You purchased an apartment in Paris. Shortly after completion, letters started arriving — an invitation to an assemblée générale, a quarterly charge notice, a call for funds to repair the building façade, a decision from a meeting you did not attend. None of it was explained to you before you signed. Your notaire was focused on the transaction; the seller’s estate agent was focused on closing. The règlement de copropriété — a forty-page document in legal French — was handed to you in the pre-contract bundle and mentioned only briefly.
This guide explains how French condominium law works from the perspective of a foreign owner who needs to understand what they have bought into, what they owe, what rights they have, and where the risks lie that no one warned them about.
The legal framework: what copropriété means
French condominium law is governed by the law of 10 July 1965 (loi n° 65-557 du 10 juillet 1965 fixant le statut de la copropriété des immeubles bâtis) and its implementing decree of 17 March 1967. This framework has been substantially reformed by the ALUR law of 2014 and the ELAN law of 2018, and further adjusted by successive decrees since.
Copropriété describes the legal regime applicable to a building — or a group of buildings — divided into lots, some privately owned and some collectively owned. Every apartment building in France with more than one owner is subject to this regime by operation of law. There is no opt-out.
What you bought is a lot de copropriété. A lot consists of two inseparable elements: a private part (partie privative) — your apartment, its cellar, its parking space if applicable — and a fractional share of the common parts (quote-part des parties communes), expressed in thousandths (millièmes or tantièmes). You cannot own one without the other. When you sell, both transfer together.
The common parts (parties communes) include everything that is not exclusively assigned to one owner: staircases, lifts, roof, load-bearing walls, courtyard, façade, pipes inside the walls, and any space designated as common in the état descriptif de division. You co-own all of this with your fellow apartment owners, in proportion to your tantièmes.
How French copropriété compares to systems you may know
Foreign buyers arrive in Paris with mental models built from their home country. Most of those models are wrong in at least one important respect. Here is where the French system sits relative to the main alternatives.
If you are from the United Kingdom
The most consequential difference is structural: in France, you own your apartment in pleine propriété — full freehold ownership of your private lot, plus a co-ownership share of the common parts. In England and Wales, almost all flats are sold on a leasehold basis: you own a lease for a fixed term (typically 99 to 999 years), and the freehold of the building belongs to a separate freeholder who can charge ground rent, retain control over service costs, and — until recent reforms — make ownership progressively more expensive as the lease shortens. The structural weakness of English leasehold is precisely what the UK government is now trying to correct by moving toward commonhold — a system deliberately modelled on the French and German approach. A British buyer of a Paris apartment is, in this respect, acquiring a stronger and cleaner form of property ownership than they typically have at home.
On service charges, the comparison is broadly similar in cost — the UK average reached £2,300 per year in 2024, rising sharply — but the French system is more transparent and more tightly regulated. French charges are governed by statute, with mandatory accounting standards, voting requirements, and legal access rights for all co-owners. English service charges have historically been far less regulated, with freeholders able to impose costs with limited accountability. The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 is attempting to address this, but full implementation remains years away.
The challenge mechanism also differs. In France, you go to the Tribunal judiciaire. In England and Wales, service charge disputes go to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) — a specialist administrative body, not a court.
If you are from the United States
American buyers expect a Homeowners Association (HOA). The French syndicat des copropriétaires performs a broadly similar function, but rests on a completely different legal foundation. HOAs are contractual entities — governed by privately drafted CC&Rs (Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions) and bylaws that vary dramatically from one building to the next. There is no federal statutory framework governing them, and state-level regulation is highly variable. French copropriété is a mandatory statutory regime: every multi-owner building is automatically subject to it, its rules cannot be contracted out of, and the substantive protections they provide cannot be waived.
Monthly HOA fees in US condos range from $50 to over $2,000 depending on amenities and location — broadly comparable to Paris charges in absolute terms. But the key structural difference for capital works is the mandatory fonds de travaux: French law requires every building to maintain a minimum reserve fund equal to 5% of the annual budget. Most US states have no equivalent requirement, which is why deferred maintenance is a chronic problem in American condo associations and why special assessments (the US equivalent of French appels de fonds spéciaux) are often unexpected and very large. In France, the plan pluriannuel de travaux is designed to make future expenditure foreseeable — predictability that the US system structurally lacks.
