Memo for Apartment Association Board Chairs: Why the “Install and Forget” Approach Leads to Emergency Expenses

There is a dangerous misconception among apartment association board chairs in Estonia:

“If a company installed a new door, intercom system, or door closer for us, they should work forever, and any repair should be covered by warranty.” Or the opposite extreme: “Everything inside the apartment is the resident’s responsibility. Let them replace their own handset — it has nothing to do with us.”

Let’s look at the numbers and legal facts to understand why the entrance system is the most heavily loaded part of the entire building, and why trying to shift responsibility onto residents always ends up hitting the association’s own budget.

Simple Maths: How Long Does a Lock or Door Closer “Live”?

The entrance door of an apartment building experiences enormous load that cannot be compared to ordinary apartment doors.

● A building with 36 apartments, about 100 residents: Taking into account people going to work, shopping, school, walking dogs, guests, Omniva/DPD/Itella couriers and postal workers, the door is opened 300–350 times per day. Over a year, this means more than 120,000 opening and closing cycles.

● A building with 86 apartments, about 240 residents: The flow increases proportionally. This means 800–900 openings per day and almost 300,000 cycles of strong mechanical impacts, pulls, pushes and automation activations per year.

In the Estonian climate — with sharp temperature changes from winter frost to summer heat, high humidity and road salt — metal expands and contracts, while the oil inside door closers changes its viscosity. No other part of the building, not even the lift, is exposed to this level of wear. Equipment operation in a small stairwell and in a large “anthill” building is fundamentally different, and the wear rate is different as well.

Area of Responsibility: What Do the Law and Logic Say?

According to Estonian legislation, the entire technical intercom system — from the outdoor call panel to the apartment handset inside the apartment — is indivisible common property of the apartment association members, or kaasomand.

Responsibility for the proper functioning, safety and timely maintenance, or hooldus, of this system lies fully with the board of the apartment association.

What is maintenance, or hooldus? It means keeping the system in working order at the expense of the apartment association: seasonal adjustment of door closers, cleaning of electric strikes, and checking the geometry of the doors.

The Cost-Saving Trap: “Let Residents Replace Their Own Handsets”

Trying to avoid responsibility, board chairs often send residents to solve intercom problems on their own: “The handset in your apartment is broken — you buy it, replace it, and find a technician yourself.”

What does this lead to in practice?

1. Buying unsuitable equipment: The resident goes to a hardware store and buys the first handset that visually resembles the old one. But they do not know what type of system is installed in the building — an analogue coordinate system, for example Farfisa, or a digital system, such as Laskomex.
2. Reversed polarity and short circuit: During self-installation, the resident mixes up the “plus” and “minus” wires or short-circuits the line.

The result of this DIY approach: Because of one incorrectly connected handset in apartment No. 45, the system switchboard in the basement fails. As a result, the intercom stops working in the entire stairwell: mixed-up polarities block calls to other apartments, calls are dropped, or the lock opens by itself when any apartment number is dialled.

The Cost of the Follow-Up Call-Out

● Option A — the correct approach: The association centrally accepts the resident’s request and calls the maintenance company. The technician arrives with the correct handset, replaces it professionally in 15–20 minutes and checks the system. The apartment association pays a fixed replacement fee.

● Option B — the consequence of “saving money”: The resident interferes with the system and “hangs” the entire stairwell line. The board chair is forced to call an emergency team to find the fault. The technician spends hours walking through the stairwell, contacting residents and finding the exact apartment where the wiring has been short-circuited. Such a repair will cost the association at least three times more than if the company had replaced the handset through an official association request from the beginning.

Chain Reaction: How One “Small Issue” Kills the System

Trying to save money on planned mechanical maintenance always leads to expensive electronic repairs paid from the apartment association’s repair fund:

[Winter/Summer: the viscosity of the oil in the door closer changes]

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[The door does not close fully or slams shut]

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[Residents start kicking the door, placing bricks under it, pulling the handle]

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[The door geometry shifts ➔ the electric strike latch gets jammed]

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[Result: the strike solenoid burns out, the door profile breaks. Repair is paid by the apartment association]

Summary for the Apartment Association Board

Equipment installation is a one-time action. Smooth operation of the entrance, silence without door slamming, and heat retention are the result of regular, planned technical maintenance. Shifting responsibility onto residents or saving money on hooldus always means a guaranteed triple overpayment for emergency repairs from the association’s own budget.