- Notify for everything; ask permission for anything communal.
- Meetings are infrequent — start the VvE process in parallel with the permit, never after.
- A written request with a drawing, dates and working hours is approved far more often than a verbal one.
- Floor coverings are private but nearly always subject to a noise requirement.
- Work done without consent can have to be undone, and it surfaces when you sell.
You have a plan, a contractor and a budget. What you probably do not have yet is the one thing that determines when you can start: a decision from your owners' association. This guide sets out what actually needs approval, how to ask for it in a way that succeeds, and how to keep the process off your critical path. Start with the VvE explained if the system is new to you.
Notify, or ask permission?
Two different things, and mixing them up is the most common mistake.
Notification is telling the board what you are going to do and when. You do this for everything, including work that is entirely within your private part. It is not a request, it costs you five minutes, and it prevents the single most common trigger for a dispute: a neighbour who hears demolition and calls the board because nobody knew.
Permission is a decision of the meeting, needed when your work affects a communal element. That takes a process, a written request and time.
Send a short, friendly notification even where consent is not required: what you are doing, the period, the working hours, and a phone number. It changes how neighbours respond to noise entirely.
What needs approval: the matrix
| Work | Notify | Permission | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kitchen or bathroom replacement | Yes | No | Private, provided risers are untouched |
| Removing a non-load-bearing wall | Yes | No | Private element |
| Removing or opening a load-bearing wall | Yes | Yes | Affects the building structure |
| New floor covering | Yes | Usually conditions apply | Impact noise reaches neighbours |
| Replacing window frames | Yes | Yes | Facade is communal |
| Air conditioning outdoor unit | Yes | Yes | Attached to a communal element |
| Enclosing or glazing a balcony | Yes | Yes | Structure and appearance; permit likely too |
| Solar panels on a shared roof | Yes | Yes | Use of a communal element |
| Extractor through the facade or a shared duct | Yes | Yes | Facade or communal duct |
| Moving a bathroom away from the riser | Yes | Often | May require a new connection to the riser |
When in doubt, ask. A request that turns out to be unnecessary costs you an email. Work done without a required consent can cost you the work itself.
How to write a request that gets approved
Owners' meetings approve clear, low-risk requests and defer vague ones. The difference is almost entirely in how you present it.
Include:
- What you want to do, in one paragraph, in plain language.
- A drawing or visual. Even a simple floor plan with the change marked. For anything visible from outside, a photo montage.
- What will not change. That the facade colour stays the same, that the unit is out of sight, that the frame profile matches the others. Most objections are about appearance, so address it before it is raised.
- The period and working hours, and a commitment to stay within the house rules.
- Who is carrying out the work, and that they are insured.
- How communal areas will be protected and left clean.
- For structural work: the structural calculation, or a statement that one will be provided and may be independently reviewed at your cost.
That last offer is disproportionately effective. Boards worry about liability, not about your kitchen. Offering to have the calculation checked removes their reason to hesitate.
The timeline problem, and how to solve it
| Step | Who | Typical wait |
|---|---|---|
| Request the deed and house rules | You or the manager | Days |
| Ask the manager which procedure applies | Manager | Days |
| Prepare drawing and structural calculation | Contractor and engineer | Weeks |
| Submit written request | You | — |
| Placed on the agenda | Board | Depends entirely on the meeting date |
| Decision at the meeting | Owners | The bottleneck |
| Written confirmation | Manager | Days to weeks |
| Municipal permit, in parallel | Municipality | Regular procedure of eight weeks, extendable |
Everything except the meeting can be compressed. The meeting cannot. That is why it has to be started first, not last.
Three things genuinely shorten this: submit well before a scheduled meeting; ask whether an extraordinary meeting or a written round of decision-making is possible; and check whether a comparable request has been approved before in your building. A precedent inside the same association is the strongest argument available.
Floors and noise: the rule everyone breaks
Floor coverings are private, yet they cause more VvE disputes than everything else combined. The reason is physical: in a concrete apartment building, impact noise travels through the structure. A hard floor laid directly on the slab transmits every footstep to the neighbour below.
Most associations therefore set a minimum improvement in impact-noise insulation, expressed in decibels, that any new floor must achieve. What that means for you:
- Check the required figure first. It is in the house rules or the regulations, and it determines which build-up you can use.
- The underlay does the work, not the floor itself. A resilient layer under the finish, with the floor kept clear of the walls all the way round.
- The perimeter strip is not optional. If the new floor touches the wall anywhere, the acoustic benefit largely disappears.
- Ask your contractor for the product data showing the achieved value, and keep it. If a neighbour complains later, that document is your defence.
- Build-up height matters. A compliant build-up is thicker, which affects thresholds, doors and the transition to other rooms. Decide this early.
Get the required decibel figure from the house rules before you choose a floor. Everything else follows from that number, including how thick your build-up needs to be.
What happens if you skip it
People do skip it, usually because the timeline is inconvenient rather than out of bad faith. The consequences are real:
- Restoration. A VvE can require work on communal elements to be undone and the original state restored.
- Liability. If your work causes damage — a leak, a crack, a structural issue — the absence of consent and documentation puts you in a weak position.
- Insurance. Cover can be disputed where structural work was carried out without the required calculation and consent.
- Sale. Buyers and their advisers ask. An enclosed balcony or an opened structural wall without paperwork reduces the price or ends the deal.
- Neighbour relations. Harder to quantify, but you live there.
Running the VvE and the permit in parallel
Structural work in an apartment normally needs two green lights: your association and the municipality. They are independent, they can run at the same time, and they should.
The order that works:
- Establish what is structural and get the openings fixed.
- Commission the structural calculation. You need it for both processes.
- Submit the VvE request with the calculation attached — start here, because it is slower.
- Submit the municipal application at the same time.
- Plan the work from whichever approval lands last.
How the Dutch permit system works, what the Omgevingswet changed and when work is permit-free.
Summary
Notify for everything, and ask permission for anything that touches the structure, the facade, the roof or the shared pipework. Write the request properly: one clear paragraph, a drawing, an explicit statement of what will not change, the dates and working hours, and an offer to have the structural calculation independently reviewed. Start the VvE process before the permit application, because the meeting is the only part of the timeline you cannot compress. And check the floor noise requirement before you choose a floor, because it determines the build-up height and therefore your doors and thresholds.
Next: removing a wall in an apartment or the deed of division and house rules.