Sharing co-ownership costs
Sharing co-ownership costs
As owners of a private road, my neighbours and I have to pay the cost of repairing water pipes damaged by frost. However, we don't agree on how they should be apportioned: some say they should be paid in proportion to the surface area of the road, while others say the bill should be divided by the number of joint owners. What is the right key?
H. Geneva
According to the definition set out in article 646 of the Civil Code (CC), in the case of co-ownership, several persons each have ownership of their share of a property that is not physically divided. This means that each co-owner has the rights and obligations of an owner in proportion to his or her share.
Article 649 of the Swiss Civil Code states that, in principle, all co-owners bear the administrative costs, taxes and other charges arising from the co-ownership or encumbering the common property in proportion to their shares. Therefore, if one of the co-owners pays more than his share, he has recourse against the others in the same proportion. As this legal provision is dispositive in nature, the co-owners may, however, make provision in the co-ownership regulations for a distribution other than that established by law.
According to case law, administrative costs include those relating to management, maintenance, repairs or planting, as well as insurance premiums. Other expenses may be based on private law (e.g. repayment of mortgage interest or capital amortisation) or public law (e.g. taxes and contributions of all kinds).
The water main repairs you mention therefore fall into the category of costs that must be shared between all the co-owners. If there is no sharing agreement between you and your neighbours that deviates from the legal terms and conditions, all the co-owners of your private road must pay the bill for repairing the water pipes to the extent of their respective shares, i.e. in proportion to the portion of the road belonging to each.
It is therefore advisable for co-owners of a property to address the issue of the apportionment of costs in their co-ownership regulations if they wish to adopt a system tailored to specific circumstances, failing which it will be governed by the basic provisions of the Civil Code.
