Amendments to the Condominium ownership management act have been adopted in Bulgaria

Amendments to the Condominium ownership management act have been adopted in BulgariaIn the autumn of 2023, Bulgarian parliamentarians voted to adopt amendments to the Condominium ownership management act. Based on this, the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works developed new samples of documents for the Internal Regulations in apartment buildings. The main goal of the innovations is to streamline and make the process of supporting and managing residential buildings more efficient. The amendments will be introduced into force in four stages until the end of 2024, but in the meantime Apart Estate will introduce you to the main points.

• An important innovation concerns control over the distribution of funds collected from owners of apartments. The manager of the condominium property must submit a monthly report in a form developed by the Ministry of Regional Administration and Public Works. This report will show the funds available at the beginning of the period, current expenses, and the balance at the end of the period. Expenditures will officially include the costs of salaries for the manager and cashier. The report should be located in a place where every resident of the living building can see it. It is believed that this measure will help avoid financial abuse, and the process of spending money will become more transparent and clear.
• The next change is that the manager will have to issue a document confirming the debt of the apartment owner before the Condominium ownership management. This document will be required when concluding an apartment sales deal with a notary. If there is debt, the property cannot be sold.
• In connection with cost control, the law also offers the possibility of regulating the process of repairing common parts. Now it will no longer be possible to allow a situation in which one owner carries out unapproved repairs at his own expense, and then starts collecting money from his neighbors. The work and expenses must be approved at first, and only after that to be completed.
• Innovations in the law on condominium ownership management lead to an easier decision-making process. Thus, resolutions of the general meeting of apartment’s owners will be considered legitimate with a quorum of 33% of owners, and after January 31, 2024, the quorum should be 26%. The change was adopted due to the fact that many people do not live in their apartments and, accordingly, do not attend meetings and make it impossible to make decisions related to the whole residential building.
• By the way, owners who do not live in the apartment building will face an unpleasant innovation. If previously they were exempt from support costs, now they will have to pay a fee for one tenant. How this fee will be calculated depends on the decision of the owners of the apartments in the building. Several options are proposed. Based on one of them, a specific amount depending on all costs for maintaining the common parts will be charged per apartment. Another option is to make a calculation that will depend on the area of the apartment.
• In accordance with amendments to the Condominium ownership management, stricter control will be introduced over who lives in flats – owners, tenants, or relatives. It is proposed to fill out a special declaration, which will include all the information about the property – area, purpose, ideal parts. In addition, the declaration must include information about pets that are brought into the common parts of the residential building and the courtyard. So, if you have a dog, you need to indicate the veterinary passport number. All data must be entered into the declaration within 15 days from the date of registration of ownership, signing a lease agreement or other changes. The constant access to this data will be granted to the manager of the condominium, cashier, apartment owners (only to their own data), and representatives of some ministries.
• All the information will be provided to the manager directly or electronically. Apartment owners, for their part, will also have a right to ask the property manager to provide certain data electronically or in presence.

These changes are intended to bring order to the work of the Condominium property management system.

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