Works in a French apartment block: budget, vote and financing

Before producing any estimate for a block, the economist has to establish, item by item, whether the work concerns the common parts, financed collectively, or the private parts, financed individually. That distinction determines who pays, on what basis, and what vote is required. It is set by the block's own governing document, which has to be read first.

The general rule is that the elements making up the shared fabric, façades, roof, structure, communal services, the staircase, are common parts, and the elements inside an individual flat, partitions, finishes, internal wiring, are private. But exceptions exist, notably for external windows, which some governing documents classify as common and others as private.

Decisions on works in a block are subject to majority rules set by the 1965 statute. The economist has to know them in order to frame the programme: a vote requiring an absolute majority can need a second meeting if the first fails, which pushes the project back three to six months.

• Simple majority: a majority of the votes cast by the owners present or represented. It applies to works necessary to preserve the building and to ordinary maintenance. It is the usual rule for façades, roofs and services.

• Absolute majority: a majority of the votes of all owners, whether present, represented or absent. It applies to improvement works, new equipment, and works above a certain value. Communal heating, external insulation and lifts fall under it. Where a majority of those present is obtained without reaching an absolute majority, a second vote at simple majority can be held immediately.

• Double majority: a majority of the owners representing at least two-thirds of the votes. It applies to very substantial works and to collective borrowing, and it is hard to obtain in a large block.

ℹ From vote to works: allow six to twelve months Convening a general meeting requires at least 21 days' notice. Where an absolute majority vote fails, a second meeting can be convened for a simple majority vote, but only if the owners present reached that threshold at the first vote. For substantial works needing several votes, a multi-year programme, a collective loan, the interval between the decision to commission the design and the signature of the contracts can reach 12 to 18 months. The economist has to build that timetable into the programme, and to update the estimate if the works slip by a year.

The table illustrates two important dynamics. Pairing the insulation with the heating renewal is flagged as a priority: both packages have to be done together to maximise the collective retrofit grant, which requires an energy improvement of at least 35 %, hard to reach with insulation alone on a building with an old boiler. The grants reduce the net budget from 366 100 € to 324 100 €, a saving of 11,5 % that is worth documenting in the papers for the vote, to convince the reluctant owners.

Each owner's share is not an equal division of the total; it is calculated on the shares set out in the governing document. An owner holding 120 shares in 1 000 pays 12 % of the total, whether they live on the ground floor or the top.

For some works a special key applies. Lift charges, for instance, are often apportioned by floor, so the upper floors pay more than the ground floor. The economist has to check the governing document to identify the key applicable to each package, and to produce an apportionment table owner by owner. That is the document that lets the meeting vote knowing what it is voting on.

ℹ What the economist should produce for the meeting First, the detailed estimate by package with an explicit contingency. Second, the apportionment table by owner for each package. Third, the financing plan: funds available, grants that can be claimed, and the balance to be called. Fourth, the majority required for each package, with the threshold to be reached. Fifth, a proposed timetable from vote to design appointment to tender to works, with the milestones at which the estimate will be updated.

The financing plan determines whether the vote is winnable. A budget of 30 000 € per owner payable at once can block a vote that would have passed at 10 000 € over three years. The economist has to present the financing options before the meeting, not after.

The optimal combination for energy efficiency works in a block is generally the collective retrofit grant, the energy certificates and the collective interest-free loan together. On the example budget of 366 100 €, that combination can bring the net charge per owner down from 30 508 € to 18 000–22 000 €, a reduction of 30 to 40 %, spread over fifteen years through the loan.

A tender package for a block of flats has particularities the economist has to build into the documents.

• Phased working in an occupied building is a given: façade, roof and staircase works are carried out with the residents in place. The specification has to state the access constraints, the working hours, the protection to be provided and how the residents will be kept informed.

• Interfaces with the private parts are frequent: renewing the roof waterproofing may require access to the top-floor flats to make good the junctions. Those accesses have to be planned and written into the conditions of contract.

• Continuity of service is a contractual constraint: the communal services, water, heating, power to the common parts, cannot be interrupted without notice and without an alternative. The conditions of contract have to set the maximum interruption for each service.

• The managing agent is not always an experienced client: the economist and the architect often take on a heavier advisory role, explaining the steps, the rights and the obligations, and translating the technical documents into terms the owners can act on.

Works in a block of flats divide between common parts, financed collectively in proportion to each owner's shares, and private parts, financed individually. The voting rules run from simple majority for ordinary maintenance, through absolute majority for improvements and new equipment, to double majority for very substantial works and borrowing. The interval from vote to works can reach 12 to 18 months on complex programmes. For the meeting, the economist should produce a detailed estimate, an apportionment table by owner, and a financing plan with the grants that can be claimed. Combining the collective retrofit grant, the energy certificates and the interest-free loan can cut the net charge per owner by 30 to 40 %. The tender package has to carry phased working in occupation, the interfaces with the private parts, and continuity of the communal services.

The nature of the figures quoted

The percentages and amounts quoted on this page are orders of magnitude for framing, not measurements. They illustrate mechanisms and proportions, and they substitute neither for a tender exercise nor for an estimate prepared on drawings.

• Refurbishment economics in France: the economist's tools and methods
• Measurement rules specific to refurbishment
• Energy requirements and grants in refurbishment: obligations and budget