(by Federica De Pasquale, Head of the AIDR Digital Condominium Observatory) The social distancing to which we have been forced in recent months has forced us to live in the most intimate and restricted dimension of our homes.
For more than 80% of Italians, their “domestic nest” is located in a condominium, a shared place, in what are the common areas, with other families. A coexistence, in fact, between strangers and not always simple.
We have been literally overwhelmed by the need to adapt to a digitized life and, unfortunately, we have discovered that not all condominiums, understood in their different legal capacity as owners or tenants, enjoy the same "right to connect to the network".
There is a large digital gap, aggravated, in many cases, by poor IT equipment and knowledge, which has made it difficult for many to work in smart working mode or for students to have equal computerized access to interact with their teachers in distance learning.
AIDR has wanted, since its establishment, to look with particular attention to the digitalization of the condominium world by providing an Observatory within it, created with the aim of monitoring all the various "condominium" digitization processes and to promote useful initiatives to improve on the one hand the work of the administrator and on the other the quality of life inside the building.
More and more today we hear about "smart home" of how to allow our home and, therefore our condominium, to become "intelligent", using home automation systems and platforms capable of making all the comforts of home interconnected and programmable: from roller shutters to thermostat, from light bulbs to air conditioners, or from the condominium reading of the thermovalves of the meters to the video surveillance systems, passing through the installation of the condominium fiber.
But let's still think about the energy efficiency of buildings which in recent years is also supported by tax incentives and which aims to make the condominium an important energy producer, so much so that it is now considered one of the first "energy communities". Concept introduced with the European directive 2018/2001 on renewable sources (REDII), whose main objective is to provide environmental, economic or social benefits to the community. Italy will have to fully implement these regulations by June 2021. This passage will represent the starting point for giving life to energy communities and the first nucleus could be, in fact, the condominium seen as an ecosystem in which the forms of self-production of renewable energy contribute to define a new role for consumers.
But let's get to the sore point, inside a condominium the person appointed to manage and, therefore to know, all these technological processes is its legal representative: the administrator. A figure that, already with the so-called "condominium reform" which took place with the entry into force of Law 2013/220 in June 2012, changes its appearance compared to the past and acquires an increasingly managerial role.
Today, compared to over 1.200.000 condominium buildings (CRESME data) and about 200 people who hold the position of administrator, just over 15 can be considered professionals competent in managing complex processes with an almost entrepreneurial approach or much more simply able to easily use platforms or management software, which are now essential to ensure correct condominium accounting that is increasingly articulated, which involves interacting with the credit institution of the condominium via home banking or with the telematic channels of the Revenue Agency, rather than the INPS or a Municipality.
It goes without saying that the amount of sensitive data handled by the administrator at the computer level is very important. We are talking about data subject to precise privacy regulations which, unfortunately, are not always taken seriously.
In such a complex panorama, where the idea of regulating online assemblies has also recently appeared, perhaps ignoring the social and legal complexity that this currently entails, the Aidr Digital Condominium Observatory represents a valid support also for administrators who can count on the precious information of our experts, useful for acquiring those digital skills necessary to manage the IT processes to which they are called.