One important similarity: in both systems, a voted decision binds the dissenting minority. An HOA supermajority vote on a special assessment is as binding on individual owners as a French article 25 resolution. The minority pays regardless of how it voted.
If you are from Germany
The German system — governed by the Wohnungseigentumsgesetz (WEG), fundamentally reformed in 2020 — is the closest structural equivalent to French copropriété. Both derive from the same civil law tradition of real property co-ownership, both use fractional shares expressed in thousandths to allocate costs and votes, both provide for professional management, and both mandate a capital reserve fund (Instandhaltungsrücklage in Germany, fonds de travaux in France). A German owner in Paris will find the framework immediately recognisable. The main practical differences are procedural: majority thresholds differ slightly, and the challenge mechanism goes to the Amtsgericht rather than the Tribunal judiciaire.
If you are from Spain or Italy
Both countries operate systems structurally similar to France, inheriting the same civil law approach to divided co-ownership. Spanish comunidades de propietarios (governed by the Ley de Propiedad Horizontal of 1960) and Italian condominio (governed by articles 1117–1139 of the Codice Civile, reformed in 2012) use quota-based voting, annual general meetings, and a designated manager in larger buildings. The key practical difference in Spain is that professional management (administrador de fincas) is not legally required — a comunidad of any size can be self-managed by an elected presidente drawn from among the owners, who simultaneously holds the secretary and administrator roles. This is unthinkable in France, where a professional syndic is mandatory. In Italy, professional management (amministratore) becomes mandatory in buildings with nine or more units, bringing it closer to the French model.
If you are from Australia
Australian strata title — the predominant system for apartment ownership across New South Wales, Victoria, and Queensland — is conceptually very similar to copropriété: freehold ownership of your private lot, co-ownership of common areas, mandatory levies (equivalent to charges), an owners corporation (equivalent to the syndicat), a strata committee (equivalent to the conseil syndical), and annual general meetings. The main difference is that strata law varies significantly by state, lacks the unified national framework that France’s 1965 law provides, and professional strata management (equivalent to the syndic) is common but not universally mandated.
The one feature that is distinctively French
What genuinely has no equivalent in most other systems is the combination of: automatic application by operation of law, a nationally standardised mandatory framework with no contracting out, a tiered voting structure with legally defined majority thresholds, and a two-month hard deadline to contest voted resolutions. Together, these features give the French system more legal certainty than the HOA model and more owner protection than the English leasehold model — but they also mean that once a decision is voted, there is no procedural mechanism to delay its financial consequences. The building decides; you pay; you litigate afterwards if at all.
The founding documents of your building
Every copropriété is governed by two foundational documents that you should have received — and read — before purchasing.
The règlement de copropriété is the constitutional document of the building. It defines what is private and what is common, establishes the rules governing use of the building, specifies the charges allocation keys, and may contain restrictions on the use of individual apartments. These restrictions are binding on every successive owner — they run with the property, not with the person who agreed to them.
The état descriptif de division is the technical document that identifies each lot by number, describes its composition, and assigns its tantièmes. It is the reference for calculating what you owe and what vote weight you carry.
If your règlement de copropriété is old — many Parisian buildings have règlements dating from the 1960s and 1970s — it may contain provisions that appear obsolete but remain legally valid until formally amended by the required majority. It may also have been updated at various points, with amendments attached. Always verify that you have the consolidated version including all amendments.
Your tantièmes: what they determine
Your tantièmes determine two things simultaneously: your share of the charges and your voting weight at general meetings.
A large apartment on a high floor in a well-maintained Haussmann building will typically carry more tantièmes than a studio on the ground floor. This reflects the original valuation logic of 1965 — and it means that owners of larger or more valuable apartments pay proportionally more and vote proportionally more.
