Condo fees: how are they calculated and allocated?

Ownership shares, general charges, special charges: here is how condo fees are calculated, and how to check them before paying.

Condo fees are often the first source of questions — and tension — between co-owners. Understanding how they’re calculated helps the board answer clearly and spot an anomaly before it turns into a dispute.

The principle: allocation based on ownership shares

Each unit has an ownership share (expressed in thousandths), set in the condo bylaws based on the unit’s size, location, and use. Fees are allocated proportionally to these shares: the larger a unit’s share, the larger its contribution to common charges.

General charges vs. special charges: a key distinction

French condo law distinguishes two main categories of charges, which are not allocated the same way.

• General charges: upkeep of common areas, building insurance, property manager fees — allocated based on general shares.
• Special charges: elevator, shared heating, green spaces — allocated based on how much benefit each unit actually gets from them (a ground-floor unit usually does not pay for the elevator).

The board’s role in tracking charges

The board does not set the budget, but it assists and reviews the property manager’s work. Before the general meeting, it helps to compare the approved budget against actual spending, flag significant gaps, and prepare clear explanations for co-owners.

Disputing your charges: the process to know

A co-owner disputing their charges has two months from the notification of the meeting minutes approving the accounts to take the matter to court. Before that, a simple conversation with the property manager, backed by the accounting documents, is often enough to clear up a misunderstanding.

Well-explained charges prevent nine disputes out of ten: transparency starts with accounts everyone can access.

CoproHarmony lets you centralize fee statements, budgets, and meeting minutes in one place, accessible anytime to board members.

Upstream of the allocation, it is the budget that gets debated: see the 8 questions to ask before voting the draft budget.

If an expense looks wrongly allocated, see how to challenge a charge allocation: it is the easiest anomaly to demonstrate.

Collective heating follows its own rules since individual heating cost allocation came in.

Two special cases keep coming back: the split in the year of a sale and excess water consumption.

If your unit is let, the next question is which charges are recoverable from the tenant.

The starting point of the calculation deserves its own article: ownership shares.

When blocks no longer share interests, see the secondary association — and which regime applies before any debate.