The other side: a year as a flat owner in the portal

Most articles in this guide are aimed at the management. This one describes what arrives on the other side, because a practice only introduces a portal sensibly if it knows what owners will do in it.

Renate Albers owns two flats in the association at Kastanienallee 8 in Berlin. She lives in one and lets the other to Mr Nowak. She works full time and travels a lot. Her contact with the management used to consist of one letter a year, an invitation to the assembly, and the occasional call she gave up on after the third ring.

January: the invitation

Ms Albers receives an email with a link that works once and expires after a while. She uses it to set up her login; if she likes, she signs in with a passkey from then on and needs no password. Under Profile she picks her language (the portal speaks seven) and sets how often she wants to hear by email: immediately, daily, weekly or monthly. She chooses weekly.

The Overview shows her two units, her association, the management with a contact person, and below that the latest news, documents and defects. It all runs in the browser, on the phone just as on the computer.

The papers you would otherwise have to request

Under Documents is whatever the management has shared with her: the declaration of division, the minutes of recent years, the insurance policy, the economic plan. The management shares selectively, either with all owners, with specific units or with specific people. What her neighbour receives as personal post she does not see, and he cannot see hers either.

In March her bank needs the latest minutes and the economic plan for a refinancing. That used to mean a phone call and three days of waiting. Now she downloads both.

The assistant

If the management has switched on the AI features, the portal has an Assistant. Ms Albers asks: "When was the façade renovation resolved, and how much am I paying for it?"

The assistant answers only from the documents she is allowed to see, and names the document the answer comes from. If it finds no answer, it says so and offers to report a defect or contact the management, rather than making something up. Next to an economic plan or a statement under Documents there is Explain. When she asks from there, the answer refers to exactly that document, and her own approved settlement figures are taken into account, never a neighbour's. What she asks is not stored.

May: the garage

The garage door no longer closes properly. Under Defects Ms Albers reports it with a description and two photos; up to five would be possible. A building's defect list is communal, so she also sees what others have reported. That is how she notices her neighbour reported the door the day before, and she comments there.

She follows the defect and gets its updates until it is handled. Anyone who no longer wants to follow a defect opts out, and it stays that way. She sees the status, the company and trade of the contractor, and the sub-tasks the management has broken the job into. The contractor's phone numbers are not shown to her.

News instead of a notice board

Under News are the management's announcements, pinned ones first: the date of the heating service, the invitation to the assembly, the notice that the water will be off for two hours on Monday. Urgent announcements arrive by email immediately, whatever her weekly setting. If the management has chosen translation, she reads the notice in her portal language, marked as machine-translated. The original remains available.

June: after the assembly

After the assembly the resolutions appear under Resolutions in her association's register, numbered, with wording and outcome. The minutes arrive as a document. If she is named as a signatory, she receives a link and signs the minutes in the browser.

This year she voted in the room. Once the community has resolved online participation, she joins the assembly under Votes in the portal and votes there on whichever item the chair opens. How that works is in Online and hybrid assemblies. She answers a circular resolution in the portal anyway, and that is also where she reads up on what was resolved.

Her own annual statement

As soon as the management has approved the annual settlement, her individual statement is ready under Annual statements: per flat, her share of every cost type, the advances and the resulting balance, also as a PDF. Before approval she sees nothing there, and afterwards only her own units.

She keeps paying her contributions as before, because no payments run through the portal.

As a landlord

For the let flat Ms Albers has an area of her own. Under My tenants she records Mr Nowak as the tenant of her flat (the first time with a declaration per flat) and invites him into the tenant portal. She can share a document with him, such as the house rules. When the tenancy ends, she ends it there herself. She never has access to a co-owner's flat, not even in the same building.

Under News for my tenants she writes Mr Nowak a notice, for example about the date for replacing the smoke detectors, and can have the text drafted with AI. The management does not see these notices; they remain a matter between landlord and tenant.

When Mr Nowak reports something, it lands under Tenant issues with her first. The sticking balcony door she sorts out with him directly. The patch on the ceiling that comes from above she passes on with Escalate to the management and a short reason. The management then sees the same issue together with its original report. How that route works in detail is in Water damage: from the tenant's report to a closed defect.

What the portal is not

The portal is not a native app or a payment channel, and it does not produce an operating-cost statement for her tenant. Ms Albers finds her building's papers, status and news there without having to reach anyone.

What this means for the management

Every question the portal answers saves you a call. Those calls bunch up in the weeks when you have least time: after the invitation, after the minutes, after the settlement. A portal only takes off your desk what is in it, though. So when you roll it out, sharing the right documents matters more than inviting the owners.

The essentials

• Papers, status and news are in one place, and the management shares them selectively.
• Defects are visible to the community, and whoever follows a defect hears about every step.
• The individual statement is ready as soon as it is approved, and each owner sees only their own.
• Letting owners manage their tenants themselves; issues reach the management only when they concern the association.