Two Owners of One Apartment in Riga: How to Split Utility Bills? 0 12

Deniss Gorba, lawyer at the Latvian Human Rights Committee (deniss.gorba@gmail.com)

Clear System

The situation where co-owners of real estate wish to split payments and pay separately is not uncommon. However, it can be challenging to make such a division when it comes to an apartment in a multi-apartment building. Firstly, because in this case, we are dealing with common property divided into ideal shares (domājamās daļas) — that is, from the perspective of the law and the management company, both co-owners are considered a single “owner.”

Secondly, Article 5 of the Cabinet of Ministers Regulation No. 1013 of December 9, 2008, “Kārtība, kādā dzīvokļa īpašnieks daudzdzīvokļu dzīvojamā mājā norēķinās par pakalpojumiem, kas saistīti ar dzīvokļa īpašuma lietošanu” (“Procedure for the Owner of an Apartment in a Multi-Apartment Residential Building to Settle for Services Related to the Use of Apartment Property”) establishes that the procedure for mutual settlements between the apartment owner and the manager is determined by the Management and Maintenance Agreement.

This procedure is uniform throughout the residential building. Accordingly, one management and maintenance agreement is concluded for one apartment. This system is logical and clear, as there is necessarily one water meter installed for the apartment (for the apartment, not for each co-owner), and heating is supplied to the apartment, not to the co-owner.

A Document is Needed

Nevertheless, this issue can be attempted to be resolved through legal formalization of the usage order of the property. Specifically, one can try to divide the bills based on the Civil Law (Civillikums) and relevant regulations. However, for this, it is necessary to achieve the conclusion of a usage order agreement (Lietošanas kārtības līgums).

For the manager to split the bills, they need a basis — a document confirming that you do not just own shares, but have secured specific premises for yourself. It should be specified that, for example, co-owner A exclusively uses room No. 1, co-owner B uses room No. 2, and the common areas (kitchen, corridor, bathroom) are in joint use. It should also be indicated that each co-owner undertakes to independently pay for utility bills and maintenance proportionally to their share or according to actual consumption.

I strongly recommend having the signatures notarized and registering this right of use in the Land Register: this will make the agreement binding for third parties. After the agreement is signed and registered in the Land Register, the co-owners should submit a joint application to the property manager on behalf of both, requesting to split the bills based on the concluded agreement. Most large managers, including municipal structures in Riga, can technically do this.

Important Point: According to Article 1071 of the Civil Law, all co-owners bear the costs of common property proportionally to their shares. Splitting the bills does not exempt co-owners from joint liability to the manager “by default,” unless agreed upon in a tripartite manner. In other words, if one of the co-owners suddenly stops contributing their share according to their bill for any reason, the manager can still claim against the property (the apartment) as a whole.

This certainly creates certain inconveniences for the second co-owner. However, it should be remembered that joint property is a burden. And if this burden becomes so heavy that the second co-owner cannot and does not wish to tolerate it any longer, there is only one option left — the alienation of joint property (for example, sale) and acquiring their own real estate. Since, by law, no one can be forced to remain in joint ownership if they do not wish to do so.