If one question had to be singled out as the point where condominium claims get stuck, it would be this: common property or private property? It decides whether the building's policy or the resident's home insurance responds to a loss, who bears the deductible, and who has to act. The good news: the line can be clarified – just not in general terms, but building by building.
- The boundary between common and private property is set in every building by its own deed of foundation – and it can differ from building to building.
- Typically common: the roof, the façade, the stairwell, the foundations, the load-bearing walls, the main pipe runs (risers) and the common areas.
- It is because of the grey zones – windows, balconies, radiators, branch pipes – that it pays to settle the boundary in the insurance contract in advance, rather than at claim time.
Why does it differ from building to building?
Legally, a condominium comes into being when the deed of foundation designates which parts pass into the private property of the individual owners (typically the flats and the rooms allocated to them), and what remains in the common property of the co-owners. That division is unique to each building – it can differ even between two identical neighbouring blocks. So there is no such thing as “the radiator is always common” or “the window is always private”: the deed of foundation of the particular building always prevails, supplemented where relevant by the organisational and operational rules (SZMSZ). There are general experiences – there are no general truths.
The typical arrangement
In most buildings the picture is similar: common property covers the load-bearing structure, the roof and the façade, the stairwell and the corridors, the shared parts of the cellar and the attic, and the main lines of the building systems – the water, sewage, gas and electrical mains, that is, the risers. Private property typically means the interior of the flat: floor and wall finishes, internal partitions, sanitary ware, fitted furniture, and in many buildings the branch pipes inside the flat. Condominium insurance covers the former; the latter is the territory of home insurance – for the detail: who covers what.
The grey zones
Claims typically do not stall on the roof or in the middle of the living room, but in the border strip. The classic disputed elements: doors and windows (part of the façade, or of the flat?), balconies and loggias (their structure is often common, their surfacing private), radiators and the components of the heating system, the pipe sections branching off the riser, and access balconies. Insurance contracts respond to these differently too: some extend beyond the common property to structural elements inside the flats, while others draw the circle more narrowly.
What does this mean at claim time?
With a riser leak, for example, the building's policy typically responds – the riser is common property. If the same water damage starts from a privately owned section inside the flat, it is typically the resident's matter (and their home insurance). And the affected neighbour may also report the loss to their own home insurer, which may later turn to the party who caused it. This three-way movement is set out step by step in the water ingress article. The point: the classification determines the route the claim takes – which is why it has to be clear.
How do we clarify it in advance?
When requesting quotes, it is worth reviewing the relevant parts of the deed of foundation and – within the framework the policy terms allow – setting the cover out in the contract so that the border strip leaves as few open questions as possible. The SZMSZ checklist gives you something to hold on to here as well. A dispute is not to be won at claim time; it is to be prevented when the contract is signed.
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