Applicable Law

1.    Is condominium possible? Describe condominium in your system (EU Adapt project)

2.    In your national system, do you have an arrangement which broadly follows that description? If so, what is it called in your language(s)? Please describe it in this factsheet.

3.    If your national system does not have an arrangement like that, or if it does, but also has a different arrangement which is commonly used to govern the ownership of apartments, please also describe, in this fact sheet, the arrangements commonly used.

4.    In your national system, which laws or regulations rule the arrangements you describe (or are relevant for them)?

Condominium is possible in Latvia, regulated in the Law on Residential Properties.

In addition, Section 2, Paragraph 1 and 2 of Law on Residential Properties provides that a residential property is an independent immovable property which has been legally partitioned in a residential house. A residential property as a whole shall consist of an individual property and the relevant undivided share of the joint property. The individual property and the undivided share of the joint property included in the apartment property shall be legally inseparable.

Section 3 of this law states that an individual property is an apartment, non-residential premises, or artist’s workshop which is structurally and functionally enclosed in a residential house and which has been registered as a residential or non-residential group of premises in the State Immovable Property Cadastre Information System (hereinafter also – the Cadastre Information System). Elements of an individual property shall be:

1) the structural non-load bearing, enclosing and finishing elements of the premises or a group of premises (including internal partitions, ceilings, floor and wall finishes, doors);

2) engineering networks and engineering communications to the vertical connecting pipe of the joint property;

3) engineering equipment components (including kitchen facilities, ventilation installations, toilet, shower and bath facilities) without which the elements of the existing share of the joint property residential house can function independently;

4) enclosing windows and doors of the individual property.

In addition the composition of an individual property may include auxiliary premises located outside premises or a group of premises and functionally associated therewith and auxiliary structures or their parts which are not functionally associated with the existing share of the joint property residential house or another individual property.

In addition, according to, Section 4 of Law on Residential Properties defines the joint property share. An existing joint property share shall include the following:

1) external enclosing structures (including walls, architectural elements, the roof, windows and doors of premises for common use, also exterior doors) of a residential house and external premises thereof (galleries, balconies, loggias, terraces), internal load bearing constructions (including supporting walls and columns, and also enclosing walls of the individual properties), intermediate coverings (including heat and sound insulation layers), premises for common use (including attics, stairwells, and cellars), and also the engineering communication systems, devices servicing the individual residential house and other indivisible elements functionally associated with the exploitation of the individual residential house which do not belong to an individual property (including the heating elements within the boundaries of the individual property if their functional activity depends on the existing engineering communications of the joint property);

2) the auxiliary buildings and structures belonging to the residential house, except for those referred to in Section 3, Paragraph three of this law;

3) the land parcel on which the relevant residential house is situated if it does not belong to another person.

According to the 1067-1072 of the Civil Law (these sections of the Civil Law regulates co-ownership) shall be applied to the existing joint property share. Provisions of Section 1068, Paragraph one of the Civil Law shall be applied insofar as this Law does not provide otherwise.

In legal system of Latvia there is such arrangement where it is called a residential property. In Latvian that would be Dzīvokļa īpašums.

It is an independent immovable property which has been legally partitioned in a residential house and as a whole consists of an individual property and the relevant undivided share of the joint property. The individual property and the undivided share of the joint property included in the apartment property are legally inseparable.

The law that regulates legal frame of these properties is called Law On Residential Properties (attached to e-mail).