There is a debate in society about the residents' responsibility for the buildings they own and what to do with old multi-apartment buildings. Demolition of a small part of apartment buildings, which are in an emergency condition, is being considered. What would await the owners of this real estate (NT) and how could this real estate conundrum be solved legally?
According to the current legal regulations, the owners of the apartments own the common rooms of the house, the main structures of the house, the common mechanical, electrical, sanitary-technical and other equipment by the right of joint partial ownership. Therefore, apartment owners are obliged to pay the costs of maintaining and preserving the house or building in proportion to their share. They must pay taxes, fees and other contributions in accordance with the procedure established by law. The owners are also required to regularly accumulate funds that will be allocated to the renovation of the house or structure in accordance with the mandatory requirements for the use and maintenance of the structures.
Apartment owners must properly maintain, repair and otherwise handle common objects. For that purpose, an association of apartment owners can be established, an administrator of common use objects must be selected, whose activities are supervised and controlled by municipalities.
If the structure shows signs of an emergency condition, the owner of the structure must order an examination of the structure. Construction technical regulations oblige the building owner to immediately take measures to protect people (restrict access and access, stop or limit the use of the building, etc.) when the condition of the building poses a risk to the health, life or environment of people in or near the building, depending on the nature of the threat, until until the structural examination is carried out.
If the structure is recognized as emergency, the user of the structure, in accordance with the legal acts and the conclusion presented in the report of the structural examination, takes measures to eliminate the emergency condition of the structure or decides to demolish the structure in accordance with the procedure established by legal acts. If it is determined that the structure is not in an emergency state, the user of the structure takes the measures specified in the structural examination report in order to eliminate the identified signs of an emergency condition.
In Lithuania, the renovation of old-built apartment buildings has been quite successfully carried out for many years, not only with the aim of saving residents' heating and other building-related costs, but also to prevent the collapse of old-built apartment buildings.
In order to solve the problems of old apartment buildings, the Ministry of the Environment announced that it is preparing a new procedure, according to which the methods of renovation of apartment buildings will change, and bad and emergency conditions apartment buildings would be demolished, new ones would be built in their place. The ministry promises to present a procedure for the associations that manage apartment buildings to acquire the right to demolish an old and expensive apartment building and, after attracting an investor, build a new one in its place. In addition, the ministry is preparing a legal framework that would oblige managers of buildings in an emergency condition to rebuild dangerous houses. What can be expected from the new order, what related issues and challenges are currently arising and may arise in the future?
It should be noted that Article 23 of the Constitution stipulates that property is inviolable, property rights are protected by laws, property can only be taken according to the procedure established by law for the needs of society and fairly compensated.
The question arises as to whether the state or municipalities have the right, or perhaps the duty, to intervene in the management and demolition of private buildings, if they pose a danger to residents and others, even if this means a certain limitation of private property rights.
It is planned that some vulnerable residents - the elderly, antisocial persons - should be helped by the municipality to renovate the house, possibly take over the property, but allow them to live for free all their lives.
Apartment associations are very angry about this and say that it will turn seniors into tenants, because one of the possible options of the new order would be the transfer of ownership rights to a renovated or newly built apartment to the municipality in exchange for the fact that the owners could pay less for the construction costs. Naturally, a part of the public has reasonable doubts as to whether this is not a hidden expropriation of private property.
If it is intended to demolish or renovate an apartment building, the consents of the apartment owners must be obtained. However, it is not clear what would happen if not all apartment owners agreed with it. As mentioned, the Constitution protects private property, so it is not possible to forcibly evict residents. There is also the question of whether residents and municipalities would have enough financial resources to demolish old and depreciated structures and build new ones instead.
Although property is inviolable and no one has the right to take property from the owner by force, except in cases provided by law, the law provides that the right to property can be exercised only without violating the law and the rights and interests of other persons. In this case, one could talk about taking ownership of multi-apartment property of individuals who do not want to leave signs of an old or emergency condition for public needs. However, such seizure of property is allowed only in exceptional cases and only in accordance with the law, the owner must be fairly compensated. Property can be taken from the owner against his will, free of charge, only by a court decision or sentence. At the moment, it is not at all clear under what conditions this could be done. Property taken must be fairly compensated, but who is to judge what the fair compensation should be.
The Ministry of the Environment claims that according to the procedure being prepared, it is the municipalities that will have the task of figuring out how to convince people to demolish houses in poor condition and provide them with temporary housing, but it is not clear whether the municipality would fully cover the costs of temporary accommodation, property protection, or whether the residents would have a certain (and what) part to contribute to it.
One of the new ways declared by the Ministry of Environment to compensate for building construction would be to increase the height of buildings in those places, thereby attracting additional investments, so that the construction is compensated not only with the money of the residents, but also with the money of private developers. Regarding increasing the height of buildings, the Minister of the Environment states that, for example, Beautiful approximately two additional floors should be built on top of a five-story building so that the house can be renovated free of charge, in some cities, all five-story houses should be renovated by adding one or two floors from the increase in value. However, in such a case, it remains unclear who would compensate the cost of construction, if it were determined that additional floors could not be added to old or even dilapidated houses.
It can be assumed that saying goodbye to old houses would be attractive to the owners only if the government created an incentive, for example, giving residents the opportunity to acquire ownership rights to the state land under the apartment buildings, as this creates a high added value. There is no such possibility now.
People who are thinking of buying or renting apartments in old buildings or in poor condition should also pay attention to these issues, because their renovation or demolition may affect them as well.
It cannot be ruled out that if the new order is approved and the questions arising in it are not resolved, there may be a need to evaluate the new order in terms of compliance with the Constitution.
Author: Egidijus Matonis
