Common Areas
Synonyms: Common Parts، Common Elements، Shared Areas، Communal Areas
Last updated: 2026-09-25
Short Definition
Common areas (common parts) are the parts of a property intended for shared use by all owners or occupants, or whose nature requires joint ownership, such as the land, entrances, corridors, parking, tanks, ducts, services, pools, gardens, courtyards and lifts.
Overview
Legal Basis
Common parts are governed by the Law of Ownership, Partition and Management of Real Estate Units (Royal Decree No. M/85 dated 2/7/1441H) and its Implementing Regulation (Ministerial Decision No. 168 dated 22/10/1441H). Article 1 defines common parts; Article 12 requires an owners’ association registered with REGA once there are three or more owners; Article 24 obliges every owner to pay their contribution and bars abandoning their share to avoid costs; Article 26 allocates costs in proportion to unit area over the total area of partitioned units; and Article 21 makes the manager’s decisions and contracts approved by REGA an executive instrument.
Practical Example
A building in Al-Khobar has 12 partitioned apartments owned by 9 owners, with a total apartment area of 1,800 sq m. The owners’ association general assembly approves an annual common-parts budget of SAR 72,000: cleaning of corridors and stairs, a maintenance contract for the two lifts, electricity for lighting and pumps, entrance-camera maintenance and a reserve. The owner of a 150 sq m apartment bears 150 ÷ 1,800 = 8.33%, i.e. SAR 6,000 a year (SAR 500 a month). One owner lets his apartment and agrees with the tenant that the tenant pays the service share directly to the association, but he remains liable to the association if the tenant is late, since their private agreement does not remove his obligation. Another owner refused to pay, so the manager had the claim approved by REGA to make it an executive instrument.
Common Mistakes
- ✗Splitting common-area costs equally between units of different sizes — the legal default is each unit’s area as a share of the total area of partitioned units, unless a permitted variation applies.
- ✗An owner refusing to pay because they never use the lift or pool — no owner may abandon their share of the common parts to escape the costs.
- ✗Annexing a shared corridor or roof to a private unit, or turning it into storage, without general-assembly approval.
- ✗Charging a tenant service fees the lease does not provide for.
- ✗Delaying the owners’ association in a building whose apartments have been sold to three or more owners, leaving maintenance without a budget or a responsible body.
International Differences
Sharing common-area costs is a universal rule in condominium systems, but the basis differs. In the UAE service charges are usually area-based under budgets that the regulator approves in some emirates; in Turkey the Condominium Law allocates expenses by land share or equally depending on the type of expense unless agreed otherwise; in Egypt occupants’ unions handle them; and in North America shares are fixed in the condominium’s founding documents. Saudi Arabia is distinctive in expressly using the area ratio and in linking collection to an executive instrument once REGA approves it.
