As the owner of a flat that is your main residence, you find that it is now too big for your needs.
You're thinking of dividing it in two: one part that you will keep and another that you will sell, pass on to your children or rent out.
To make sure that your plan is feasible, you should read the co-ownership regulations beforehand and avoid certain pitfalls.
Reading the co-ownership regulations beforehand
First of all, you need to read your co-ownership regulations carefully.
If there is a clause prohibiting or limiting the division of lots, you should, in principle, comply with it.
However, if there is such a clause, you can have the prohibition or restriction lifted by asking the syndic to submit the amendment or deletion of the clause to the general meeting for approval.
If the agreement of the co-owners is not obtained, recourse may be made to the courts, as such a clause in your co-ownership regulations must be justified by the nature and location of the building. If the court finds that this is not the case, it may decide that the clause is deemed to be unwritten (in which case it will no longer have any effect).
In the absence of such a clause, your division project must comply with the purpose of the building. So if your project involves a very large flat in a luxury residence that you want to divide into several small studios, compliance with the building's intended use may well be an obstacle. Only a judge will be able to assess, on a case-by-case basis, whether or not the division contravenes the purpose of the building.
Apart from these cases, itis not necessary to obtain the agreement of the co-owners in order to divide your flat.
But beware of certain pitfalls!
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If your co-ownership regulations do not specify a method for calculating the new division of charges, you will need to ask the general meeting to approve the new division of charges between the new lots resulting from the division. The prudent thing to do is to request this approval before you start any division work.
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If the division work you are about to undertake involves work on the communal areas (moving or piercing a load-bearing wall, for example), or affects the external appearance of the building (creating a new window, for example), you will need to obtain the prior agreement of the co-owners. In the case of work affecting the external appearance of the building, you will also need to contact the Mairie to find out whether planning permission needs to be obtained beforehand.
