Practical guide
Managing separate accounting per stair or building
Many Italian condominiums are made up of several stairwells or buildings connected by general common areas, yet remain a single legal condominium with one tax code. Article 1123 of the Italian Civil Code allows costs relating to services or common parts that serve only part of the building to be apportioned according to the actual use of that specific group of unit owners, keeping separate accounts per stair or per building inside the same overall financial statement. This guide explains how to organize dedicated millesimal tables, distinguish general common costs from special costs limited to one section, and manage the financial statement so every owner clearly sees what they pay and why, with the help of a management software such as AmministraPro.
When separate accounting per stair is needed
Separate accounting per stair applies when a single condominium has several entrances, stairwells or buildings that share only some common parts, such as the courtyard, the sewage system or green areas, while other parts serve exclusively one group of units. Typical cases include a stairwell with its own elevator, a heating system that is autonomous per building, or cleaning costs limited to a single stairwell.
This must be kept strictly distinct from a supercondominium: the latter exists when several separate buildings, each with its own tax code and its own assembly, share common assets (Article 1117 bis of the Civil Code). In accounting per stair, instead, there is only one condominium, with a single tax code, a single administrator and a single general assembly: only the apportionment criterion for some cost items changes, not the legal structure of the entity.
Multiple millesimal tables: general and special
The technical starting point is having several millesimal tables active at the same time: the general table (ownership shares, Article 1123 paragraph 1) for costs affecting the whole building, and one or more stair or building tables (often called special tables, Article 1123 paragraph 3) for costs that only serve one group of owners.
In practice you need at least: a general table for costs shared by everyone (centralized stair cleaning, building insurance, administrator's fee), and dedicated tables for each stair or building whenever autonomous services exist, such as a private elevator, per building heating, or cleaning limited to a single stairwell. Each table has its own column of shares and its own total of 1000, independent from the others.
A common mistake is calculating stair shares by roughly scaling the general shares: they must instead be recalculated from scratch based on the proportional value of the units belonging to that specific stair or building, otherwise the apportionment is incorrect and can be challenged at the assembly.
Correctly classifying general and special costs
Every cost item must be explicitly assigned to a table: general if it serves the whole building, stair or building specific if it serves only a portion. This classification should happen before the cost is recorded, not at year end, because it also affects how budgets are allocated and how advance payments are apportioned throughout the year.
Recurring examples: the administrator's fee and building insurance are almost always general costs; elevator maintenance, stairwell electricity consumption and per building autonomous heating are typically special costs; cleaning can be either general (one contractor for the whole complex) or special (separate contracts per stair), depending on how the service is organized in the specific case.
In the final statement, each owner must be able to clearly distinguish their share of general costs from their share of special costs relating to their own stair, so that items following different apportionment criteria are not merged into a single confusing total.
The role of management software
Manually managing several millesimal tables and several apportionment plans for a single condominium exposes the process to calculation errors and inconsistencies between the totals of individual stairs and the general statement. Software such as AmministraPro allows several millesimal tables to be configured for the same condominium, each cost to be assigned to the correct table at the moment it is recorded, and both the general statement and the per stair or per building details to be generated automatically, keeping the balances consistent across the different aggregations at all times.
This also avoids one of the most common problems at assemblies: disputes over balancing payments when an owner cannot understand why their share differs from that of a neighbor living in another stair of the same condominium. Having separate, always available reports generated automatically by the software reduces disputes and speeds up approval of the financial statement at the assembly.
Frequently asked questions
Does separate accounting per stair require a specific assembly resolution?
Yes, adopting or amending a special millesimal table for a stair or building, and the resulting cost apportionment criterion, requires a resolution of the condominium assembly passed with the majorities required for approving or revising millesimal tables. A decision by the administrator alone is not enough: the table becomes binding only after assembly approval, except in the cases of judicial revision provided by law when the shares are affected by an error exceeding one fifth.
What is the difference between separate accounting per stair and a supercondominium?
In separate accounting per stair there is only one condominium, with a single tax code, a single administrator and a single general assembly, which keeps distinct accounts only for some cost items serving a limited group of units. In a supercondominium, governed by Article 1117 bis of the Civil Code, there are instead several autonomous and separate condominiums, each with its own management identity, its own assembly and its own tax code, sharing some common assets or services. These are therefore two legally different situations, even though they are sometimes confused in daily practice.
How are the shares for a single stair or building calculated?
Stair or building shares are calculated independently from the general shares, assigning to the units of that specific stair a proportional value that accounts for surface area, height, exposure and the other technical criteria set out in the Civil Code annexes, so that the total of only the units belonging to that stair reaches 1000. It is therefore not a simple proportion derived from the general shares, but an independent table referring only to the subset of units involved.
Can management software such as AmministraPro handle multiple millesimal tables on the same condominium?
Yes, management software designed for condominium accounting such as AmministraPro allows several millesimal tables to be active at the same time on the same condominium, each cost item to be assigned to the correct table when it is recorded, and both the general statement and the per stair or per building apportionment details to be produced automatically, keeping the balances consistent across the different aggregations without parallel manual calculations.
What happens if a cost is assigned to the wrong table?
If a general common cost is mistakenly apportioned only on one stair, or conversely a special cost of one stair is spread across the whole condominium, the apportionment is flawed and can be challenged by the affected owners, including through a legal challenge to the resolution approving the financial statement. It is therefore important to classify every cost at the source, when it is recorded, rather than correcting it only at year end closing, once the error has already spread across several monthly installments or advance payments already requested.
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