Cyprus is debating what to do about dangerous and jointly owned buildings. Authorities, lawmakers and property professionals are considering inspections, enforcement and changes to the rules governing jointly owned developments.
Those discussions matter. But I believe they risk starting too late.
By the time a building is officially judged dangerous, years of neglected repairs, poor financial planning and disputes over communal charges may already have taken their toll. We should also ask a harder question: how can we stop buildings reaching that point?
I believe part of the answer lies in how we manage buildings every day.
The rules exist. Consistent management does not
Cyprus already has legislation covering the administration, maintenance, insurance and shared costs of jointly owned buildings. Yet, in practice, we have not had a consistent system for putting those responsibilities into effect.
Procedures can vary sharply from one development to another. Methods for calculating communal charges, tracking arrears, reporting spending and planning repairs are not uniform.
Legislation alone cannot guarantee that routine responsibilities are carried out effectively. When records, budgets and maintenance plans fall short, problems can be harder to identify and more expensive to fix.
Buildings rarely become dangerous overnight
Water ingress, cracks, corrosion in reinforced concrete and failing shared installations tend to develop over time. Without proper administration, adequate funding and planned maintenance, relatively manageable problems can eventually become extremely expensive problems.
This is why dangerous-building policy should not concentrate solely on inspection and enforcement after serious deterioration has occurred.
Prevention must begin with the day-to-day management of the building
A properly functioning Management Committee needs to know what money is required, how communal expenditure should be distributed, what funds have been collected, what remains outstanding, what maintenance is required and whether sufficient funds are available to undertake that work.
It must also maintain proper financial and administrative records and provide owners with appropriate information concerning communal expenditure.
If these basic functions are not performed consistently and effectively, the maintenance of the building inevitably becomes more difficult.
Management committees need more than legislation
While some buildings have professional management, many rely on volunteer committee members who often have limited knowledge of the legal and administrative responsibilities they have undertaken.
Yet these volunteers are expected to administer communal finances, collect charges, deal with arrears, arrange insurance and maintenance, retain records, communicate with owners and understand the legal framework governing jointly owned property.
Simply imposing responsibilities upon Management Committees does not provide them with the practical tools required to fulfil those responsibilities.
The same applies to professional property managers.
Without a common management framework, every company can develop its own procedures and every change of Management Committee or management company can result in a different administrative approach.
Cyprus therefore needs to consider standardisation as well as regulation. A Practical digital solution already exists.
After several years of development, MyPropMan has been created specifically to address this problem.
MyPropMan is a Professional Legal Communal Property Management Online Portal specifically designed and programmed around the requirements of communal property management in the Republic of Cyprus.
MyPropMan is GDPR-compliant. Unit owners can only access information relevant to their own unit. They cannot view other owners’ names, contact details, financial information or any other material relating to another unit or its owner.
Transparency must be part of the system
Owners cannot reasonably be expected to continually contribute money towards their development without appropriate information regarding how those funds are being administered.
Transparency therefore needs to be built into communal management rather than treated as something provided only when disputes arise.
MyPropMan provides individual owners with secure access to relevant information concerning their property and communal expenditure, including supporting documentation.
This creates a clear connection between the owner, the Management Committee, communal finances and the management of the building.
Greater transparency can increase confidence. Greater confidence can improve collection of communal charges. Improved collection provides Management Committees with the financial resources required for maintenance.
The relationship between administration, funding, maintenance and building condition should not be underestimated.
Enforcement cannot do the whole job
The debate over which authority should oversee dangerous buildings is important. But changing the regulator would not, by itself, standardise how thousands of developments are managed day to day.
We invite the Ministry of Interior, the Department of Lands and Surveys, District Self-Government Organisations, ETEK, MPs and other professional bodies to consider a uniform digital framework for communal property management. MyPropMan demonstrates that the technology to support such a framework already exists.
The question is not only what happens once a building is declared dangerous. We must also ask whether owners and committees have the practical support to maintain it before conditions deteriorate.
Prevention depends on proper administration. Proper administration enables proper funding, and proper funding enables planned maintenance. If we are serious about tackling dangerous buildings in Cyprus, we must start with how jointly owned developments are managed throughout their lives.
MyPropMan demonstration
The system can be examined through two demonstration environments:
Management / administration demonstration
Media, government and professional enquiries
Panayiotis Peklivana
MyPropMan Cyprus Limited
MyPropMan – Professional Legal Communal Property Management Online Portal
