See more
Publication date: 30.04.2024
Legal opinion
Costs of managing an apartment building
Managing an apartment building costs money. First of all, for his maintenance. It can be said that the basic management decision of the co-owners is this: maintain their house properly or watch it slowly crumble. Article 12 of the Law of Ukraine "On Peculiarities of Exercising the Right of Ownership in an Apartment Building" provides a list of management costs, and begins with the costs of maintaining an apartment building.
Legal analysis of the situation - the law directly names the following expenses for managing an apartment building:
- expenses for maintenance, reconstruction, restoration, current and capital repairs, technical re-equipment of common property in an apartment building;
- expenses for payment of communal services in relation to the common property of an apartment building;
- expenses related to the fulfillment of obligations under the credit agreement concluded under the programs of the Energy Efficiency Fund;
- expenses for payment of remuneration to the manager in case of his involvement.
However, despite the fact that such a list is contained in the law, in the end, the specific list and the amount of management costs are determined by the co-owners of the apartment building themselves.
That is, the state sets certain requirements for the maintenance of the house, but the co-owners independently decide what works to perform and when to perform them, and what funds to allocate for them. Moreover, the list given in the law is not exhaustive. The aforementioned Article 12 also refers to "other expenses provided for by the decision of the co-owners or by law."That is, any expenses of the co-owners related to the management of the common property of the apartment building must relate to the apartment building itself, and then they are expenses of the management of the apartment building.
Legal analysis of the situation - all expenses are targeted and if the funds received for the management of the apartment building are used for something else, then this is a non-targeted use and entails the need to pay income tax, which is an additional burden on the co-owners, and submit relevant reports .
Part 2 of Art. 12 of the Law of Ukraine "On the Peculiarities of Exercising Ownership Rights in an Apartment Building" imposes the costs of managing an apartment building on its co-owners: the costs of managing an apartment building are distributed among co-owners in proportion to their co-ownership shares, unless a decision of the meeting of co-owners or the law provides for another procedure for distributing costs. And the co-owner is obliged to bear these costs, regardless of whether he uses the joint property, his apartment or his non-residential premises, because the owner's non-use of the apartment or non-residential premises belonging to him or the refusal to use the joint property is not a reason for evading management costs apartment building.
If the specific expenses voted for by the meeting of co-owners of an apartment building or the general meeting of a condominium cannot be attributed to the costs of managing an apartment building and they are not provided for by law, their payment remains a voluntary matter of each individual co-owner.The costs of managing an apartment building are the costs of the co-owners of the apartment building, which they can bear in any form: paying contributions to the condominium, paying the manager, independently buying repair materials and doing repairs with their own hands, etc.
At the same time, the estimate also reflects all sources of income in the condominium, which can be not only due to contributions.
The estimate is approved before the contributions are approved (that is, the necessary expenses are first calculated, all receipts are taken into account, and only then, based on the need for expenses, the amount of contributions is calculated.
To determine the size of the contribution: 1) we calculate how much money is needed per year to maintain the house; 2) divide the received amount by square meters (area of residential and non-residential premises); 3) divide the received amount by 12 months. This is how we will receive a monthly payment from a square meter. And the amount of the contribution already calculated in this way is approved by the decision of the general meeting of the condominium.
Analysis of the situation by a lawyer Article 20 of the Law of Ukraine "On the association of co-owners of an apartment building" provides that the co-owner's share in the total amount of contributions and payments for maintenance, reconstruction, restoration, current and capital repairs, technical re-equipment of common property in an apartment building is set in proportion to the total area of the apartment (apartments) and/or non-residential premises owned by him, disputes regarding the determination of the share of the co-owner in the total amount of contributions and payments for maintenance, operation, reconstruction, restoration, current and capital repairs, technical re-equipment of common property in an apartment building at home are decided by court order.Therefore, all co-owners (both residential and non-residential premises) as a result receive a single tariff for all co-owners of an apartment building, and the difference in the amount of payment will be related only to the number of square meters that are owned, and a different procedure for determining the amount of the contribution should be reasoned and calculated in detail.
If the owners of parking spaces are recognized as co-owners of an apartment building, the amount of the co-owners' contribution to the management of the apartment building must be calculated taking into account the areas owned by them.Regarding the provided drafts of the staff schedule and estimates (especially what concerns the contribution for the owners of parking spaces) (remember that the management contributions are the money of the co-owners (and not some outsiders), and therefore we do not inflate the staff and do not include jobs, in which there is no need, and if we include works, then we must carry them out or accumulate them for carrying out works in the future):
1) Formation of the staffing schedule - from what needs the number of positions in the administration is almost equal to the number of positions of technical workers? What are the responsibilities of the manager and administrator?
2) Salaries - what are the reasons for their formation?
3) Confusion with the areas of all premises, from which official documents are they taken?
4) The procedure for calculating the first part of the contribution of the co-owners of the parking lot is not clear, namely:
- what was the total area of the premises used in the calculation (from the estimate of the residential premises it can be seen that it is residential), if the total residential area was used, then on what grounds?
- what percentage of the above items of expenses (proportional share) was taken when calculating the first part of the parking fee, how and based on which indicators was this percentage determined?
- in view of which staff, the payment fund of UAH 115,375 is taken into account in the calculation, if according to the draft staff schedule it is UAH 106,500.?
- which internal building systems and networks are of direct importance to the parking lot and are related to it, and are they common to the building and the parking lot?
5) In connection with this, one more unit of the position of a cleaning worker was introduced, if the staff already provides for 4 workers for complex cleaning of an apartment building with adjacent territories, whose wages are included in the proportional share of the contribution?
Legal opinion, Writing a lawyer's request, lawyer's request, analysis of the situation by a lawyer, analysis of the situation by a lawyer
Will the right of the Condominium Management Board (within the total amount of expenses) to use funds from one item of expenses for others in case of insufficiency of targeted funds, as well as to increase, within the budget, the expendable part of a certain item of expenses at the expense of the accumulation fund?
What will happen to unused funds on expense items?
