Adding a staircase to an apartment?

[AnonymousParticipant]

My wife and I are going through the process of buying a top floor apartment which backs onto a hillside. We discovered that an additional iron staircase built by the previous occupant (to more easily access the property from a road on the hillside) was not incorporated into the property deeds. This seems to be because it was built over what is apparantly communal/community land.

Anyone know whether this has the potential to lead to legal problems in the future? The previous owner never used the staircase as he bought from the developer and never moved into the property.

Thanks in advance

[AnonymousParticipant]

If anything is a community issue. I tend to find that if nobody complains about the staircase you’re ok. If there was a complaint, ask for the issue to be put into the agenda of the next community committee meeting (make sure you are up to speed with all payments, past and present) and request the permission to allow the staircase to continue as it is or if it really is a big deal for a lot of owners, request that they give you an alternative to removing it.
If you want to put it into the deeds, that’s another issue as I think (correct me forum if I’m wrong) that a new project or at least an annex to the original project will have to be drawn up with the corresponding permits and licenses. There would also be the matter of finding out who the land actually belongs to and if the community have any authority over it. The administrator of the community will probably tell you.
To be honest, if there is a big deal about the stairs, remove them.

[AnonymousParticipant]

thanks for this 😀

[Author]

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