The practical consequence is that in a building where a single owner holds a significant fraction of all tantièmes — a common situation in buildings partially converted from commercial use — that owner can exert decisive influence over every vote taken at the articles 24 and 25 majority thresholds. As a foreign owner of a single apartment in a large Parisian immeuble, your individual voting weight is likely to be modest. Understanding the distribution of tantièmes in your building before making any assumptions about your influence over decisions is essential.
Charges: what you owe and why
Charges de copropriété are the ongoing financial contributions every owner must make toward the maintenance and operation of the building. They are not optional, not negotiable, and not suspended because you disagree with how the building is run.
French law distinguishes two categories.
Charges générales cover expenditures that benefit all co-owners equally: building insurance, cleaning and maintenance of common areas, collective heating where applicable, and the syndic‘s management fees. These are allocated in proportion to tantièmes généraux.
Charges spéciales cover services and facilities that do not benefit all owners equally — lift maintenance is the clearest example, since ground-floor owners who never use the lift are not required to contribute to it. The allocation key for charges spéciales reflects usefulness rather than general tantièmes, and is defined in the règlement de copropriété.
Charges are voted annually at the assemblée générale, which approves a budget for the coming year. The approved budget is divided into quarterly installments (appels de fonds) due in advance on fixed dates — typically the first day of each quarter. If you do not pay, interest runs automatically, and the syndic has the right to pursue recovery proceedings including seizure of the property itself.
Late-paying co-owners are a significant problem in many Parisian buildings. French law grants the syndicat des copropriétaires (the legal entity formed by all owners) a privileged creditor status on the property — a lien that takes precedence over most other claims. This is a creditor protection, not a debtor protection: it means the building can recover its charges from a delinquent owner more effectively than most private creditors can recover ordinary debts.
The syndic: your building’s professional manager
The syndic de copropriété is the professional management company — or, in smaller buildings, an individual — appointed by the assemblée générale to administer the copropriété on behalf of all owners. The syndic is not the owner of the building; it acts as the mandatary of the syndicat des copropriétaires.
The syndic‘s responsibilities are extensive: collecting charges, maintaining the building’s accounts, executing decisions taken by the assemblée générale, registering and updating the building’s entry in the registre des copropriétés (the national register held by the ANAH housing body), contracting with service providers, representing the syndicat in legal proceedings, and producing the annual management report presented at each assemblée générale.
The syndic is appointed and renewed by vote of the assemblée générale under the article 25 majority. Its contract — mandatory in writing since the ALUR reform — must specify its fees, which are divided between a forfait de base (covering standard management tasks) and prestations particulières (billed per event, such as overseeing major works). The pricing structure of syndic contracts in Paris varies considerably, and poorly drafted contracts generate substantial extra billing.
As a foreign owner, your practical relationship with the syndic will determine your day-to-day experience of ownership. Most professional syndics operating in Paris do not communicate in English. Correspondence, charge notices, meeting agendas, and voting forms will arrive in French. You will need either a trusted French-speaking contact to act as your representative, or a formal power of attorney (procuration) given to someone who can attend meetings on your behalf.
Insurance: what you must have and what the building covers
Insurance in a copropriété operates on two parallel tracks that many foreign owners conflate — to their cost when a claim arises.
The building itself is insured by the syndic through a collective policy (assurance multirisques immeuble) that covers the structure and common parts against fire, water infiltration, storm damage, and natural disasters. This policy is financed through the charges. It protects the building as a whole — not your apartment’s contents, not your personal civil liability.
As an individual owner, you are legally required to carry your own personal insurance (assurance habitation). At minimum, this must include responsabilité civile — civil liability coverage for damage you cause to neighbours or to common areas, most frequently through water leaks originating in your apartment. This obligation applies regardless of whether you occupy the property.
If you do not occupy your apartment — because you use it as a pied-à-terre, leave it vacant, or rent it out — you need a specific product called assurance propriétaire non-occupant (PNO). This covers the gap between your absence and what the building’s collective policy covers. Since the ALUR reform, PNO insurance has been mandatory for non-occupying owners in copropriété (Article 9-1 of the law of 10 July 1965 as amended). Annual premiums vary depending on the apartment’s size, location, and coverage level.
