Why is this document essential?
In a collective building, the visible boundaries are not always enough. A door shows the entrance to a cellar, but not necessarily the lot to which it belongs. A courtyard may have long been used by a single occupant without being a private part.
The co-ownership regulations provide a framework for the organisation of the building. They determine the intended use of the private and common parts, the conditions of their enjoyment, the rules for administering the common parts and the share of charges attached to each lot.
They do not, however, contain the whole life of the co-ownership. The accounts, the contracts, the works voted and the annual decisions are found in other documents.
Which documents must be read together with the regulations?
The regulations must be read together with the descriptive table of division, which sets the shares in the common parts, and the plans. These documents make it possible to identify the apartments, cellars, garages, offices or spaces and to link each of them to its co-ownership shares.
In an old building, several amending deeds may have been added to the original document. A cellar may have been divided, lots may have been combined or an intended use may have been changed. Reading only the original regulations may therefore give an incomplete picture.
The right request is not "the building's papers", but the co-ownership regulations together with all their amending deeds and the up-to-date descriptive table of division.
What happens when the titles say nothing?
The law provides default rules. Where the titles are silent or contradictory, the following are notably deemed common: the ground, the courtyards, the access ways, the structural work, the common equipment, the ducts, the common service premises, the passages and the corridors.
Terraces, balconies, balustrades and guardrails are also presumed common, except for the surface covering that is invisible from the outside. This distinction can be important when damage affects the waterproofing or only the covering used by the owner.
These presumptions prevent a space or a structure from remaining without a regime, but they do not replace the reading of the deeds where they exist.
What is the difference from internal rules?
Internal rules generally organise the practical aspects of daily life: schedules, cleanliness, use of a common room or safety instructions. They do not necessarily have the same scope as the co-ownership regulations attached to the building's deeds.
A rule posted in the hall is therefore not automatically a clause of the co-ownership regulations. Conversely, an old clause does not disappear because it is no longer displayed in the common parts.
Before applying or challenging a rule, one must identify the document from which it comes and check its scope.
Can the regulations prohibit everything?
No. The principle is the opposite: each co-owner freely uses and enjoys their private parts and the common parts, on condition of not harming either the rights of the other co-owners or the intended use of the building. Restrictions are the exception and must be justified.
The regulations may impose restrictions on the rights of the co-owners only if they are justified by the intended use of the building as it results from the deeds, from its characteristics or from its location. A clause foreign to the object of the regulations is deemed unwritten.
A second limit relates to the object of the syndicate, which is the preservation of the building and the administration of the common parts. A clause foreign to this object is likewise deemed unwritten.
Nor may the general meeting impose on a co-owner a change to the intended use of their private parts or to the terms of their enjoyment as they result from the regulations.
This limit protects the rights attached to the lot, without preventing the co-ownership from adopting the rules necessary for the operation and preservation of the building.
Against whom are the regulations enforceable?
The regulations bind the owners, but also their successors in title, in particular tenants and occupants. As against a purchaser, however, they are binding only after their transcription with the mortgage registrar of the district in which the building is located.
The same requirement applies to each addition or amendment. A resolution of the general meeting that amends the regulations but has never been transcribed may therefore not be enforceable against a subsequent purchaser.
This rule explains why one must request the complete chain of amending deeds and check their publication, and not merely obtain a copy of the original regulations.
Can a general meeting amend the regulations?
The regulations may be amended, but not like a simple annual budget. Where it is a matter of the enjoyment, use or administration of the common parts, the decision falls to a majority of the members of the syndicate representing at least three quarters of the votes.
The distribution keys are subject to specific rules. An amendment of the regulations must therefore not be confused with an amendment of the distribution of charges.
Finally, a resolution of the general meeting must be sufficiently precise. Deciding on a general principle without identifying the text amended, the lots concerned or the practical consequences creates a difficulty when the time comes to implement the decision.
What to do if no regulations exist?
In a co-ownership that has no regulations, the syndicate must establish them and have them published. If the general meeting cannot settle the text by the required majority, any co-owner may ask the civil court to proceed with their establishment.
This situation is encountered in particular in small buildings resulting from an old or family division.
Where to find the regulations?
The owner should normally have the documents received on acquisition. The syndic also keeps the archives of the syndicate of co-owners. Depending on the document sought, the notary or the Land Registry and Topography Administration may be involved.
For old buildings, the documents have sometimes been digitised late or filed under several references. One must then reconstitute the chain of deeds rather than settle for the first available document.
Reference texts
- Law of 16 May 1975 establishing the statute of co-ownership of built property (Mémorial A No 28 of 23 May 1975), in particular Articles 1, 2, 3, 6, 10, 11, 17 and 18 — the presumption that terraces, balconies, balustrades and railings are common (Article 3) and the transcription of the regulations (Article 10) resulting from the Law of 22 April 1985 (Mémorial A No 22 of 9 May 1985), point c) of Article 17 resulting from the Law of 30 June 2022 (Mémorial A No 347 of 11 July 2022)
- Guichet.lu, descriptive table of division