Passports for Multi-Unit Buildings

A passport for a multi-unit building, such as a block of flats, is more complex than a passport for a single house, because the building has two levels: the whole building, including structure, roof, facades, common parts and shared systems, and the individual units, each with its own heating, windows, internal fabric and household pattern. A building-level passport should roadmap both levels together, showing which stages affect the whole building, which affect individual units, and how those stages interact, for example where facade insulation changes the heating load for every unit, or where a shared heating system replacement affects unit-level controls.

Collective governance is the central challenge. Decisions about common parts usually require agreement among owners, a management company or a residents association, under lease, title or condominium rules, and a passport stage that affects common parts cannot proceed on a single unit owner initiative alone. The passport process therefore needs a governance route, with decision thresholds, cost-sharing principles and a timetable for collective agreement, built into the roadmap from the start.

Cost-sharing and benefit-sharing need explicit principles, because a common-part stage, such as roof insulation or a shared heat pump, benefits units differently depending on position, size and existing systems, yet its cost is usually shared by a formula based on floor area, service charge shares or another agreed basis. A passport that proposes common stages without a cost-sharing note will stall at the first collective vote, while one that records the agreed formula, any exemptions and the process for disputing it, gives the collective a workable basis for decisions.

Data is also shared and sensitive: a building passport holds data about common parts and, in summary form, about units, and that data must be managed with privacy and access rules that respect individual owners while allowing the building manager and future professionals to use the roadmap. Unit-level detail, such as a household pattern or a private system, should not be shared beyond what the collective decision actually needs.

Before a multi-unit passport is commissioned, identify the building owner or manager, the collective decision-making body, the lease or title rules for common-part work, the service charge and reserve fund arrangements, and any planned major works such as re-roofing or facade repair that share scaffolding with passport stages. Note the shared systems, including heating, hot water, ventilation, lifts and lighting, and the condition issues that affect the whole building, such as roof leaks or facade deterioration.

Ask the passport author how building-level and unit-level stages are distinguished, how collective decisions and cost-sharing are recorded, and how unit owners who do not wish to join a unit-level stage are handled. Those governance answers are as important as the technical stages themselves.

In the EU, multi-unit building passports follow national implementation of the EPBD recast, with member states differing on whether passports are issued per building, per unit or both, on collective decision thresholds for renovation, and on links to building renovation plans or logbooks. Some countries have specific collective renovation frameworks, while others rely on private law and owner agreements, so the national and local legal route must be checked.

In the UK, multi-unit buildings are governed by leasehold, freehold and building safety law, with additional duties for taller residential buildings, and retrofit plans for blocks follow PAS 2035 and building safety frameworks rather than an EU passport scheme. Those legal and safety layers should be checked alongside any roadmap, since they can constrain staging, funding and access in ways a single-home plan never faces.

A frequent mistake is preparing a building passport as if it were a single-home passport scaled up, without a governance or cost-sharing plan, so the roadmap is technically sound but collectively undeliverable. Another is proposing unit-level stages that depend on a common-part stage that has not been agreed, such as heat pumps that need facade or electrical upgrades that the collective has not approved.

A third mistake is sharing unit-level personal data across the building without consent or need, which erodes trust and can breach data protection rules. Building data should be shared at the level the decision requires, and no further, with unit privacy respected throughout.

Keep the building passport, the governance and cost-sharing notes, collective decision records, common-part surveys and system records, and unit-level stage records where owners consent to share them, together with the building management records. Those papers let a new manager or a new owner continue the building journey without restarting it.

Ask a qualified passport author and a property professional: how are building and unit stages distinguished, how are collective decisions and costs shared, how is unit privacy handled, and what happens if a unit opts out of a stage. Governance answers show a multi-unit passport that can actually be delivered.