A terrace on the roof of an apartment building sounds attractive and luxurious. But it's also a big headache when it comes to repairing it and paying the bill for it.
Who should pay for terrace repairs—all apartment building owners or only those terrace users who purchased such a luxurious apartment? Mantas Baigys, senior lawyer at the AVOCAD law firm, answers this question.
According to the legal regulation laid down in the Law on Associations of Owners of Multi-Unit Residential Buildings or Other Purpose Buildings, the roof, the load-bearing structures of terraces, and the enclosures are classified as common building structures.
One way of using a flat roof is to build a terrace on top of it. Such a building structure, where a terrace is built on a flat roof, has a dual functional purpose: it serves as a roof, i.e. the main structure of the house, protecting the interior of the building from the effects of the weather, and it can also be used by the owners of the building, or a part of them, as a terrace (open area) for domestic, recreational and other needs.
According to the lawyer, irrespective of the fact that a terrace is built on the flat roof (or part of it), the roof remains a common structure of the building, i.e. an object that is part of the common property of all the owners of the flats and other premises of a multi-apartment building.
The terrace, as a parking area, can be either a shared space, in which case its ownership will also be shared, or it can be used by the owners of a single apartment.
"However, in any case where the terrace is used only by the owner of one apartment, and the Real Estate Register data on the apartment owned by him indicates that it is an apartment with a terrace, the roof structure on which the terrace is installed and other external terrace structures remain the common partial property of all apartment or other premises owners," notes M. Baigys.
Does this mean that all owners of a block of flats have to contribute to the repair costs?
"Not necessarily – it depends on the actual situation in the apartment building. All owners of the building will have to pay for the repair of the terrace if the flat roof structure of the apartment building and the terrace structure installed on such a roof, which according to the building design is a flat roof, protecting the interior of the building from atmospheric influences, are the common partial property of all apartment or other premises owners, and in cases where only some apartment or other premises owners have the right to use the terraces," notes the lawyer.
Only the users of the terrace will have to pay for repairs to the terrace, if the terrace structures installed on the flat roof of the apartment building are not part of the flat roof structures designed by the building to protect the interior of the building from the weather and the terrace is not a common use.
To sum up, in order to determine whether you will have to pay for terrace repairs, you need to look at the house's design documentation to see whether the terrace was designed as part of the roof structure.
When building new apartment blocks, developers should also take note of the latest case law on whether the terrace is designed as part of the roof of the block of flats. Otherwise, this may reduce the sale value of the home due to potentially high repair costs that would be borne solely by the user of the terrace.
The lawyer advises that homebuyers should also analyse these circumstances in order to assess who will have to pay for the terrace repairs. Otherwise, unplanned repair costs may be incurred. The safest approach is to consult professionals in the field who can help you assess all potential risks.