Water damage (dégâts des eaux) is by far the most common claim in Parisian apartment buildings. When a leak originates in your apartment or in the common pipes running through it, you must notify your insurer promptly and complete a constat amiable de dégâts des eaux — a standardised damage acknowledgment form completed jointly with the affected neighbour. French insurers handle inter-owner water damage claims through a specific convention (convention IRSI) allocating responsibility between insurers. The general principle: damage to your private parts is handled by your insurer; damage to the structure or common parts engages the building’s collective policy. Disputes over the source of a leak are common and can take months to resolve.
The assemblée générale: how decisions are made
The assemblée générale is the sovereign decision-making body of the copropriété. It meets at least once per year (assemblée générale ordinaire) and may be called in extraordinary session (assemblée générale extraordinaire) whenever circumstances require. The syndic convenes the meeting; the conseil syndical — an advisory committee of co-owners elected by the assemblée générale to monitor the syndic’s management — may also formally request one.
The convocation — the notice of meeting — must be sent at least twenty-one days before the date of the meeting, by registered letter with acknowledgment of receipt. It must include the agenda, all draft resolutions, the financial statements, and any technical reports relevant to items on the agenda. Only items listed on the agenda may be voted upon at the meeting.
As a co-owner, you have the right to attend, speak, and vote. If you cannot attend, you may give a procuration — a written proxy — to another person of your choice, including another co-owner, a family member, or a professional representative. The syndic cannot act as proxy holder. A single proxy holder may not hold more than three mandates. However, a holder may exceed three mandates provided that the combined total of their own votes and those of all their mandants does not exceed 10% of the total votes of the syndicat.
Minutes of the meeting (procès-verbal) must be sent to all co-owners within one month following the meeting. These minutes record all resolutions adopted, the votes cast, and the opposition of dissenting owners. They are essential documents if you intend to challenge a decision. Where the syndic fails to notify the procès-verbal within that one-month period, absent co-owners who wish to contest a resolution benefit from an extended five-year limitation period rather than the standard two months.
Majority thresholds: the rules that can override you
This is the point that surprises foreign owners most consistently and most consequentially.
French copropriété law operates on three majority thresholds, each applicable to a different category of decision. Understanding them is not optional — these thresholds determine when you can be outvoted on decisions that directly affect your financial obligations.
Article 24 majority — majority of votes cast by owners present or represented. This covers routine management decisions: approving the annual budget, routine maintenance works, delegation of certain powers to the conseil syndical. You can be outvoted by a bare majority of those who show up.
Article 25 majority — absolute majority of all co-owners’ votes, not just those present. This covers more significant decisions: appointing or dismissing the syndic, authorising major works affecting the structure of the building, modifying certain common areas, authorising the installation of EV charging infrastructure, and many others. If insufficient votes are obtained at the first vote, a second vote at the article 24 threshold may be held at the same meeting or called within three months — but only if owners present or represented at the first vote hold at least one quarter of all tantièmes. Without that quorum, the resolution falls entirely.
Article 26 majority — a majority of all co-owners in number, who together hold at least two-thirds of all tantièmes. This is not a double two-thirds requirement: it requires more than half of all co-owners, provided that group represents at least two-thirds of the total vote weight. This threshold is required for decisions modifying the règlement de copropriété, disposing of common parts, creating new lots, or other fundamental alterations to the building’s constitution. Some decisions require unanimity.
The critical consequence of this structure: once a resolution passes at the required threshold, it is binding on every co-owner, including those who voted against it and those who did not attend. A major repair voted through at the article 25 threshold obliges every owner to pay their share, regardless of how they voted or whether they were present. There is no opt-out.
Major works: when you can be forced to pay
Travaux de copropriété fall into several categories, each with different financial and procedural implications for individual owners.
Entretien courant — routine maintenance included in the annual budget — is uncontroversial. You voted on the budget; you pay your share.
