Every year, condominiums in Portugal discover, after a claim, that they didn't have valid fire insurance. By then it's too late to ask whose responsibility it was — the law already answered that question before the claim ever happened.
Is It Really Mandatory?
Yes. Insurance against fire risk is mandatory for every individual unit and every shared area of a building under the horizontal-property regime (article 1429 of the Portuguese Civil Code). It's not a best-practice recommendation — it's a legal duty, with a responsible party defined by law if nobody handles it.
What the Insurance Has to Cover
At minimum, the policy has to cover the building's reconstruction value in case of fire — not the property's market value, which can be very different from the cost of rebuilding. This is a common mistake: taking out a policy for the unit's purchase price, which becomes outdated as construction costs rise and leaves insufficient coverage in the event of a real claim.
Many condominium policies go beyond the legal minimum and also include:
- The condominium's civil liability toward third parties
- Water damage, storms and natural phenomena (comprehensive insurance, which complements but doesn't replace the mandatory fire cover)
- Claims assistance (loss adjustment, temporary accommodation)
Who Arranges It — and Who Pays If Nobody Does
Primary responsibility lies with the owners, through an assembly resolution on which policy to take out and its cost, split across the dues by ownership share.
But if the owners don't arrange the insurance within the agreed deadline, the law shifts the duty onto the administrator (article 1429 CC). In that case, the administrator must:
- Take out the insurance in the condominium's name
- Recover the cost from owners through dues
This means "the assembly didn't decide anything" isn't a safe position for an administrator — the assembly's silence doesn't suspend the legal duty, it transfers it.
What Happens If You Skip It
This is the point that most often catches administrators off guard:
- In the event of a claim without a valid policy, liability for reconstruction can fall personally on the administrator, if arranging it was their duty and it wasn't done
- Units without individual insurance are also exposed — the condominium's policy covers shared areas and the structure, but each unit's contents and interior modifications often depend on the owner's own separate policy
- Forgotten renewals are just as dangerous as never having taken out a policy — a lapsed policy with no timely renewal leaves the condominium technically without cover, even if insurance existed in the past
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Confusing comprehensive insurance with fire insurance. Comprehensive cover is broader and often recommendable, but the minimum legal duty is specifically about fire risk — verify that the policy in place explicitly covers that risk, don't assume "building insurance" is enough.
- Not reviewing the insured value annually. Construction costs rise; a policy taken out 5 years ago at that era's value can be significantly under-insured today.
- Not keeping proof of the policy and payments. In a dispute over whether the duty was met, that proof is the evidence.
- Assuming "insurance is the owners' responsibility" settles the matter. As shown above, the owners' silence doesn't exempt the administrator from acting.
How Not to Leave This to Chance
The duty to check on insurance renewals is exactly the kind of deadline that gets lost in spreadsheet- or paper-based management — there's no automatic alert, only the administrator's memory. ActiasGest automates tracking of policy renewal dates and keeps a searchable, organized record of contracting and payments, so this duty never depends solely on someone remembering.
Learn more → actias-gest.solid-ai.net