Filenews 4 August 2023 - by Angelos Nicolaou
A definitive solution to a problem that afflicts thousands of tenants in shared buildings seeks to solve a proposed bill that received yesterday's approval of the Council of Ministers, on the basis of a proposal by the Minister of Interior for their management, supervision and proper functioning.
The bill aims to solve long-standing problems concerning the management, maintenance and operation of shared buildings. This is very important because it solves many long-standing problems, especially considering the fact that in total there are 30,000 shared buildings, consisting of 200,000 units.
In particular, the obligation to create a register of registration of common buildings by the registered owners and a register of registration of management committees is provided. Once this register is created, then automatically the competent Authority can check through these two registers whether the obligations and commitments regarding the following are fulfilled:
>> Every jointly owned building is obliged to create a management committee based on the legislation.
>> The problem of non-payment of common expenses is resolved. The owners are obliged to pay the common expenses to the management committee.
>> There is now an obligation to maintain buildings by a management committee – an important issue for health and safety issues.
>> The competent authority of the state is given the opportunity to exercise more effective control over the management of common buildings, mainly on health and safety issues of residents and other citizens.
>> It will have administrative fines and other legal measures against violators. The Management Committee is now empowered to sue and be sued.
The bill aims to resolve 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 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 evade the and many properties are not adequately maintained, resulting in risks to their safety and the safety of third parties.
Furthermore, there is a 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 ownership and registration of common buildings.
It is noted that the proposed bill applies not only to registered common buildings, but extends to all common buildings, which 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 units have been issued.
At the same time, the proposed bill defines a Service for the Registration of Joint Owned Buildings and the Supervision of the Operation of Management Committees and defines its responsibilities, as well as establishes model internal regulations to regulate the management of common buildings and define the rights and obligations of the owners, which will apply in case of non-issuance of regulations by the relevant management committees. under the proposed law to regulate any issues.
In addition, the management committee is empowered to make expenses reasonably necessary for the maintenance and proper operation of the common areas of the common building, which the owner neglects to pay.
Changes in dangerous buildings
At the same time, the Ministry of Interior is soon promoting a bill concerning dangerous constructions.
The proposed bill, which was forwarded to the Legal Service for the necessary legislative technical control, includes provisions that mainly concern the taking of measures by the competent authorities to deal with the danger and evacuation of dangerous buildings, the imposition of a fine in cases of non-compliance while introducing the possibility of out-of-court settlement, the registration of a lien in the cadastral Register of the competent District Cadastral Office as well as other measures that will strengthen the actions taken by the competent authorities. At the same time, the obligation of owners for the maintenance and periodic inspection of buildings is introduced.