Travaux urgents — emergency works made necessary by an imminent risk to the safety of the building or its occupants. The syndic can authorise these without prior assemblée générale approval and recover the cost from all owners afterward. You cannot refuse on grounds that you were not consulted.
Travaux votés — significant works voted through at an assemblée générale. Once the resolution passes, a call for funds (appel de fonds spécial) is issued. Payment is not optional. If you voted against the works, your dissent is recorded in the minutes — and this is the only practical relevance of your opposition at the meeting stage. You still pay.
The financial exposure from voted works can be substantial. A full façade restoration (ravalement) in Paris can cost tens of thousands of euros per lot depending on the building’s size and condition — roof replacement, lift modernisation, collective heating system overhaul, and asbestos removal projects are each capable of generating five-figure calls per apartment. These calls are often spread over several installments but remain legally due regardless of your personal financial situation.
The mandatory works savings fund
Since the ALUR reform of 2014, every copropriété of more than ten lots is required to maintain a fonds de travaux — a mandatory savings fund dedicated to future capital works. Contributions to this fund represent a minimum of 5% of the annual operating budget and are called quarterly alongside ordinary charges.
The fonds de travaux is assigned to the building, not to the individual owner. When you sell your apartment, the funds you have contributed remain with the building; they do not transfer to you or offset the sale price. This is a point consistently overlooked by sellers — and by buyers, who may benefit from a well-funded fonds without realising it reduces their future financial exposure.
Since 2023, buildings more than fifteen years old are required to have a plan pluriannuel de travaux (PPT) drawn up — a multi-year works plan projecting all necessary maintenance and improvement works over the next ten years, with estimated costs. The syndic must present it to the assemblée générale, which then votes on whether to adopt it; adoption is not compulsory, and co-owners may reject or defer the proposed programme. The PPT must be renewed every ten years. Whether or not formally adopted, it creates a factual record of known needs that owners can use to plan future expenditure — and that buyers can use during due diligence to assess latent financial exposure.
Charges at the time of purchase: who pays what
The allocation of charges between seller and buyer at closing is one of the most misunderstood financial aspects of buying a Paris apartment, and one that your notaire may explain too briefly.
The governing principle is straightforward: works voted by the assemblée générale before the date of the deed of sale are the seller’s financial responsibility; works voted after that date are the buyer’s. The complication lies in the timing of the appels de fonds (payment calls) relative to the closing date.
If the assemblée générale voted for a major façade restoration eight months before you purchased, but the first payment call for your share is issued two months after your closing — that call is yours to pay, even though the decision predates your ownership. This is why reviewing the last three procès-verbaux before signing the preliminary contract (compromis de vente) is essential, not optional.
To protect both parties, French law requires the seller to obtain a certificat de l’article 20 from the syndic before completion. This document certifies that the seller does not owe any unpaid charges to the syndicat des copropriétaires. If unpaid charges exist, the notaire must withhold the corresponding amount from the seller’s proceeds and remit it directly to the syndic before releasing the balance. Without this certificate, the notaire will not complete the transfer.
Works that have been put on an agenda but not yet voted — travaux en attente — occupy an ambiguous position. They are not yet the buyer’s legal obligation, but they represent a foreseeable financial exposure. Experienced buyers factor this into their offer price; most first-time foreign buyers do not know to look.
Property taxes: what you owe each year
In addition to charges de copropriété, owning a Paris apartment generates recurring tax obligations that do not appear in the charge statements from your syndic.
Taxe foncière is the annual property tax levied by the local authority on the owner of the property. The amount depends on the property’s notional rental value and location and varies significantly from one apartment to another; as a rough indication, it runs from a few hundred euros to over €1,500 per year for Paris apartments, with larger and more centrally located properties at the higher end. Bills arrive in September and are payable in October. If you have not yet received your first bill at your French address, arrange for online access to your French tax account (impôts.gouv.fr) to avoid missing the deadline.
Taxe d’habitation on primary residences has been abolished for all households since 2023. However, if your Paris apartment is a secondary residence — as it almost certainly is if you are a non-French-resident foreign buyer — taxe d’habitation continues to apply. Paris additionally levies a surcharge on taxe d’habitation for secondary residences, at a rate set by the municipality within the limits authorised by law. The combined burden can be substantially higher than for a primary residence. Budget accordingly and verify the current rate applicable to your arrondissement.
