The legislation regulating the management of communal buildings, which affects 300,000-350,000 citizens, remained on the shelf this year as well and will return to Parliament in January 2027.
Despite the efforts made by those involved and the parliamentary committee on the Interior, the Ministry of the Interior and the EOAs did not come up with the final form of the promoted legislation, which is expected to happen in December.
One of the "thorns" that remain is the amount of fees that will be imposed for monitoring the legislation by the EOAs, but, above all, who will take responsibility for the cost that the owners of the apartments/houses located in communal buildings will be asked to pay.
As "F" has already written, a study prepared on behalf of the EOAs shows that in order for the service to be created to be viable, in each Organization, the imposition of a fee of €20 per year is due to each owner of a unit located in a communally owned building. It is noted that based on the promoted legislation, buildings that have more than five units are considered common-owned.
The Ministry of the Interior agreed that fees must be set by the EOAs, so that the Organizations are able to cover the operating costs of the service that will be created for the monitoring of communal buildings, but it had made it clear that it does not want to propose the amount of the fee to be determined. On the other hand, the EOAs believe that the amount of the fee should be proposed by the Ministry.
During the last session of the parliamentary committee on the Interior, its chairman Aristos Damianou clarified that the Parliament requires that a proposal be submitted with a fixed fee, otherwise the promoted legislation will remain on the shelf. "It is not the job of Parliament to propose the proposed amount of the fee," he said.
In a joint memorandum of the NGOs, it is stated that they also demand the following:
➤ Approval of a sufficiently staffed organizational structure, including a new specialized Service, with a provision in the budgets.
➤ Adjustment of the proposed fees included in the bill to reflect the actual total cost of exercising the responsibilities imposed on NGOs. It is also proposed to include provisions that provide NGOs with the necessary effective mechanisms to ensure the enforcement and collectability of revenues from this activity.
➤ Full state funding of the cost of the initial compilation of the registers of Communal Buildings and Management Committees.
➤ Preparation and submission by the Department of Lands and Surveys (DLS) of integrated electronic registers that include all registered and unregistered communal buildings, together with all the required cadastral data of the plots and full details of the registered owners.
➤ Direct and real-time access to the Government Information Warehouse (CAP), the Land Registry, the Department of Lands and Surveys without the need to submit a relevant request.
➤ Development and operation of an integrated computerized system, fully funded by the state.
