Selling a common area: the lodge, the loft, a disused room

A disused room earns nothing and costs upkeep. Selling it is possible — but it is the heaviest file a building can assemble.

A lodge empty since the caretaker post went, a loft never converted, a shared cellar used as a dumping ground, a sealed refuse chute room: many buildings hold space that serves no purpose. Selling it comes up regularly, often to fund works.

It is possible, but it is no formality: it turns a common area into a private unit, which alters the association’s founding documents.

What the sale really involves

• Creating a new unit, with its description and share.
• Amending the schedule of division and the building rules.
• Redistributing shares, the association’s total staying constant.
• Registering the amendments so they bind future buyers.
• Allocating the proceeds, which must be decided rather than improvised.

Each point has a cost: surveyor, notary, registration. A sale project that leaves them out of its balance sheet greatly overstates the net proceeds. The share mechanism is detailed in ownership shares.

The majority, the usual blocker

Selling a common area touches every owner’s rights: the decision requires high majorities, and unanimity may apply depending on what the sale affects — notably if it alters the building’s designated use or how the common areas may be enjoyed.

Have a professional settle this before putting the item on the agenda. A sale voted at an insufficient majority stays challengeable for years: see challenging a general meeting decision.

Value it before proposing it

A common room is not worth what a flat of the same size is worth: access, ceiling height, openings, connections and the works required weigh heavily. A professional valuation avoids two symmetrical errors — selling too cheaply, or sinking the project on an unrealistic price.

You must also weigh what the building loses: a room sold can never become a bike store, a shared room or storage. Ask that question before the sale, not after.

What to do with the proceeds

The proceeds belong to the association, and their use is decided at a meeting: funding works, topping up the works fund, or distribution between owners under the applicable rules.

Earmarking them for an identified works programme is often what carries the resolution: owners vote more readily for a sale whose counterpart they can see. See the works fund and funding works.

The alternative: let rather than sell

A sale is final. Making space available can be renegotiated: letting a room, a gable wall or part of the roof produces recurring income without cutting into the common estate.

Same reasoning as for a mobile antenna or solar panels: the length of commitment matters as much as the amount.

Selling a common room is irreversible: the only question that matters is what it might have been used for in fifteen years.

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