Practical guide
Communicating the completion of works to residents
When a building maintenance or renovation project ends, communicating this to residents is not a courtesy notice: it is the moment when the property manager reports back on the mandate received from the assembly, under the accounting duty set out in article 1130 of the Italian Civil Code. A well handled completion notice includes the final financial statement, the contractor's technical documentation, applicable warranties, and the final allocation of costs among owners, including any balancing payments. A poorly handled one generates repeated disputes, requests for clarification, and in the worst cases a formal challenge to the accounts at the assembly. This guide explains what to include, in what order to communicate it, and how to organize the document archive so it remains accessible in later years, when it will be needed to enforce a warranty or for due diligence when a unit is sold.
The final financial statement: what it must contain
The final statement compares the budget approved by the assembly with the costs actually incurred, item by item. It is not enough to report the total final amount: each owner must be able to verify which item each expense relates to and what variances occurred compared to the budget, together with the reason (variations requested during works, unforeseen items discovered on site, contractual price revisions).
A property manager handling this communication through a platform such as AmministraPro can link supplier invoices directly to each budget line and generate the final statement with variances already calculated, reducing manual work and the transcription errors that are the most frequent cause of disputes at the assembly.
Technical documents to attach to the notice
Alongside the financial statement, the documents proving the technical soundness of the works should be transmitted:
Certificate of conformity or of correct execution issued by the contractor, where required by sector regulations (electrical systems, heating systems, lifts). Testing certificates for structural works or systems subject to inspection. As built drawings when the works changed the original configuration of common parts (facades, roofs, systems). Photographic documentation of the final condition, useful in future disputes over hidden defects.
UNI 10801, the technical standard for building document management in Italy, specifically points to organized filing of these documents as part of properly maintaining the building's technical file: a digital archive organized by project prevents the difficulty, years later, of tracing back who carried out which work.
Warranties: duration, starting point, and how to claim them
The completion notice is the point at which the contractor's contractual warranty formally starts to run: for this reason the handover date must be stated unambiguously, together with the warranty period agreed in the works contract and who to contact in case of a defect.
For significant building works, the ten year contractor's liability under article 1669 of the Italian Civil Code also applies, covering serious defects that compromise the stability, safety, or usability of the work: it is advisable for the notice to reference this term, so residents know the deadline for reporting a structural problem that emerges later.
It is also worth attaching the warranty terms for installed materials and components (boilers, electrical cabinets, waterproofing), which are often separate from the warranty on installation and have different expiry dates.
Final cost allocation and any balancing payments
Once the works are closed, the property manager allocates the final cost among owners according to the criteria established for that type of intervention: ownership shares for ordinary maintenance, specific criteria for stairs and lifts when the works concern those parts (articles 1123 and 1124 of the Civil Code), or allocation by floor for roof or facade works based on the benefit received.
If the final statement differs from the budget, the notice must clearly state the balancing amount owed or due to each unit, together with payment or refund terms. A management platform can automatically calculate balancing payments by ownership share and send each owner only their individual statement, avoiding the confusion of shared spreadsheets and keeping every transaction traceable ahead of the assembly's approval of the accounts.
Frequently asked questions
When should the completion notice be sent to residents?
It should be sent as soon as the final financial statement and the closing technical documents (certificates of conformity, testing reports) are available, and in any case before the assembly that will approve the accounts under article 1130 of the Italian Civil Code, so that residents have time to review the documents and ask questions before the vote.
What happens if an owner disputes the final statement after the notice?
The owner can request clarification directly from the property manager and, if the dispute concerns specific items, request access to the supporting accounting documentation (invoices, contracts, variation minutes). If disagreement persists, the proper venue to formally challenge the accounts is the assembly that approves them, and afterward, if the resolution is considered unlawful, a formal challenge within the statutory deadlines.
Does the ten year warranty on the works cover cosmetic defects too?
No. Article 1669 of the Italian Civil Code covers serious defects that compromise the stability, safety, or functionality of the work, not cosmetic imperfections or minor finishing issues, which remain governed by the ordinary contractual warranty for defects agreed with the contractor, typically with a shorter duration.
How should completion documents be kept over time?
They should be filed in an organized way by project, following the UNI 10801 criteria for the building's technical file, so they can be retrieved quickly when needed in the future: making a warranty claim, selling a unit, or checking records before a new intervention on the same common part. A management platform such as AmministraPro keeps these documents linked to the specific building and project, making them retrievable years later without digging through paper files.
Who decides the criteria for allocating the final cost?
Allocation criteria are generally already set by the building regulations or by the resolution approving the works, based on the legal criteria under the Italian Civil Code (general ownership shares, specific criteria for stairs and lifts, benefit based criteria for roofs and facades). The completion notice applies these criteria to the final cost, it does not renegotiate them: any change to the allocation criteria requires a separate assembly resolution.
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