Filenews 14 March 2023
With the instructions of the Minister of Interior Konstantinos Ioannou, the process of promoting the bill, which concerns the construction communities, whose management refers to absolute anarchy, is accelerated, something that causes constant friction between owners and leaves thousands of buildings unmaintained, with all that this entails.
One of the main innovations of the bill is that it gives the management committees the power to make expenses, reasonably necessary, for the maintenance and proper functioning of the common areas of the jointly owned building, which the owner neglects to pay.
This power upgrades the role of management committees and those who have ignored them until now, if they continue with the same tactic, are very likely to be called to account in court. The Ministry of Interior considers that the bill expands the responsibilities and powers of the management committees (their operation is imposed on all jointly owned buildings) which will act on the basis of standard or internal regulations.
At the same time, the bill aims to resolve serious issues such as the non-existence of a management committee, the refusal to pay common expenses, insurance, partial or total destruction of the building, etc., which concern all owners of a jointly owned building.
The Minister of Interior gave instructions, such as the bill ("The Management of Jointly Owned Buildings and Related Matters Law of 2022") which was prepared with the active involvement of the Department of Lands, is immediately forwarded to the Legal Service, in order to carry out the necessary legislative scrutiny and then be submitted before the House of Representatives for approval.
The issue was also addressed from time to time by the parliamentary Committee on the Interior, before which all the concerns about the current situation were developed. The task is not easy given that thousands of people are affected, their comfort, their safety, while there is also the thorn of the financial aspect, which creates friction, since other owners want to carry out maintenance or landscaping works of the buildings in which they live while others do not want to spend anything, either because they cannot afford it or because they are indifferent or because they expect others to cover their own share. Of course, to the above must be added the thousands of tenants who want to live in buildings with relative amenities, but have no say in making the relevant decisions. There is also an issue with the non-payment of common expenses, but because the existing legislation has gaps, it is difficult and time-consuming to promote solutions by the local management committees, to the extent that they operate.
In the context of the elaboration of the relevant bill, which was prepared by the Land Registry, with the contribution of the Ministry of Interior and the Commissioner for Legislation, it was required to amend the Law on the Sale of Real Estate (Special Execution) (L.81(I)/2011) and the Law on the Transfer and Mortgage of Real Estate (L.9/1965), regarding the presentation (for the purpose of selling real estate and transferring / mortgaging real estate) a certificate from the relevant management committee that for the unit they have paid utilities.
The need to amend the existing legislation stems, according to the Land Registry department, from the following:
a) The weaknesses and certain gaps identified in the implementation of the current legislation, including the need to define the rights and obligations of the owners of the units (i.e. the owners) to regulate various issues, but also the weaknesses in the existing management practices of such buildings, as well as the need to ensure more effective implementation of management taking into account that, Unit owners escape their obligations and many properties are not adequately maintained, resulting in risks to their safety and the safety of third parties.
b) The need for the responsibilities of the Department of Lands and Surveys, in view of the huge amount of additional work, to be limited only to issues of tenure and registration of jointly owned buildings.
It is noted that the proposed bill ("The Management of Jointly Owned Buildings and Related Matters Law of 2022") applies not only to registered jointly owned buildings but extends to all jointly owned buildings that have obtained a building and division permit, regardless of the fact that they have not obtained a certificate of approval and / or have not been registered in the cadastral register and consequently no separate titles of the units have been issued.
Service - Dervenagas for the administrative
The proposed bill defines a Service for the Registration of Jointly Owned Buildings and the Supervision of the Operation of Management Committees with a parallel definition of its responsibilities.
The Registration Service for Jointly Owned Buildings, among others, will be responsible for:
Registration of jointly owned buildings, as well as the mandatory registration of management committees in the service, which maintains a register of jointly owned buildings and management committees.
Establishment of standard internal regulations for the regulation of the management of jointly owned buildings, as well as the determination of the rights and obligations of the owners, which will apply in the event of non-issuance of regulations under the proposed law to regulate any issues.
Compulsory insurance of jointly owned buildings and supervision for the compulsory insurance of units and jointly owned buildings.
Registration of the jointly owned buildings and the relevant management committee in a register to be kept by the service and regulation of their management.
Definition of the rights as well as obligations of the owners of the units to regulate various issues.
In addition, the following are provided:
A way of allocating costs in such a way that the proportion of the costs of providing services is calculated on the basis of the area of each unit is introduced.
It is provided that a suitability, static, mechanical and electrical inspection study of each jointly owned building is carried out by professionals registered with the Cyprus Scientific and Technical Chamber and for the purpose of ensuring the suitability of the buildings if and when this is deemed necessary by the management committee.
It is noted that this issue is expected to be resolved in a more comprehensive way, when the bill concerning the regular periodic inspection of buildings (as to their static adequacy) is approved, which is also promoted by the Ministry of Interior.
The management committee can recover by lawsuit the amount due and at the same time register a lien on the real estate of the owner who has neglected.
Provisions are introduced for the process of partial and total destruction of the unit or the jointly owned building, as well as for the interest of the owners of the units in case of destruction or termination of the jointly owned building.
Moreover, in addition to the establishment of standard internal regulations to regulate the management of jointly owned buildings, the rights and obligations of the owners towards the regulations that will be issued by the relevant management committees (under the proposed law) to regulate any issues are defined.
OPINION
The common good above interests
What prevails with thousands of apartment buildings is anarchy, which is due to the fact that the absence of binding regulations to date and the loopholes in the legislation enable everyone to act at will. Even the obvious, such as the payment of utilities, has not been solved because some, given that others will not let the building get dirty, simply do not pay. Yes, the time has come for the bill to be passed and now the ball is in the court of the Legal Service, which I hope will give due weight and complete the process as soon as possible. Because of the different interests affected, the task is not easy and I hope that in the end this bill will not be thrown out on the altar of expediency. That's fine.
