What you can and can't do in your apartment without approval

The simple rule. Cosmetic renovation inside your apartment is your business. Anything touching the structure, shared systems, or the building’s exterior isn’t.

Free to do. Painting, wallpapering, changing the flooring, replacing interior doors, installing a new kitchen, swapping plumbing fixtures at your own connection point.

Needs approval. Tearing down or moving walls. Widening a doorway. Relocating the bathroom. Rebuilding ventilation ducts. Modifying the heating system or replacing radiators with a different output. Changing a window’s size.

Never allowed. Touching load-bearing structures without a project. Bricking up a ventilation duct. Connecting underfloor heating to the building’s heating system. Blocking access to a riser pipe.

Why this isn’t just paperwork. An opening cut into a load-bearing wall in one apartment affects the whole building. A blocked ventilation duct causes mold for the neighbors.

Where to start. Ask the manager before any work begins. Getting approval up front is far cheaper than restoring things afterward.