After consultations within the action group led by the Director of the State Chancellery, which aims to ensure a systemic reduction of bureaucracy and administrative burden, and at the invitation of the Chairman of the Saeima State Administration and Local Government Committee, Oļegs Burovs, the Ministry of Economics has sent the draft law “Amendments to the Law on Residential Property” to the relevant Saeima committee.
The draft law will address the long-standing problem that apartment owners' associations have limited opportunities to engage in the renovation of multi-apartment buildings, as it provides for the registration of apartment owners' associations as legal entities. Apartment owners' associations will be assigned an identifier and a representative, and a procedure will also be established for disclosing their beneficial owners.
"The draft law prepared by the Ministry of Economics removes significant bureaucratic obstacles for co-owners to establish energy communities, makes it easier to make decisions about installing solar panels in shared properties, and allows for more efficient resolution of other operational issues. The draft law is a solution to a long-standing problem and is highly anticipated in the sector," emphasizes Jurģis Miezainis, Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Economics.
Currently, credit institutions do not enter into loan agreements with apartment owners' associations, so in order to renovate buildings, apartment owners have to establish associations, which is a time-consuming and bureaucratic process. There is also a problem that assigning specific tasks related to building management to associations and removing them from the responsibility of managers leads to a number of negative consequences, and does not ensure a systemic approach to property management or the further development of managers' knowledge.
The developed regulation will allow the building manager, as the legal representative of the association, to operate without special authorization regarding building insulation projects, and will also enable building renovations at the neighborhood level, as one manager will be able to represent multiple associations. Thus, the ability and knowledge of managers in project implementation will also be strengthened.