Where your responsibility as a flat owner ends and the association's begins

The difference between your own space and shared property

A flat itself, meaning the space bounded by the walls, floor and ceiling of your unit, is normally your private property. What sits inside those boundaries and serves only your flat is generally yours to maintain: internal walls, flooring, your own sockets and fittings, internal doors, the bath or shower itself.

Common property is everything that serves the building as a whole or more than one flat: the stairwell, the roof, the foundation, the load-bearing structure, and the shared systems that run through the building such as the main risers for water, heating and drainage. This is owned jointly by all flat owners and maintained through the apartment association.

The tricky part is that many everyday items sit right on that boundary, which is why associations write their own statutes to spell out exactly where the line falls in that particular building. The general principle is a starting point, not a substitute for reading your own building's rules.

How the split usually works for plumbing and electrics

For water and heating, the common convention is that the riser, meaning the vertical pipe running through the building from floor to floor, is common property, while the branch pipe that runs from the riser into your flat and everything downstream of the shut-off valve is yours. So a leak at the valve or in the wall behind your washing machine is typically your repair; a leak in the riser itself, or one affecting several flats below, is the association's.

Electrics follow a similar logic. The main distribution board for the building and the wiring feeding each flat's meter usually count as common property, while the wiring, sockets and fittings inside your flat, from your own meter onwards, are your responsibility. A qualified electrician is required for anything beyond changing a socket cover or a light fitting, and this applies whether the fault sits on your side or the building's.

In practice, a plumber or electrician working for you will often need to identify first which side of that line a fault sits on, since that determines who is footing the bill. Our plumbing work starts from 45 € per hour and electrical work from 49 € per hour, and part of the first visit is usually working out exactly that.

Windows, balconies and the façade: the awkward in-between cases

Windows are one of the most commonly disputed items, because a window serves one flat but sits in the external wall, which is common property. Many statutes make the owner responsible for the glass and the window mechanism itself, while the association covers the frame's fit within the wall or a building-wide window replacement programme. Some buildings do it the other way round.

Balconies split similarly: the balcony slab and railing are usually structural and therefore common property, since a failure there can affect the building's safety and appearance, while glazing or interior finishing that you added yourself is generally yours. A balcony that was glazed before your statutes addressed it can be a genuine grey area.

The façade, roof and anything visible from outside almost always sits with the association, partly because Tallinn's older buildings, including the wooden houses in Kalamaja and Nõmme and the panel blocks from the Soviet period, often have heritage or planning constraints on how the exterior may look. An individual owner changing a window style or balcony glazing without agreement can create a problem for the whole building, not just their own flat.

Where to find your building's exact split

The statutes (põhikiri) adopted by your apartment association are the actual rulebook for your building, and they override any general assumption in this guide. They are usually available from the association's board or management company, and often referenced in the building register (ehitisregister) entry for your address.

If your building has no clear statutes on a particular item, or the wording is ambiguous, the association's board is the right first point of contact, since a general meeting may have decided the matter separately in the past. Keep a copy of the current statutes somewhere you can find them; it saves an argument later.

Which changes need the association's or the city's consent

Anything that affects a load-bearing wall, the building's structure, the façade, or a shared system such as heating or ventilation, usually needs the association's agreement before you start, and sometimes a building permit or notice from the city as well. This includes moving a radiator, altering a balcony, changing a window's appearance, or cutting into a load-bearing wall.

We do not do gas work and do not touch load-bearing walls ourselves, so a project involving either needs a specialist and, in most cases, the relevant permit sorted out first. For anything else that changes the building's exterior or a shared system, check with your association before booking work, since undoing unauthorised changes afterwards is far more expensive than asking first.

As a rough guide to what usually needs sign-off before you proceed:

• Moving or replacing a radiator connected to the shared heating system
• Changing a window's size, style, or opening a new one in the façade
• Glazing or altering the structure of a balcony
• Any work on or near a load-bearing wall
• Extending ventilation or drainage beyond your own flat
• Anything visible from outside that changes the building's appearance

How the association's maintenance actually works day to day

Most associations either employ a caretaker directly or contract a maintenance firm to handle routine building upkeep: stairwell cleaning, gutter clearing, minor repairs to common areas, and responding when something in the shared systems fails. Larger repairs, such as a roof replacement or a riser renewal, are usually planned and budgeted for at a general meeting, sometimes years in advance.

When a fault sits clearly on the common side, report it to the board or the managing agent rather than arranging a repair yourself and expecting to be reimbursed, since the association needs to authorise the work and choose who does it. Our building maintenance service, from 49 € per hour, is sometimes contracted by associations directly for this kind of ongoing upkeep, which is worth asking your board about if your building currently manages without one.