Management fees and the developer

[dagetu]

Hi Nigel,
I am part of a management committee (albeit a toothless one as we have no deeds) and we are all worried about our developer's financial status. Fees are paid into an MC account in the name of the developer which means that they are vulnerable if the company goes down and can also be raided by the company (which they have done although we got the money back). My question is, can we legally set up an external account for the fees and simply dripfeed the money to the MC account as required. Currently we have to almost beg to get at what is actually our own cash.
My second question covers the buildings insurance. Only 50% of owners are paying and this is not likely to improve. We are having to pay the insurance premium for the entire complex on the insistence of the developer and as he has control of the funds we seem unable to object to what is obviously a grossly unfair situation. Any thoughts or advice on all of the foregoing would be very much appreciated.

[Nigel Howarth]

Hi dagetu and welcome to the forum.

Some good news - even though you do not have your Title Deeds, you can set up a 'formal' Management Committee with the necessary legal powers to run things yourself and take action against non-payers. You can read more about this in an article by Louise Zambartas that you can find at http://www.news.cyprus-property-buyers. ... /id=003397

And there's another in-depth article on insurance at http://www.news.cyprus-property-buyers. ... /id=003525

And it is also possible to set up a bank account into which the management fees are paid - and then you can drip-feed them to the developer as required. But I suggest that you read through your management agreement to make sure that there is nothing in it that will prevent you from doing so.

I hope that helps.

Regards,

[dagetu]

Hi Nigel and thank you for your response. However, I am rather confused as your comments re the Management Committee seem directly opposite to the comment that you made after one of the articles in February which states: "As you do not have your Title Deeds, any committee you form will not be recognised and will have no legal standing". No doubt I am misunderstanding a point somewhere so could you possibly clarify please. The Insurance article certainly answered my question and it looks like we still do have to pay the premium for the 50% of owners not contributing. That should be a real warning to anyone buying on a complex - you could end up paying other people's bills! Many thanks.

[Nigel Howarth]

Hi dagetu,

I'll have to find that post about management committees and delete it!

The way the confusion came about is because the law in in Greek and the verbatim translation talks about 'owners' (i.e. those with deeds to the property in their name). However, in Greek, the owner is defined by the law as the person entitled to be registered as the owner or the actual person registered. Therefore, a project without separate deeds can be registered.

Louise Zambartas (and a number of other lawyers) have helped establish Management Committees for people who have yet to receive their deeds.

Regards,

[dagetu]

Many thanks for explaining that Nigel. The comment is towards the bottom of the first link that you provided.
Thank you again.

[partner]

Hi Nigel,

This is still in the responses to the article mentioned:
>>Nigel Howarth says: February 1, 2010 at 11:02 am Pat, The law contains the standard regulations that you can adapt for your purpose. You can download the authorised English language translation from: http://www.cyprus-property-buyers.com/f ... gs-law.pdf With regard to communal insurance and indemnity for the committee, I will email you a name of a company in Limassol. The committee cannot be registered until Title Deeds have been issued and will therefore have no legal standing.<<

As I understand it, you wanted to take the last sentence away or change it. Am I correct?

With best regards.


Read more at: http://www.news.cyprus-property-buyers. ... /id=003397
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[Nigel Howarth]

As I understand it, you wanted to take the last sentence away or change it. Am I correct?

That's correct. In the Greek language law, "Owner" is defined as a person entitled to be registered as the owner of a property whether they are so registered or not. (Those whose contracts of sale have been deposited at the Land Registry for Specific Performance are entitled to be registered as the owner of a property).

The English translation of the law just refers to them as 'owners' without any clarification.

Regards,