The question of co-ownership of a detached house often arises in practice when two couples wish to buy a house together. Each couple will convert part of the house into a flat separate from the rest of the house.
Similarly, it may be of interest to the owner of a detached house that is getting too big and wants to divide it into lots to sell part of it.
In both these situations, converting to co-ownership is the only truly appropriate solution. It avoids the disadvantages of joint ownership:
- each owner would have an undivided share of the whole house, but it would be physically impossible to define where each share is located. It would be necessary to define the exclusive use of part of the house by each owner under a joint ownership agreement, which would complicate the situation;
- Joint ownership is an unstable solution, because any of the joint owners can demand partition at any time;
- Only decisions concerning acts of administration may be taken by a two-thirds majority, otherwise the unanimity rule applies (with certain exceptions: Article 815-3 of the Civil Code).
Co-ownership will make it possible to isolate parts of the dwelling where each person will be the sole owner. Of course, some parts will have to remain communal because they benefit all the co-owners, for example: the roof.
Prohibitions on joint ownership
There are a number of prohibitions on putting a single-family home into joint ownership, which must be taken into account:
- It is forbidden to put into co-ownership a building that has been banned from inhabiting, declared unsafe or unhealthy, or in which at least a quarter of the total surface area is occupied or rented accommodation classified as category IV under law no. 48-1360 of 1 September 1948. (Article L111-6-1 of the French Construction and Housing Code)
- It is forbidden to divide a building in order to create living quarters with a surface area and habitable volume of less than 14 m2 and 33 m3 respectively, or which do not have a drinking water supply, waste water disposal system or access to an electricity supply.
Diagnostics required to register co-ownership
A number of diagnostic tests must be carried out before the building can be transferred to co-ownership:
- If planning permission was granted for the building before 1 July 1997, an asbestos inspection must be carried out;
z If the building is subdivided for the purpose of providing living accommodation and was built before 1 January 1949, a lead survey must be carried out.
- If the building has been in existence for more than fifteen years, atechnical inspection must be carried out to determine the apparent soundness of the structure and the condition of the communal pipes and drains, as well as the communal and safety equipment.
With the exception of the technical inspection, these inspections would in any case have been mandatory for the sale of lots following the creation of co-ownership.
The steps required to create a co-ownership structure
When a property is put up for co-ownership, it will be necessary to draw up :
*a descriptive statement of division (état descriptif de division) drawn up by a notary and published at the relevant mortgage registry. This deed will establish the division by separating the private parts (the flats, cellars, etc.) from the common parts (roofs, the land, a shared corridor, etc.), and will attach to each private part a share of the common parts, which will be used to apportion the running, maintenance and repair costs of the common parts. Certain parts of the land will often be used privately. Ideally, you should call in a surveyor to define the boundaries of each private area and calculate the proportion of common areas.
* a set of co-ownership regulations drawn up by a notary and published at the relevant mortgage registry. This document is not compulsory, but is strongly recommended. It defines the rules to be followed in the co-ownership and will be binding on future owners. Each co-owner may sell his or her lot. If the first co-owners get along well when the property is first co-owned, this may no longer be the case when new co-owners arrive. It is therefore important to lay down the rules that will apply to all members of the co-ownership. Drawing up co-ownership rules may also be of interest in terms of urban pre-emption rights. In an area with a simple urban right of pre-emption, the sale of a co-ownership lot whose co-ownership regulations have been published in the mortgage office for more than 10 years will not require the municipality to waive its right of pre-emption.
Co-ownership will therefore make it possible to create a structured legal framework, making it possible to isolate each person's "living quarters" within the dwelling, to regulate decision-making by means of the majority rules set out in the law of 10 July 1965, to organise the distribution of charges relating to the common areas and to manage any future disputes between co-owners.
Very often, in these small co-ownerships, the syndic will be one of the co-owners who carries out this task on a voluntary basis.