The attachment of a responsible declaration by the administrator to each apartment transfer contract, etc. that there is no pending debt for shared expenses related to the transferred property to the management of the apartment building, or, if there is no administrator or he refuses to issue the above responsible declaration, registration of a responsible statement of the seller to the notary with the above content, the President of POMIDA Mr. Stratos Paradias and the President of the Coordinating Committee of Notarial Associations of Greece Ms. Lena Kontogeorgou requested from the political leadership of the Ministry of Development in a joint letter, in order to address the problem of non-payment of large sums of common use by, mainly foreigners, sellers of apartments, with the result that the unpaid amounts by them unfairly burden the other co-owners of the apartment buildings.
The full text of the joint letter to the Minister of Development Mr. Panagiotis Theodorikakos and the Secretary General of Trade Mr. Sotiris Anagnostopoulos is as follows: To the Minister of Development Mr. Panagiotis Theodorikakos To the Secretary General of Trade Mr. Sotiris Anagnostopoulos Entaytha Athens, November 6, 2024 SUBJECT : Joint proposal of SESSE – POMIDA for a declaration of non-debt of joint users in the transfer contracts of horizontal properties. Honorable Mr. Minister, Mr. General The POMIDA which represents both the owners and the managers of all kinds of buildings, usually co-owners who have been elected by the general meetings of the apartment buildings, who are called today, under difficult conditions for many households, to manage the finances of the buildings and to keep them in operation, in consultation with the Coordinating Committee of Notarial Associations, is obliged to point out a serious social problem and request its solution. The daily problem of apartment building managers, both private and professional management offices, is the refusal of a portion of the tenants, owners or even tenants to pay the bills of common expenses that are attributable to them. What unfortunately encourages the debtors of this category is that the judicial claim of common users is a time-consuming process with disproportionate financial costs in relation to the amounts owed. Managers are therefore forced to fund the gap in unpaid commons from the apartment building’s reserve, where it still exists, until it is exhausted, at which point they force the other co-owners to pay the debts of the inconsistent owners, which leads to conflicts and arguments, and failure to operate the apartment building. But the problem becomes acute when an inconsistent co-owner sells his horizontal property to a third party, having left outstanding debts to the management, which the buyer refuses to pay! The new owner’s refusal is based on articles 525 and 965 of the Civil Code. according to which the responsibility of the old and the new owner of the horizontal property for the common costs of the building vis-à-vis the other co-owners is determined by the period of time, during which each of them was the owner of the horizontal property and respectively co-owner of the common parts of the building, i.e. the time of the transfer of the contract of transfer of ownership of the horizontal property is crucial (articles 1192 ed.1 and 1198 AK) and therefore there is no co-responsibility of the buyers for the debts of the previous owners! Because this behavior of a large number of sellers of horizontal properties has brought a large number of managers of apartment buildings and commercial buildings to complete despair and to a complete impasse in the finances of their management. Because this problem, which is under your responsibility, has today become huge due to the fact that thousands of apartments in apartment buildings have been bought by foreign natural or legal persons, usually with the conditions of GOLDEN VISA, without the managers of apartment buildings knowing their details, many of whom, as long as they own these apartments, they never pay utilities, nor do they even give contact information to the managers.
So when they later sell them, they escape payment entirely, since they have no other assets, and the buyers rightly refuse to pay the sellers’ debts. Because the victims of the above behavior of these sellers are the other co-owners of the apartment buildings who are finally forced to pay what the first ones fraudulently avoided paying!!! Because this phenomenon further contributes to the co-owners’ refusal to undertake the duties of the manager, with disastrous results in the orderly operation and maintenance of the country’s apartment buildings, now that energy upgrading works are also required, in accordance with the latest European directives, which will soon become mandatory in our country as well. Since, just as when a property is transferred, tax and insurance awareness certificates, as well as non-debt TAP are attached to the transfer contract, in order to secure the interests of the other co-owners of each apartment building, a responsible declaration of the manager stating that the seller is not in debt for the management of the building must also be attached , if there is no administrator or the existing administrator refuses to issue the above declaration, then the seller must make a declaration to the notary with the above content. Because we are therefore faced with a serious and ever-increasing social problem that needs an immediate and drastic solution, we REQUEST that a provision be added to your Ministry’s co-authority bill that provides that: declaration via www.gov.gr of the building manager to the notary public, that there is no pending debt for common expenses related to the transferred property to the building management, or, if there is no manager or he refuses to issue the above responsible statement, responsible declaration of the seller to the notary with the above content.”. At your disposal for any clarification and cooperation With great respect The President The President Stratos Paradias Lena Kontogeorgou Attorney A.P. – President UIPI Notary Public of Athens
