Unpaid condominium fees on auction properties: what the winning bidder pays

Art. 63 disp. att. c.c., in the version reformed in 2012, contains two rules on the transfer of ownership:

• fourth paragraph: whoever succeeds to the rights of a unit owner is jointly and severally liable with that owner for the contributions of the current year and the previous year;
• fifth paragraph: whoever transfers remains jointly and severally liable with the buyer for the contributions that accrue until a certified copy (copia autentica) of the transfer title reaches the administrator.

The two rules govern two different relationships, and it is worth keeping them separate.

Toward the condominium, "jointly and severally" means the administrator may demand those sums in full from you or from the debtor, as it chooses. The limit is the two years: for older arrears, the condominium can only turn to the debtor.

Between you and the debtor, the debt for the period when the debtor owned the unit remains the debtor's. If you pay, you can seek recovery from the debtor. In an enforcement proceeding, the debtor rarely has other assets to recover from, so it is best to treat those sums as already spent when you set your budget.

Yes. The buyer succeeds to the rights of the unit owner just as someone buying from a notary does, and case law applies art. 63 to forced sales too. Courts also take this for granted. In Siena, for example, a 2026 sale order asks the custodian to tell visitors which condominium fees they might have to pay jointly with the debtor.

The transfer decree orders the cancellation of seizures and mortgages (art. 586 c.p.c.), including any judicial mortgage (ipoteca giudiziale) held by the condominium. It does not, however, cancel the personal obligation that art. 63 places on you.

Take a condominium whose accounting year coincides with the calendar year, with ordinary fees of €1,800 a year, and a debtor who has not paid since 2022. The transfer decree is signed on March 10, 2027.

For the Court of Cassation (Corte di Cassazione), "current year" means the condominium's management year, which need not coincide with the calendar year (Cass. 7395/2017). If the accounting year runs from July 1 to June 30, the two "years" are the accounting year in progress on the date of the decree and the one before it. Ask the administrator, or the custodian, how the accounting year is organized.

The two accounting years are counted from the transfer decree, the instrument that makes you the owner. Some commentators refer instead to its registration (trascrizione), which follows the decree. If the decree falls close to the end of the accounting year, the difference can be a full year's fees. With large amounts, ask a lawyer for an opinion.

The award is not enough. Months can pass between the award and the decree, and during that period the owner remains the debtor.

For extraordinary works, such as redoing the facade or the roof, what counts is the date of the resolution (delibera) approving them. The Court of Cassation has repeated this several times, for example in orders 11199/2021 and 21094/2023. The resolution must actually approve the work: a merely preparatory resolution does not create the debt. If the resolution predates the decree, the debt is the debtor's as between you and the debtor.

Toward the condominium, the picture changes. If the installments of the extraordinary works fall within the current or the previous accounting year, the administrator may ask you for them under art. 63. Case law is not uniform on whether joint liability also covers these contributions. If you pay, you keep the right of recourse (rivalsa) against the debtor.

An outside creditor of the condominium, such as the company that carried out the works, is a different case. It cannot demand from you your share of a debt that arose before you became a member of the condominium (Cass. 1847/2018).

Two practical situations:

• Works approved two years ago, completed, installments unpaid. As between you and the debtor, the debt is the debtor's. If the installments fall within the two accounting years, the condominium can still ask you for them. Discuss it with the administrator, or with a lawyer if needed.
• Works approved, scaffolding up, installments not yet issued. The benefit of the works will be yours. How to divide the installments falling due after the decree is the most debated question.

In notarial sales by public bodies, the contract settles the question. The 2026 terms of sale of INPS (the national social security institute) (disciplinare), for example, leave to the seller the extraordinary installments accrued before the deed (rogito) and place on the buyer those that accrue after it. A judicial auction has no contract, which is why the resolutions must be read before the auction.

Art. 173-bis disp. att. c.p.c. requires the appraiser to state, among other things:

• the annual amount of fixed management or maintenance costs;
• extraordinary works already approved, even if the debt is not yet due;
• condominium fees unpaid in the two years before the date of the appraisal;
• court proceedings in progress concerning the property;
• the encumbrances and charges, including condominium ones, that will remain with the buyer.

The limit is the date. An appraisal report filed in February 2025 for an auction in November 2026 reports arrears only up to 2024. Meanwhile the debtor may have kept not paying, and the assembly may have approved works. How to read an auction appraisal explains where these items appear in the report.

1. Ask the custodian. The custodian is in contact with the administrator, and some orders, such as the Siena one cited above, ask them to tell visitors about condominium fees. Do this during the viewing of the property, or in writing right after it.
2. Ask the sale delegate whether the condominium intervened in the proceedings as a creditor. The case file shows the amount of its claim and the date to which it is calculated.
3. Contact the administrator for the annual fees, the accounting year, extraordinary resolutions and planned works. On an individual owner's debts, the administrator may not answer, for privacy reasons. The law requires it to disclose defaulting owners' details to the condominium's creditors who request them, not to a potential buyer.
4. Put the figure into the price. Two years of fees, plus any extraordinary charges, are a cost of the purchase, like taxes. Add them to the overall calculation of the cost of bidding at auction.

With ordinary fees of €1,800 a year, the ordinary fees come to up to €3,600, depending on when the decree falls within the accounting year. To these are added the extraordinary charges, if the administrator asks you for them. On a price of €80,000, that is up to 4.5%: enough to change the maximum bid you can afford.

Until the decree, the owner is the debtor, and the fees that accrue are the debtor's. If the custodian manages the property and collects rent, the judge may authorize using the income for management costs. If the property yields nothing, the fees tend to pile up.

The condominium may intervene in the enforcement proceedings as a creditor and take part in the distribution of the proceeds. Its claim is generally unsecured (chirografario), that is, without priority. Any judicial mortgage held by the condominium ranks after the bank's. In practice, it collects little or nothing from the distribution.

For the buyer, the result is simple: the longer the proceedings last, the more likely it is that the two years you are liable for will be two full years of unpaid fees.

• Send the administrator a certified copy (copia autentica) of the decree, which you request from the court registry or from the delegate. Under the fifth paragraph of art. 63, this is the moment from which the debtor stops being liable for the fees that accrue.
• Notify your details in writing for the condominium register (anagrafe condominiale). Art. 1130 c.c. requires every change to be communicated to the administrator within sixty days.
• Request the annual accounts (rendiconto) and the list of resolutions in progress, and check that the payment request respects the two-year limit.
• Suspension from common services (art. 63, third paragraph) affects an owner in arrears for more than six months. If you pay the fees you are liable for, the debtor's older arrears are not a reason to suspend you.
• If you pay debts of the former owner, keep receipts and calculations. Recourse against the debtor is your right, even if it rarely yields a recovery.

On ImmobilScan auction pages the appraisal report opens for free. With an account, you can have it analyzed and find the paragraph on condominium fees straight away, but the updated figure remains the one from the custodian or the administrator.