On Thursday, April 30, the Saeima adopted amendments to the apartment ownership law aimed at making the management of multi-apartment buildings more modern and convenient for apartment owners.
The changes are aimed at ensuring that the law works effectively in various life situations, is easy to apply, and serves the interests of owners. The amendments will provide clearer and more practice-oriented management of apartment buildings. The law clarifies a number of important aspects, including the procedure for holding general meetings of apartment owners and surveys of residents.
The amendments strengthen the right of owners to participate in the management of the building, introduce the institution of the right to separate use of part of the common property (parking spaces, storage rooms, parts of the roof and facade, etc.), and also provide for the possibility for an owner to go to court with a request to recognize a decision of the community as adopted if an agreement cannot be reached.
The law also introduces new regulations on the rights to use common infrastructure, which is especially important for developers of new multi-apartment projects. Now, owners of houses located on different plots of land will be able to establish rights of joint use of the infrastructure. This is relevant when creating common roads, parking lots, playgrounds, or recreation areas for several neighboring buildings.
In addition, it is clarified that at a repeated general meeting or during a repeated survey of owners, only those issues can be considered for which a simple majority of votes is required for adoption. This excludes the possibility of "simplifying" decisions for which a higher threshold of votes was originally established.
The transitional provisions state that decisions on the arrangement of parking spaces for people with disabilities using the construction information system will become possible from November 1, 2026, as the corresponding functionality of the system will only be available from that date.
