Almost every dispute in a shared building is about one of four things: the stairwell, the roof, the water pump, or the parking. They are small questions that become expensive because nobody wrote the answer down while everyone was still friendly.
Allocation
| Part | Who may use it | Who pays |
|---|---|---|
| Each floor | Its owner, exclusively | Its owner |
| Street entrance and ground-floor approach | Ground floor, exclusively | Ground floor |
| Staircase, landings and stairwell lighting | First and second floors | First and second, equally |
| Roof terrace | Second floor, exclusively | Second floor |
| Roof waterproofing and slab | Protects the whole building | All three, equally |
| Underground tank, pump and rising main | All three | All three, equally |
| Structure, columns and foundations | All three | All three, equally |
| External walls and façade | All three | All three, equally |
| Parking | See below | See below |
The roof, which is the one people get wrong
Two different things are often called “the roof” and they are allocated differently on purpose:
- The roof terrace — the usable surface. This belongs exclusively to the second floor. It is that floor’s entire premium and it is not shared, not rotated, and not available to the other two.
- The roof slab and its waterproofing — the structure. When this fails, water reaches the first floor and eventually the ground floor, so its upkeep is shared equally by all three. The second floor does not carry the cost of the building’s lid alone simply because they stand on it.
Both halves of that arrangement need to be in your instrument, not only in this page. If you are buying the second floor, check the exclusive-use clause yourself. If you are buying below it, check the shared-maintenance clause.
Parking
Not published yet
The parking allocation for each townhouse — how many spaces the approved plan provides and how they are assigned between the three floors.
We would rather show you nothing than show you something indicative. This space holds the real document as soon as it exists — not a render of what it might look like. Waiting on: Central Point, from the approved site plan.
Ask us where this has got toThis is the allocation most likely to cause trouble and we are not going to guess at it. What the approved plan provides is a matter of record, and once that record is published here the allocation between the three floors will be published with it — before sales, not after.
If a dealer has already told you how many spaces you get, ask them to put it in writing and check it against this page. If the two differ, this page is the one we stand behind.
How a disagreement is settled
Three owners cannot have a majority vote without one of them always losing, so the rule is deliberately not a vote:
- Anything exclusive is decided by the owner it belongs to, without needing anyone’s agreement.
- Necessary shared repairs — anything affecting the structure, the waterproofing, or the water supply — may be commissioned by any owner once two of the three agree, with costs shared equally. A single owner cannot block a repair the building needs.
- Discretionary shared improvements — anything not necessary — need all three, or the owners who want it pay for it themselves.
- An owner who will not pay their share of a necessary repair can be recovered against, and the others may carry out the work without waiting. The building is not held hostage to the least cooperative owner.
What we do not control
Once the three floors are sold and handed over, this is an arrangement between three owners. We are not a management company, we do not hold a casting vote, and we do not collect a monthly charge. That is a genuine advantage over an apartment block and a genuine limitation, and it is worth being clear which parts of it are which before you buy.