Today, amendments to the Apartment Ownership Law come into effect, which provide apartment owner societies the right to obtain loans from credit institutions for the restoration of residential buildings, reports LETA citing the Press Service of the Saeima.
The amendments stipulate that in relations with credit institutions, the apartment owner society will be equated to a legal entity. This will allow the society to open a current account and enter into contracts with credit institutions to obtain loans for the restoration of homes.
In order for credit institutions to identify the apartment owner society as a client, each society — both existing and those formed in new buildings — will be assigned a name and an identifier. This will be carried out by the State Bureau of Construction Control (GBSK) in the Construction Information System. The annotation to the bill states that the State Land Service is already transferring current data from the state real estate cadastre to GBSK, including information about the division of the building into separate apartments, and residents will not have to take any additional actions.
It is also established that the legal representative of the apartment owner society will be the building manager registered in the register of residential building managers maintained by GBSK. Thus, third parties will be ensured public and reliable access to information about the apartment owner society: its name, identifier, and representative.
Considering that the apartment owner society participates in various legal transactions, for example, related to the supply of utilities, it is considered a party to the transaction and is obliged to identify and disclose its actual beneficiary. The amendments provide for the procedure by which the homeowners' association will provide such information to the Register of Enterprises.
Furthermore, it is stipulated that apartment owner societies will not need to register with the State Revenue Service as business entities and taxpayers if their income for the reporting year does not exceed twice the minimum monthly wage. This is done to simplify accounting, as such societies usually have insignificant income from economic activities — for example, from renting advertising space on the wall of the building. These funds can be directed towards the development of the residential building, the authors of the amendments indicated.
