The Cyprus Land Development Organization (KOAG) has developed a new mobile application that will help foster a culture of maintenance among owners of residential buildings.
In particular, as part of the affordable housing development, KOAG intends to inform buyers of properties built with public money about the rules of maintenance of such complexes and the rules for checking the technical condition and frequency of repairs.
According to KOAG, cases increase when the common area inside and outside the buildings is not properly supervised. KOAG CEO Eleni Simeonidou said there is a lack of such a culture on the part of Cypriots and stressed that the organization intends to address this gap as soon as possible. In essence, the new phone app will be a reminder of the need to check the technical suitability of buildings, similar to car maintenance.
The problem of maintenance of buildings in Cyprus has already been raised to the Head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Konstantinos Ioannou.
He called to speed up the process of consideration of the bill, which provides for new rules for the management of multi-story buildings in the country.
By the way, the innovations include the creation of a regulatory framework for jointly owned facilities concerning their management, supervision, and proper operation. Among the main changes is the mandatory formation of a management committee, which will control the payment of utilities, insurance, and repair of high-rise buildings. In general, all those issues that are of concern to the owners.
The main purpose of the new law is to provide broad powers to management committees, with the help of which they could promptly solve problems arising from the evasion of apartment owners from their direct duties.
Special attention is paid in the new draft law to:
- compulsory insurance of apartments in jointly owned buildings;
- defining the rights and obligations of apartment owners in regulating various issues;
- registration of multi-story buildings and the relevant Management Committee in the register, which will be supervised by the Special Authority, and the regulations for their management.
It is worth noting that the weaknesses and gaps observed in the implementation of the current legislation have led to the need to create a Special Authority that will be responsible for overseeing compliance with the new regulations. At the same time, the Land Department in the future wants to limit itself to the ownership and registration of jointly owned properties.
In more detail, the Land Department has proposed:
- To apply the new rules for all multi-story buildings in the Republic of Cyprus.
- Establish a new agency to oversee the work of management committees.
- To oblige tenants of multi-story buildings to establish management committees. Expand the field of responsibility and authority of the committees, which they must fulfill based on the Standards or Internal Regulations.
As envisioned, a special committee should be responsible for:
- Registering high-rise buildings and management committees in a special registry.
- Establishing model house rules to regulate the management of owned buildings, as well as defining the rights and obligations of owners to be applied in case of non-compliance with the provisions under the proposed law to regulate any matter.
- Mandatory insurance of apartments in high-rise buildings, as well as the high-rise buildings themselves.
- Determination of the rights as well as the obligations of the owners of the facilities to regulate various issues.
According to the Foreign Minister of Cyprus, the new draft law will help to bring order, and most importantly - to correct errors in the existing system.