On Thursday, 30 May, the Saeima adopted in the final reading amendments to the Law on Residential Properties in order to promote the renovation and proper maintenance of apartment buildings. They provide an opportunity for apartment owners to decide on issues important to the house even if a part of the residents does not engage in solving these issues. 

"This will be another tool for improving the decision-making procedure, so that apartment owners can successfully decide on issues essential for the maintenance of their house even if other residents of the house do not participate, for example, in general meetings on the renovation of the house," previously noted Oļegs Burovs, Chair of the State Administration and Local Government Committee responsible for the progress of the amendments in the Saeima.

According to the amendments, if, due to the lack of quorum, the initially convened general meeting of the apartment owners will not have the right to decide, the amendments provide an opportunity to reconvene the general meeting of apartment owners. Such a meeting may be reconvened within one month after the initial general meeting, and it shall have a decision-making power if more than one third of all apartment owners participate in it.

At a reconvened general meeting, the joint decision of the apartment owners shall be deemed to have been taken if it has been voted for by apartment owners representing more than half of the apartment owners represented at such general meeting.

According to the explanatory note to the amendments, the law has been modified to improve the joint decision-making procedure of the apartment owners and to ensure the management of multi-apartment residential buildings, including their renewal and appropriate maintenance.

Several measures have been implemented in the past to improve the joint decision-making procedure of the apartment owners, including the possibility to convene general meetings and vote electronically in the Construction Information System. It improves the decision-making process where the majority of residents are interested in the maintenance of the house, but does not protect those active apartment owners who are in a minority against those who do not engage in such initiatives, the explanatory note to the draft law states.

The amendments stipulate that the new procedure will apply to general meetings that will be convened after 1 November of this year. 

Saeima Press Service