Among the commonest reasons of dispute among joint-owners there are bothersome noises or smells, and the failure to perform or to deal with some common obligations, like cleaning stairs and other common spaces, the renovation and restoration of common spaces and the distribution of the expenses for the garden care.
Sooner or later all those who live in an apartment house have to face noisy neighbours, who might watch TV loud until late at night, or fight often not skimping on yells and outbursts, and getting their neighbours acquainted with their problems. In these cases, if you are lucky enough, a little common sense and polite manners might work: knocking on the “accused” neighbour’s door and, with a smile on your face, kindly asking to turn down the TV, at least at night, or highlighting that your child has a light sleep and wakes up if s/he hears too loud noises, might be enough if you are speaking to an easygoing and understanding person. On the contrary, if our neighbours are quite touchy or not collaborative at all, we might even affect our relations to them, going nowhere. What to do in such cases? Explaining the problem during a tenants’ meeting, for example, (although it is not sure that this is really going to solve the problem, especially if the other joint-owners are not affected by this situation) or, at worst, take legal action.
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Another source of arguments among joint-owners can concern the cleaning of common spaces. People usually decide to charge a specialised company, and this occurs in all the Italian cities (as far as cleaning companies is concerned, cities like Milan and Rome are spoiled for choice): in this way you get a constant and effective service, and costs are then divided among all the joint-owners. Charging a specialised company, which issues an invoice and works in a serious way, each joint-owner can verify costs, deducing the part that s/he has to pay. In other cases people decide to charge a joint-owner with the cleaning of the common spaces: the remuneration is usually lower than the one asked by a specialised company, as the joint-owner is paid under the table. This is what happens also in the case of garden care: if a retired gardener lives in the house, for example, the other joint-owners might charge him with the care of the garden, instead of hiring another gardener. On the one hand the joint-owners can prefer such solutions, which make them spare a bit, on the other hand in this way you are more likely to incur problems and incomprehension. Just to make some examples, the joint-owner-gardener or cleaning lady is not insured, and this might be a problem in case of accident; secondly, as there are neither invoices nor bills, some joint-owners might object to the costs of the works, without being able to discuss the problem during a tenants’ meeting, as the work is paid under the table and the manager does not know anything about. For these reasons it is always better to spend a bit more, but to have fewer problems, charging a company specialised in houses and apartments cleaning or a professional gardener.