The mandatory property occupation declaration (déclaration d’occupation) introduced in 2023 requires all property owners — resident and non-resident, French and foreign — to declare on impôts.gouv.fr the occupation status of each property they own in France: whether it is your primary residence, a secondary residence, rented out, or vacant. This declaration must be updated whenever the occupation status changes. Failure to declare on time can result in penalties.
Energy performance requirements: the rental ban timeline
If you intend to rent your Paris apartment — whether long-term or short-term — the French Diagnostic de Performance Énergétique (DPE) energy rating has become a critical factor that competitors rarely explain fully to foreign buyers.
As of 2025, properties rated G on the French energy scale can no longer be offered for new rental contracts. Properties rated F face the same ban from 2028, and E-rated properties from 2034. Properties already under existing leases can continue until renewal, but no new leases can be signed for non-compliant properties. These bans apply to all rental types — furnished, unfurnished, long-term, and short-term tourist rentals.
Paris has a high proportion of pre-Haussmann and Haussmann-era buildings with poor insulation that fall into E, F, or G ratings. If the apartment you are buying carries an F or G rating and you plan to rent it, you are either facing renovation works before 2028 or a significant reduction in the asset’s rental value. The cost and feasibility of improving a Paris apartment’s DPE rating depends heavily on the building’s structure, the works permitted by the règlement de copropriété, and what the assemblée générale authorises — each situation is different. This is a material investment question that should form part of your due diligence before purchase.
Charges when you rent your apartment to a tenant
If you rent your Paris apartment to a tenant under a standard lease, you are entitled to recover a portion of the charges de copropriété from them — these are called charges récupérables or charges locatives. The list of recoverable items is fixed by decree and includes: lift maintenance, cleaning of common areas, collective heating and hot water costs, waste collection, and a portion of the gardien‘s salary if the building has one. Not all charges are recoverable: the syndic‘s management fees, building insurance premiums, and capital works are borne by you as owner and cannot be passed on.
In a furnished rental, the practice is typically to charge the tenant a flat monthly provision for charges, adjusted annually. In an unfurnished rental, you must provide a yearly breakdown of actual charges to allow a regularisation against what the tenant paid. Keep all records — the syndic is your primary source of documentation, and disputes over regularisation are common.
Short-term rental restrictions: what your règlement may prohibit
This is the single most important practical trap for foreign buyers purchasing a Paris apartment with the intention of listing it on Airbnb or a similar platform when they are not using it.
Many Parisian règlements de copropriété contain a clause restricting the use of the building to usage bourgeois — residential use only, or residential and professional use. The effect of this clause on short-term tourist rentals is now largely settled by case law. The Cour de cassation has held that the formulation « habitation bourgeoise » excludes profit-making activities, even temporary ones — which encompasses location meublée de tourisme (Cass. 3e civ., 15 March 2024, n° 22-21.958). This applies whether or not the clause includes the word « exclusif »: the decisive criterion is whether the activity generates income from successive transient occupants, which courts consistently treat as incompatible with the residential character of the building. The 2024 reform (loi Le Meur) went further by explicitly allowing any assemblée générale to prohibit short-term furnished tourist rentals by a vote at the article 26 majority — even in buildings whose règlement would not independently support such a prohibition. Notably, under that reform there is no fallback to a lower majority if the two-thirds threshold is not reached: the vote either passes or the prohibition is simply unavailable.
If your règlement de copropriété contains an usage bourgeois exclusif clause and you operate an Airbnb-type rental, you are exposed to injunction proceedings brought by the syndicat des copropriétaires, astreinte (daily financial penalties for non-compliance with a court order), and a claim for damages. Where the clause is merely usage bourgeois without the exclusif qualifier, the risk is lower but not zero — and the loi Le Meur 2024 has now given any assemblée générale the power to fill that gap by resolution.
