Ownership shares: understanding the number that decides everything

Shares set your bill and your weight at the meeting. Almost nobody knows how they were calculated.

Two identical flats in the same building, two different charge shares: the question returns at every meeting. The answer is one word — shares, sometimes expressed in thousandths.

Understanding that number is a board’s first reflex, because it governs two things at once: what each unit pays, and each owner’s weight in a vote.

What shares represent

Each unit holds a share of the common areas, expressed against a total set by the building rules — a thousand, ten thousand, or any other figure. That share is recorded in the schedule of division annexed to the rules.

• It sets the contribution to general charges: administration, routine upkeep, preservation of the building.
• It sets the number of votes the owner holds at the general meeting.
• It follows the unit, not the person: it passes unchanged to the buyer.
• The total does not change when a unit is split — see splitting or merging units.

How they were calculated

Shares are not proportional to floor area alone. They are set when the association is created, by a professional, taking account of the unit’s composition, area, position in the building and floor level.

That is why two flats of the same size can differ: a top floor with a view and a ground floor on a courtyard do not have the same relative value. This weighting explains most of the gaps that surprise new owners.

The confusing part: several keys coexist

The commonest error is assuming there is one single allocation. In practice a building uses several keys depending on the spending: general charges follow the common-area shares, but the lift, collective heating or the upkeep of one particular block follow special keys.

A ground-floor unit can therefore be exempt from lift costs while paying its share of the façade. The detail sits in the allocation annex of the building rules, and the mechanism is developed in how charges are calculated and split.

When shares can be changed

Changing the allocation of charges is one of the heaviest decisions a building can take: depending on the case it requires a reinforced majority, or unanimity. It is not improvised, and a professional must draw up the new table.

• A split or merger of units, redistributing existing shares.
• Creation of a new unit, for instance by adding a storey or converting a common room.
• A manifest error in the original calculation, whose correction follows strict conditions.
• A change of use or composition substantially altering a unit’s relative value.

If you consider your allocation unfair, the route differs from a billing error: see challenging the allocation of charges.

What the board should check

Three simple checks once a year: does the total of allocated shares match the total set by the rules? Are special keys applied to the right units? Have sold, split or newly created units been carried into the table?

Do this alongside the pre-meeting accounts review: a discrepancy in shares distorts every allocation of the year.

Shares do not measure floor area: they measure a unit’s relative value at the moment the association was created.

Keep your unit data with CoproHarmony

CoproHarmony stores the schedule of division, the rules and the list of units with their shares, available to the whole board. Create your free space.