Building and construction work in your apartment or other parts of the building

You need approval for construction or extension outside the apartment right of your flat. For example: building a terrace on the roof; or an extension in the garden. In all situations an apartment owner needs the approval or cooperation of the Association of Owners (VvE) or one of its bodies for performing certain acts with respect to parts of the immovable things that are intended to be used by the apartment owners jointly (common parts). Approval is also necessary in the case of a provision in the internal arrangements (splitsingsakte) with regard to a private unit of an apartment owner, or when the Association of Owners or its bodies needs the approval of one or more apartment owners for performing such acts, like building a terrace of an extension in the garden.

Rigths of the flatowner in the Netherlands when (re)buidling

I’ll explain the formal arrangement for the apartment rights. The property rights in a Dutch building and belongings can be split up into several apartment rights. An apartment right in a Dutch building, a flat, is a share in the assets (registered properties) which are involved in a split up, and which share includes the exclusive right to use certain parts of the building (the flat you bought), which parts are to be used, according to their functional arrangement, as a separate private unit. The share may include the exclusive right to use certain parts of the land belonging to that building. an apartment owner is the person who is entitled to an apartment right. In the Netherlands the Association of Owners administers (manages) the community of property of the apartment owners, with exception of the private units of the apartment owners. The General Meeting of Owners is competent to set rules concerning the use of the parts of the immovable things that are intended to be used by more apartment owners jointly. Building, extension: physical change of the private flat

An apartment owner may, without approval of the other apartment owners, bring about physical changes to his own private unit, provided that the other private units or common parts of the property involved in the split up do not suffer a disadvantage as a result. He becomes the owner of what he has removed at the process of bringing about a rightful physical change to his private unit (the apartment right).

Notification of changes apartment right to Association of Owners (VvE)

The flatowner should notify the Association of Owners (VvE) immediately of a physical change brought about to his private unit. If the physical change leads to a modification of the insurance premium of the Association (insurance for all apartment rights), then the difference is for his account and for account of his legal successors. If the physical change of a private flat has decreased the value of the assets (registered properties) involved in the split up, then this is taken into account at the apportionment (division) of the community of property at the expense of the apartment owner who has made the physical change to his private unit or at the expense of his legal successors, even when the physical change has been brought about rightfully.

Request to Dutch Court for extension or construction work in apartment

The approval or cooperation may be replaced, upon the request of the one who needs it, by an authorization of the Subdistrict Court in whose territory the building or the greater part of it is located. But first the request should be om the agenda of the Meeting of Apartment Owners who should have a vote on the request. The Subdistrict Court may grant its authorisation if the approval or cooperation is refused without reasonable ground or if the person whose approval or cooperation is needed has not made a statement about it at all. The Court may, upon the request of an apartment owner or of the Association of Owners, order to what proportion all or certain apartment owners or the Association of Owners have to participate in these costs. If you have concerns about the rigths of a flat owner in the Netherlands or the VvE rules please contact VvE-lawyer Mark van Weeren.