Read your règlement de copropriété before assuming that short-term rental is permissible. If it was drafted before the Airbnb era — as most Parisian règlements were — the language may not address the point explicitly, which is precisely where litigation begins.
Contesting a decision of the assemblée générale
A co-owner who voted against a resolution — or who was not notified of the meeting in compliance with the legal requirements — has two months from receipt of the minutes to bring an action before the Tribunal judiciaire to annul the decision (action en annulation de résolution).
The grounds for annulment are strictly limited: procedural irregularities in the convocation, non-compliance with the applicable majority threshold, the resolution exceeds the powers of the assemblée générale, or the resolution violates the règlement de copropriété or mandatory statutory provisions. General disagreement with the economic wisdom of a decision is not a ground for annulment.
The two-month window is a hard deadline. Once it has passed, the resolution is enforceable against all co-owners, including those who voted against it. If the syndic implemented the works before you obtained an annulment, the question of restitution becomes complex. Anticipate this: if you intend to challenge a resolution, consult a lawyer before or immediately after the meeting, not two months later.
Co-owners who were absent from the meeting and did not receive the convocation in the required form — or who were admitted to the immeuble after the resolution was adopted — may in certain circumstances raise the unenforceability of the decision against them, but this requires careful analysis of the specific facts.
Practical checklist for existing owners
If you already own an apartment in Paris and have received a convocation for an assemblée générale, these are the documents and figures to have in hand before attending — or before granting a proxy.
Obtain your tantièmes — both your tantièmes généraux and any special-purpose tantièmes for charges allocation — from the état descriptif de division or your title deed. Know your vote weight before you walk into the room.
Read the agenda and all draft resolutions sent with the convocation. Every resolution is a potential financial commitment. If a draft resolution authorises a specific works programme, the cost and allocation per lot should be stated; if not, request it from the syndic before the meeting.
If you cannot attend, give a procuration to someone who will vote in accordance with your explicit written instructions on each agenda item. A blank proxy — given without instructions — allows the holder to vote as they see fit on your behalf.
Review the last three years of procès-verbaux if you have not done so recently. These will tell you what works have been voted and not yet executed, what disputes are ongoing, and how the building’s financial position has evolved.
Review the fonds de travaux balance and the plan pluriannuel de travaux if one has been presented. These are your most reliable indicators of future capital calls and the building’s maintenance trajectory.
Frequently asked questions
Can I refuse to pay charges if I disagree with how the building is managed?
No. Charges are legally due regardless of your satisfaction with building management. The remedies for poor management are procedural — changing the syndic, bringing the assemblée générale to reverse specific decisions, or in extreme cases applying to the court for the appointment of a judicial administrator (administrateur provisoire). Withholding payment exposes you to recovery proceedings and interest.
How much should I budget for charges de copropriété in Paris?
The national average runs at approximately €50 per square metre per year as an indicative figure — meaning a 60m² apartment costs roughly €3,000 per year, or €250 per month. In Paris, particularly in older Haussmann buildings with lifts, concierges, and significant maintenance requirements, the figure is frequently higher. Buildings with collective heating or on-site staff are at the upper end. These are broad averages; actual charges depend heavily on the specific building and should always be requested and reviewed before purchasing.
The previous owner told me the charges were low. I am now being asked for much more. What happened?
Charges vary year to year based on the budget approved by the assemblée générale and on any special calls for works. A significant increase often reflects works voted at the assemblée générale either before or shortly after your purchase. Review the last three procès-verbaux — if works were voted before you acquired the property, the question of who bears the cost depends on the date of the appel de fonds relative to the date of title transfer. Your notaire should have handled this at closing, but the analysis requires verification.
What insurance do I need as a foreign owner?
At minimum, personal civil liability insurance (responsabilité civile) as part of an assurance habitation policy. If you do not occupy the apartment — because it is a pied-à-terre, is rented out, or stands vacant — you additionally need assurance propriétaire non-occupant (PNO), which has been mandatory for co-owners since 2015. The building’s collective insurance policy does not cover your personal liability or the contents of your apartment.
