If necessary modifications to the common areasthe interested party gives it communication to the administrator indicating the specific content and methods of execution of the interventions.
But the interested party to whom the above-mentioned rule refers may also be a conductor? And if the condominium delays in examining the request to install the system, the tenant can ask for damages to the condominiums for the lack of energy savings that the photovoltaic system would have generated if it had been installed?
The answers are contained in the decision of the Court of Rome n. 9316 of 13 June 2022This article is extracted from the volume of Joseph Bordollipublished by Maggioli Publisher.
The case in question
In this specific case, a company, the tenant of a condominium, after having received prior written consent from the owners of the property being rented, explained to the condominium administrator their intention to proceed with theinstallation of a photovoltaic system for private use on the condominium roof terrace, presenting him with a project signed by a technician; in any case they asked the administrator to call a condominium meeting to be able to inform the condominium members, explain the project to them and request a favorable opinion on the installation of the system.
The meeting – which was convened by the administrator eight months after the request – unanimously resolved to do not consent to the installation of the aforementioned photovoltaic system. The company turned to the court to request the condemnation of the condominium to compensation for damages sufferedquantified at 6,300 euros, a sum in proportion to the missed energy savings that the photovoltaic system would have generated if it had been installed.
In support of the claim, the actress referred to the project signed by its appointed technician that had been made available by the actor to all the condominium members through emails sent to the administrator in the period preceding the condominium meeting. The same company stated that, due to the high costs of managing the property, including the costs for energy supply, it had communicated the termination of the rental contract.
The court’s judgment
The condominium – which appeared in court – pointed out that theArticle 1122-bis of the Civil Code recognizes only the owner of the condominium property the right to install photovoltaic systems within certain limits and with compliance with certain precautions.
The court ruled against the company. According to the Roman judge, the plant was built in any case in the exclusive interest of the condominium owner and therefore not in the interest of the third party executing the work, even in the case of the tenant of the property who benefits from the addition and/or improvement made on condominium spaces, the latter having a relationship of mere detention with the leased property.
In other words, the court noted that the installation on the rooftop of systems for the production of energy from renewable sources intended to serve individual units of the condominium, as regulated by theart. 1122-bis cc, it materializes in a improvement aimed at achieving greater performance exclusive property of the individual condominium owner.
Consequently, the tenant who intervenes on the concrete destination and distribution of condominium spaces can only do so in the name and on behalf of the condominium owner and could never be the bearer of an interest of his own to be asserted against the other condominium owners. It is therefore evident that the only person entitled to complain about the condominium’s behavior is the condominium ownerthe true beneficiary of the photovoltaic system to be placed on the roof terrace.
In any case the company did not provide any useful information to consider that – in the period between the concrete interest shown in the construction of the photovoltaic system and the termination of the rental contract – it could have obtained concrete advantages in terms of energy savings, also considering the installation and actual operation times of the system as well as the time necessary to amortize the costs.
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