What is a partial condominium

The legal basis: article 1123 paragraph 3

Paragraph 3 of article 1123 states that if a building has parts intended to serve the owners to different extents, costs are allocated in proportion to the use each owner can make of them, and if some parts are intended to serve only a portion of the building, the related costs fall on the group of owners who benefit from them.

The rule does not require an assembly resolution to establish the partial condominium: it arises automatically from the factual situation, namely the objective purpose of the asset to serve only some owners. Italian case law has confirmed this repeatedly, describing it as a partial condominium by operation of law: no separate constitutive act is needed, it is enough that the asset is structurally intended for partial use.

When it applies in practice

The decisive criterion is objective and structural: what matters is not who paid for or built the asset, but who can materially use it according to its physical and functional purpose.

• An elevator installed to serve only the upper floors of a staircase, not the ground floor or lower floors already served by another access
• An internal courtyard or green area accessible only from the units of one building block within a complex with several staircases
• A centralized heating system that supplies only one of the buildings in a condominium made up of several connected structures
• A staircase and landings serving only some units, when other owners have a different main access
• A garage or common room whose usability is objectively reserved to a subset of owners

Cost allocation and separate accounting

Ordinary maintenance, extraordinary works and management costs for the partial asset must be charged only to the owners who benefit from it, based on the ownership shares related to that specific asset, calculated under article 1118 of the Civil Code, not on the general shares of the whole building.

On the accounting side it is advisable to keep a separate line within the condominium financial statement: a dedicated expense heading that isolates the costs of the partial asset, making clear who they are charged to and preventing them from being merged into the general allocation by mistake. This does not require a formally separate balance sheet, but clear traceability in the ownership share tables and in the annual statement.

The property manager must correctly identify the beneficiaries starting from the notice convening the assembly meeting that resolves on works related to the partial asset: only the owners concerned have the right to vote and to take part in that specific resolution, while the others remain outside that decision and that expense.

Common mistakes and practical consequences

The most frequent mistake is allocating the costs of the partial asset to all owners using the general ownership shares: this exposes the resolution to challenge by owners who paid without benefiting from the service, and can lead to the resolution being annulled.

Another mistake concerns the assembly notice: if a resolution on a partial asset is also voted on by owners not concerned, the quorum and the validity of the vote can be disputed. It is therefore essential that the property manager maintain specific ownership share tables for each partial use asset, separate from the general ones.

Condominium management software such as AmministraPro helps concretely on this point: it allows dedicated ownership share tables to be configured for partial assets, isolates the related expense items in the financial statement, and generates assembly notices that involve only the owners actually concerned, reducing the risk of allocation errors and subsequent disputes.

Frequently asked questions