What is considered as jointly-owned property?
“Jointly-owned property” means every part of a building under joint ownership which has not been registered as a unit. The law does not specify the particular parts of the building that constitute the jointly-owned property, but jointly-owned property generally includes:
- Common areas, corridors, yard
- Staircase
- Rooftop
- Foundations
- Common building blocks
- Walls that support the entire common building
- Common walls between units and jointly-owned property (the value of which is evenly distributed between the jointly-owned property and the units)
- Electrical installation
- Hydraulic installation and engine room
- Elevators
The joint ownership of a jointly-owned building shall belong, be possessed, and enjoyed by all the owners of the unit in undivided shares, according to the value of each unit in relation to the total value of all the units of the jointly-owned building, and shall belong to the units according to this proportion.
What are the benefits of having a single insurance policy to cover a jointly-owned property?
- You will have a single insurance policy for the whole building, and you will know only one insurance company.
- In case of a claim, you will avoid the risk of one insurance company claiming that the other insurance company has an obligation to pay, which sometimes, unfortunately, without any solutions, resort to time-consuming procedures (court proceedings, perhaps).
- Having a single contract reduces the cost of insurance significantly
- In case each tenant has a separate contract for his own property and a separate contract for the jointly-owned buildings, then the deductible amount of each contract works twice
Who and what are covered under the jointly-owned property insurance?
- The Management Committee as a separate entity
- The members of the management committee for their personal responsibility to perform their duties as required by law and regulations
- The owners of the separate units for their personal responsibility to carry out the proper care for their jointly-owned property
- The visitors of the jointly-owned property
Clarifications:
As a matter of good practice, it is recommended to issue a separate insurance certificate in the name of each unit owner on which the insured amount of the unit will be reported including the value of any joint ownership that belongs to the unit and the value of the indivisible portion of the jointly-owned property owned by one’s unit.
In case that a specific unit is mortgaged to a financial institution, the insurance company should issue a mortgage clause stating explicitly the mortgaged unit.
Ellada Palmyri
Qualified Insurance Broker
FLMI, MBA, BA Accounting
Email: [email protected]
Tel.: +35799603199