Abstract
Is the law of ownership a barrier to energy upgrades in apartment blocks? Co-owners in multi-owned properties face challenges in reaching agreement to implement energy efficiency measures that owners of single family residences do not encounter. At the European level, this difficulty is recognised in Article 19 of the 2012 Energy Efficiency Directive, by which governments are obliged to address barriers to improvements which arise in the specific context of multi-owner properties. Despite this, the position of apartment owners remains mostly invisible in the policy discourse. The small quantity of literature examining the difficulties of group decision making around energy efficiency in apartments has so far focused on mapping the issues. This paper begins the process of ‘colouring in’ the existing outlines by providing an in-depth delineation of the governance barriers to energy upgrades presented by the law of ownership and management in two European jurisdictions: England and Scotland. A doctrinal analysis is employed to ascertain the relevant legal issues and identify how property law constitutes a barrier to energy upgrades within the framework of existing behavioural models. A theoretical inquiry is then used to suggest that reconceptualising property law in the context of multi-owner properties to focus on collective responsibilities rather than individual rights may help to minimise this effect of the law. The paper concludes with recommendations for further research to identify the range of issues property law presents across EU member states. This data is needed to fully test the reconceptualisation hypothesis presented here.
Highlights
IntroductionTo achieve its target of 20% energy savings by 2020, the European Union has major ambitions for the refurbishment of existing housing stock, set out most notably in the 2010 recast Energy Performance of Buildings Directive and the 2012 Energy Efficiency Directive (EED). Forty percent of European dwellings are
To achieve its target of 20% energy savings by 2020, the European Union has major ambitions for the refurbishment of existing housing stock, set out most notably in the 2010 recast Energy Performance of Buildings Directive1 and the 2012 Energy Efficiency Directive (EED).2 Forty percent of European dwellings are multi-owned properties (MoPs) (Bright and Weatherall 2017)—known variously as apartments, condominiums and multifamily buildings amongst other terms—and the majority of the European housing stock is privately owned (Eurostat 2015)
This paper focuses on the specific barriers to energy upgrades in apartments created by the law regulating ownership and management of MoPs
Summary
To achieve its target of 20% energy savings by 2020, the European Union has major ambitions for the refurbishment of existing housing stock, set out most notably in the 2010 recast Energy Performance of Buildings Directive and the 2012 Energy Efficiency Directive (EED). Forty percent of European dwellings are. Lujanen (2010) identifies that the regulation of co-owned apartment blocks involves the collision of two types of law—the laws of association and property law—in ways that can cause conflict and difficulty.4 These laws set up organisational structures that regulate whether (and how) owners constitute themselves as a decision-making body and whether they can readily collaborate to install and finance energy upgrades in communal parts, and in individual apartments, without the risk of works being impeded by the objections of a single or a small minority of apartment owners. Creates a unique set of barriers in relation to retrofit of MoPs, the detail of which requires to be augmented
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