My upstairs neighbour flooded my apartment. Who pays?
Water damage between apartments is handled through a combination of personal insurers and the building’s collective policy, governed by the convention IRSI. Notify your insurer immediately and complete a constat amiable de dégâts des eaux with the neighbour whose apartment was the source of the leak. Your insurer will then liaise with theirs to determine allocation. Processing a water damage claim in Paris typically takes between two and six months. Document everything — photographs, written exchanges with the syndic, and professional assessments.
What taxes do I owe as a foreign owner of a Paris apartment?
Two recurring property taxes apply regardless of residency. Taxe foncière is levied annually on the owner, typically between €700 and €1,500 for a Paris apartment, payable in October. Taxe d’habitation on primary residences has been abolished since 2023, but continues to apply to secondary residences — and Paris levies an additional surtaxe on secondary residences that can reach 60% of the base rate in central arrondissements. You are also required to complete the annual déclaration d’occupation on impôts.gouv.fr declaring the occupancy status of each property you own in France.
I want to do works inside my apartment. Do I need approval?
Works affecting exclusively your private parts — repainting, flooring, internal wall partitions that are not load-bearing — generally do not require assemblée générale approval, though you should notify the syndic to avoid disputes. Works touching common parts or structural elements — moving or cutting into a load-bearing wall, modifying plumbing or electrical circuits in common shafts, installing an air conditioning unit on the façade — require a prior authorisation voted by the assemblée générale. Proceeding without authorisation exposes you to an injunction to restore the original state at your expense.
My neighbour is causing persistent nuisance. What can I do?
The syndic has the obligation to act on complaints about nuisances that affect the collective use of the building. Send a formal written complaint to the syndic by registered letter (lettre recommandée avec accusé de réception). If the syndic does not act, you can raise the item for inclusion on the next assemblée générale agenda, or bring an action in your own name before the Tribunal judiciaire for trouble anormal du voisinage. You are not limited to collective action through the syndicat.
My building manager (syndic) is unresponsive and the building is poorly maintained. Can I change them?
Yes. The syndic is appointed for a fixed term and can be dismissed at the assemblée générale by a vote at the article 25 majority. You may request that the item be added to the agenda of the next assemblée générale by registered letter addressed to the syndic at least six weeks before the meeting, providing a draft resolution and at least one competing tender from an alternative syndic. In cases of gross negligence or misconduct, the tribunal judiciaire can appoint a judicial administrator in emergency proceedings.
I am considering buying. What documents should I request before signing the compromis de vente?
The règlement de copropriété and all amendments — read the usage clauses before committing. The last three procès-verbaux of the assemblée générale — these reveal voted works not yet invoiced, pending disputes, and the building’s financial trajectory. The last three years of charge statements to establish the actual cost of ownership. The carnet d’entretien de l’immeuble to understand what has been done and what has been deferred. The fonds de travaux balance and, if drawn up, the plan pluriannuel de travaux. Ask the syndic directly whether any works have been voted and not yet called for payment, and whether any works are on the next agenda. This due diligence must happen before the compromis — not at closing, when it is too late to renegotiate the price.
I am not a French tax resident. Do I still pay charges?
Yes. Liability for charges de copropriété derives from ownership of the lot, not from tax residence or physical presence in France. You also remain subject to French taxation on any rental income derived from the apartment and, depending on your situation, to French wealth tax (IFI) if your French real estate assets exceed the applicable threshold. Your nationality and country of residence do not affect your standing as a co-owner or your obligations under French copropriété law.
A final note
French copropriété law is intricate, document-heavy, and largely inaccessible to anyone without reading French. Most of the protections it offers — and most of the obligations it imposes — operate silently in the background until a meeting is called or a bill arrives. The foreign owner who invests in understanding the system early is in a fundamentally better position than one who discovers its consequences reactively.
If you own or are considering purchasing an apartment in Paris, and you have questions about your rights and obligations as a co-owner, I am available for consultations in English.
Valentin Simonnet is an English-speaking member of the Paris Bar, trained at University College London. He represents international clients before French courts.
