Shared areas and barbecues: which rules you can actually set

Garden, roof terrace, play area, car park. In summer they actually get used, and that is when the question comes up: what can be banned and what cannot?

What the community can regulate

Rather more than people assume, as long as it is done by resolution at a meeting and in writing:

• Opening hours for shared areas.
• Conditions of use: booking in advance, capacity, whether guests are allowed.
• Barbecue use: where, when, or banning them outright in shared areas.
• Liability for damage and the duty to leave the area in a fit state.
• Children accompanied in certain facilities.

All of that fits into house rules, approved at a meeting, binding on everyone living in the building, owners and tenants alike.

What it cannot do

• Deny an owner the use of a common element they are entitled to, outside the situations the law provides for.
• Impose financial penalties with no legal basis.
• Regulate what happens inside a flat or on a private terrace, beyond genuinely disruptive activities.

On barbecues on private terraces: the community cannot simply ban them because it would rather they did not happen, but it can act if they generate smoke or nuisance affecting others — and municipal by-laws also apply, and in many places they are stricter.

Why informal rules do not work

"That is how it has always been done here" binds nobody, and above all it does not bind the new neighbour. If a rule has not been approved at a meeting and recorded in the minutes, asking for compliance depends on everyone goodwill.

How to do it properly

Write the rules on one sheet, approve them at a meeting, include them in the minutes and post them where everyone can see them. And review them every few years.

It is one of the things that costs the least time and saves the most arguments across a whole summer.