Co-Ownership Issues – Relationships Among Co-Owners
Co-ownership, meaning the situation where two or more co-owners jointly hold a property, is a common phenomenon under Greek law. Beyond co-ownership cases in apartment buildings, a co-ownership regime can arise due to inheritance, purchase by more than one person, or donation to multiple individuals. This often entails legal and practical difficulties when there is no clear regulation or agreement among the co-owners.
Basic Rights and Obligations of Co-Owners
Each co-owner has the right to use the common property, provided that this use does not prevent the other co-owners from exercising the same right. The co-ownership percentage determines their share but not necessarily a specific part of the property, unless a partition or establishment of horizontal or vertical property has taken place.
At the same time, each co-owner is obliged to contribute to maintenance, insurance, and common management expenses of the property. Refusal to participate in expenses or unauthorized use of the property may cause tensions and lead to legal actions.
Co-Ownership in Apartment Buildings
A particular form of co-ownership is found in apartment buildings through the establishment of horizontal property. Each owner of an apartment or another independent horizontal property holds an undivided share in the common and jointly owned areas of the building, such as staircases, elevators, the roof, the basement, etc., as well as in the entire plot of the apartment building. For this reason, and to avoid disputes and conflicts, the relationships among co-owners are usually regulated by the Building’s Regulation, which sets out their rights and obligations, especially concerning the use of common areas and contribution to common expenses, and binds all co-owners. Non-compliance with the Regulation can lead to disputes and even court claims.
Common Problems in Co-Ownership Relations and Methods of Resolution – Voluntary Partition – Judicial Partition
The most frequent issues arising among co-owners include disagreements over the use, leasing, transfer, and general exploitation of the property. When agreement is not possible, the law offers alternative solutions such as partitioning the jointly owned property to dissolve the co-ownership.
Specifically, the partition of the common property can be done either extrajudicially, by agreement among the co-owners, or through judicial means. If the property can be divided into two or more relatively equivalent parts without significant loss of value, the Court may order a voluntary partition. If voluntary partition is not feasible, the Court may order the auction of the property and the distribution of the auction proceeds among the co-owners (judicial partition).
