Top-floor flats get the light, the views and the roof terraces. They also get the roof leaks first. In a Portuguese condominium the roof is a common part, so the repair is shared by every owner, but you’re the one with the stain on the ceiling while the building argues about it.
Who pays for the roof
Under the Civil Code (article 1424), the cost of looking after the common parts is shared between owners in proportion to the value of their fractions, the permilagem. Your share is the building cost multiplied by your permilagem and divided by 1,000. It’s in the título constitutivo da propriedade horizontal and on the caderneta.
The maths on real buildings
- Flat-roofed block in Porto: redoing the covering and details properly runs at about €60–120/m². On a 300 m² roof that’s €18,000–36,000 for the building, or about €720–1,440 for a unit at 40‰.
- Pitched-roof block in Porto: clean, re-bed, ridge, parapet membrane and re-flashing came to €12,300–25,000 for the building. At a 10% share that’s €1,230–2,500.
- Another Porto building: a roof replacement of about €55,000, with the flat’s 30.68‰ share at about €1,687. The key question was whether the seller had already paid it.
Your share is usually manageable. The real risk is delay. While the condominium debates it, the water keeps coming into your flat, and the internal damage is yours to fix.
The reserve fund and special levies
Condominiums must put a minimum of 10% of their budget into a reserve fund, and many put in exactly that. On one building in Viana do Castelo the annual budget was €1,683, the reserve stood at €456 at the end of 2025, and there was no plan for the roof or a façade repaint priced at €18,000–30,000. Anything beyond cleaning and light bulbs will arrive as a special levy (quota extraordinária). In the same building a €2,000 levy had been voted with only the shop owner present. More on that case in the flat whose building had €456 in the bank.
What to get before the CPCV
- The last two or three years of condominium minutes (atas).
- Any approved works, quotes or engineer’s reports for the roof or façade.
- The reserve fund balance and the annual budget.
- Your fraction’s permilagem.
- A declaração de não dívida from the administrator, so you don’t inherit unpaid levies.
- Written agreement on who pays any levy voted but not yet collected.
What we check on a top-floor flat
Ceilings and wall heads for staining, with moisture readings and thermal imaging, the roof from the roof space and by drone where needed, terrace membranes and outlets, and the parapets. If there’s an active leak, the report separates your direct cost from the building’s, so you can negotiate on both. See the pre-purchase inspection and what a new roof costs.
Figures are from our own inspection reports in 2025 and 2026, ex IVA, with names and addresses left out. Every house is different, so treat them as a guide to scale, not a quote.
General information, not legal advice. Your lawyer should review the condominium documents before you sign.
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