Italian Condominium Administrator's Duties (Art. 1130)

The administrator's duties are not scattered across case law. The core of them is a single article, art. 1130 of the Civil Code, and it is short enough to read in full. Below is the list, in plain words, and then the duties around it in art. 1129 that people forget.

The ten duties of art. 1130

The article opens: the administrator, "oltre a quanto previsto dall'articolo 1129 e dalle vigenti disposizioni di legge, deve" — in addition to art. 1129 and other laws in force, must:

1. Carry out the assembly's resolutions, convene it annually to approve the rendiconto, and see that the condominium regulation is observed.
2. Regulate the use of common things and of services in the common interest, so that each condòmino gets the best enjoyment of them.
3. Collect contributions and pay the expenses needed for ordinary maintenance of the common parts and for common services.
4. Take preservative acts on the common parts. The Code does not define them; urgent work that stops damage is the obvious case.
5. Perform tax filings. Three words in the Code; it names no specific filing. For the communication to the Agenzia delle Entrate see the post on it.
6. Keep the condominium register of owners (anagrafe): names of owners and holders of real and personal rights of enjoyment, tax code, residence or domicile, cadastral data of each unit, and "ogni dato relativo alle condizioni di sicurezza delle parti comuni". Changes must be communicated in writing within sixty days; if not, the administrator asks by registered letter and, after thirty days without a complete answer, obtains the information himself and charges the cost to those responsible.
7. Keep three registers: minutes of assemblies, appointment and removal of administrators, and accounting. The accounting register records each movement in chronological order within thirty days, and may be kept in computerised form. See also the verbale post.
8. Keep all the documentation of the management, both on relations with the condòmini and on the technical and administrative state of the building.
9. Give a payment statement: to a condòmino who asks, a statement on the state of payment of condominium charges and of any pending disputes.
10. Draw up the annual rendiconto and convene the assembly to approve it within one hundred and eighty days. What the rendiconto must contain is in this post.

What art. 1129 adds

• Data and register location (second comma): at acceptance and at each renewal, the administrator communicates his personal and professional details, tax code, the place where the registers are kept, and the days and hours when anyone interested can inspect them free of charge.
• Insurance (third and fourth commas): the assembly may make the appointment conditional on a civil liability policy, and if it does, the administrator must raise the limits when the assembly resolves extraordinary works.
• Notice at the entrance (fifth comma): his name, address and contact details, including telephone, displayed where the public can see them.
• Dedicated account (seventh comma): everything received or paid passes through a specific account in the condominium's name. Separate post.
• Forced collection (ninth comma): unless the assembly has expressly dispensed him, within six months from the close of the year in which the credit falls due. See morosità.
• Term (tenth comma): one year, renewed for the same period.
• Fee (fourteenth comma): specified analytically at acceptance and at each renewal, under penalty of nullity of the appointment.
• On exit (eighth comma): hand over all the documentation and carry out urgent activities to avoid prejudice, without right to further fees.

Serious irregularities and removal

The twelfth comma lists "gravi irregolarità", among others: not convening the assembly to approve the rendiconto, or repeatedly refusing to convene it for the revocation and the appointment of a new administrator; not executing court and administrative orders and assembly resolutions; not opening and using the dedicated account; managing in ways that can confuse condominium money with personal money; failing to take care of a collection action once started; failing the duties of art. 1130 nos. 6, 7 and 9; and incomplete or inexact communication of the data of the second comma. The assembly can revoke at any time; a court can too, on the application of any condòmino, in case of serious irregularities.

What the list does not say

The numbered list has no entry for legionella, fire, lift or electrical inspections, or any technical compliance, and none on answering residents within a set time. The only safety text is inside no. 6. If you are asked "does the Code require the administrator to do X", check whether X is in these ten points or in art. 1129 before saying yes, and when it is not, say that this article does not list it rather than that it does not exist in other rules.

Turning the list into a working week

Seen from an administrator's desk, several of these are record-keeping duties: an up-to-date register of owners with contact details (no. 6), documents that can be found (no. 8), a payment statement that can be produced on request (no. 9), and the data for the rendiconto (no. 10). Unitify keeps owner and unit data with contact channels, gathers charges and payments per unit and documents per building, and exports the figures on which the rendiconto is built. It is not an accounting ledger and does not replace the accounting register or the administrator's signature on the statement of payments, which stays his act. Residents see notices and balances in the resident app, and requests come in as segnalazioni rather than telephone calls. The app post describes it.

If you want to see how a studio with many condominiums keeps these records in one place, see the Italy page or book a demo.