserved space without entitlement, the property manager, following the assembly's or the regulation's guidance, can demand removal of the vehicle and, if the violation persists, apply the penalties set out under Article 70 of the implementing provisions of the Civil Code. If the dispute instead concerns the resolution itself, for example because a co-owner believes it harms their equal use of common property, the remedy is to challenge the resolution within the statutory deadlines.

Keeping organized records of minutes, floor plans and correspondence related to these interventions is essential both for transparency toward co-owners and in case of disputes. A management platform like AmministraPro allows the resolution, the floor plan showing the identified space, and correspondence with the co-owner concerned to be archived in a single digital file, so the documentation is always available if the decision is ever contested.

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