Elevators (Communal Expenses and Non – Payers)
Under The Immovable Property (Tenure, Registration and Valuation) (Amendment) Law of 1993 – 6(1) of 1993, section 38K (hereinafter referred to as “The law”), common expenses should be shared between all owners, hence it is an obligation of every owner to participate in the payment of common expenses.[expander_maker id=”3″ more=”Read more” less=”Read less”]RUnder the Article 38A, common hold property, is any part of the building/project, which has not been registered as a privately owned unit. Generally, the roof is considered to be part of the common property, which is indicated impliedly from Article 38ΣΤ (1), or Model Management Rules in Rule No.8 ((ε) However, it is also advisable in order to determine, whether the roof falls under the scope of common expenses, which should be jointly shared, for the owner to visit the Land Registry and get the registration details of the block – this will indicate whether the roofs are private or shared. Another way is to examine the contracts of sale for the complex of apartments- if the roof forms part of their property (and are therefore private) it will be indicated in the contract. Therefore, building complexes that have their roofs marked as communal assets will attract certain communal expenses, which the owners should share jointly.
Those, who are resistant to comply with the law and participate in the common expenses, will be deprived from rights, which other owners are entitled to have, such as a right to vote at the general meetings. Moreover, the Management Committee can file a lawsuit against the owner, who does contribute to payment of common expenses in accordance with the law.[/expander_maker]
Elevators are an integral part of the majority of the apartment complexes in Cyprus, since it is reasonably foreseeable that most of them are occupied by elderly people. Elevators have high maintenance demands, safety issues, and power consumption, hence they will attract some substantial common expenses, which should be jointly paid by all the owners in accordance with The Immovable Property (Tenure, Registration and Valuation) (Amendment) Law of 1993 – 6(1) of 1993. [expander_maker id=”3″ more=”Read more” less=”Read less”]It must be pointed out that the payment of common expenses is a legal obligation of all owners of the commonhold property, irrespective whether some expenses do not directly affect a specific owner or group of owners. This also applies to the aspect of the maintenance of elevators where owners of base floors often refuse to pay these expenses.
However, if the owner, despite the attempts of the legally elected committee to persuade him/her to contribute towards the payment of elevator maintenance fees is still resistant to pay, the legally elected committee can initiate legal proceedings against the non paying owner in order to recover the debt due.. If successful, a court order will be issued ordering the non payer to recover all the amounts of common fees that are due to the legally elected committee. enabling them to lodge a ‘memo’ against the property registered in the name of the debtor. This will make it impossible for the debtor to sell the property without having first repaid the debt.
Nonetheless, the preferred option is to persuade the owner to contribute towards the elevator maintenance fees without resort to legal measures.[/expander_maker]
