Your unit comprises a private part and a share of the common parts (article 1 of the Law). That share is the key to almost everything: it determines your charges and the weight of your votes at the general meeting.
Where your share comes from
Where the title deeds are silent or contradictory, the share of the common parts attaching to each unit is proportionate to the relative value of each private part compared with the total of those values, as they follow, at the time the condominium was created, from the make-up, floor area and position of the units, without regard to how they are used (article 6).
In practice, these shares are fixed in the état descriptif de division (the schedule of division of the building) and expressed in thousandths (also referred to as tantièmes). They do not change because you occupy your flat less often, or because you let it out.
General charges
Co-owners must contribute to the charges relating to the upkeep, maintenance and administration of the common parts in proportion to the relative values of their private parts (article 7, first paragraph). This is the baseline: the building’s insurance, the syndic’s (the managing agent’s) fees, cleaning of the common areas and maintenance of the fabric.
Equipment charges: the test of usefulness
For items of common equipment, different criteria may be adopted. In the absence of any agreement to that effect, co-owners must contribute according to the usefulness of those items to each unit (article 7, second paragraph).
This is what justifies, for example, a ground-floor unit not contributing to the lift in the same proportion as a top-floor unit, or communal heating being apportioned on a basis that takes account of the heated areas and, where applicable, of meter readings. The basis that applies to your building is set out in your règlement de copropriété (the condominium regulations).
Common parts with reserved enjoyment
A rule introduced by the Law of 22 April 1985 is often poorly understood, even though it settles a great many disputes: where the condominium regulations reserve the enjoyment of a common part to one co-owner, the cost of maintaining it falls on that co-owner alone. Where that enjoyment is reserved to several co-owners, the cost is shared between them in proportion to the relative value of their rights of enjoyment.
But the same paragraph immediately sets out its limit: it does not apply to expenditure on the structure of the building, and in particular on waterproofing (article 7, final paragraph).
If your regulations reserve to you the enjoyment of a terrace or garden that is a common part, its routine upkeep is at your expense. Waterproofing and the structure, however, remain the condominium’s responsibility. That is precisely the distinction to point to when water starts seeping through beneath a terrace.
Can the apportionment be changed?
Three situations, not to be confused with one another (articles 7 and 8):
- Adjusting the apportionment rules for the various categories of charges so as to bring them into line with the statutory criteria: the meeting may do this at any time, by a majority of the votes of all the co-owners.
- Altering the apportionment outside that case: unanimity of the co-owners. That is the rule, and it is a demanding one.
- An alteration made necessary by works, or by deeds of acquisition or disposal duly decided upon: it may be decided by the same majority as the principal decision.
Where charges are to be borne only by certain co-owners, they alone take part in the vote on altering or establishing the apportionment between them. And where the meeting takes no decision in the cases provided for by the Law, any co-owner may apply to the district court for the place where the building is situated in order to have the new apportionment made; the court’s decision binds the owners of all the units concerned.
The two documents to read
To know what you have to pay and why, two documents are usually enough: the état descriptif de division (your shares) and the règlement de copropriété (the categories of charges and the basis on which each is apportioned). If you do not have them, ask: your notary gave you copies when you bought, and we can send them to you again. If a basis of apportionment looks to you inconsistent with actual use, that is a matter for the general meeting: let us discuss it before you challenge it.
General information on Luxembourg condominium law (the amended Law of 16 May 1975 and the Grand Ducal Regulation of 13 June 1975, in their consolidated version applicable as at 1 August 2023). Your own règlement de copropriété may lay down specific rules, which prevail within the limits set by the law. This content is not legal advice.