Manager – Real estate management

Residential building manager (*Manager) is a legal or natural person, registered for affairs related to management, who manages a residential building in the name of the homeowners, on the basis of the Management Contract and the Law of Ownership and Other Proprietary Rights.

As prescribed by the Law of Ownership and Other Proprietary Rights, the homeowners are obliged to participate in managing the real estate (Article 85), and choose a representative to act as manager (Article 385). The homeowners choose the representative by a 50.01% majority by square footage and sign the Management Contract, which determines the relations between the homeowner’s community and the manager with all their rights, as well as obligations.

The homeowners are obliged to entrust the managing to the manager in accordance with the contract they have established among themselves (Article 378) – the Co-ownership Agreement.

The Manager manages the real estate in the name of,and on the account of the homeowners, within the limits of authorization established by the contract. Rights and obligations of the regular manager are established by law. Their true authorization is established by the contract he/she makes with the homeowners. The manager is obliged to conduct each real estate managing business separately, so that each residential building has a separate business bank account.

The homeowners are, according to the law, in a community of a sort – the Homeowners community. In that community, among other, they are obliged to care for the real estate as a whole (for communal areas and appliances). The source of income to serve for security and care of the homeowner’s community are the mandatory maintenance fees (reserve). Except the financial basis, a quality awareness about the ownership of real estate is required, as well as the will for carrying out the rights and obligations deriving from that.

The basic rules of conduct for the homeowners and other beneficiaries of the real estate (tenants, lessees) are stated in the House Rules.

Obligations and authorities of the Manager

  • maintaining communal parts of the building functional, necessary for normal usage,
  • doing annual and occasional building check-ups,
  • determining the appropriate amount of the mandatory maintenance fees (reserves), which each resident is due to deposit onto the building transactions account,
  • organizing bank loans for bigger amounts of planned maintenance cost, needed for maintaining the building in a functional condition,
  • organizing appropriate security for communal parts of the building,
  • determining the House Rules,
  • distributing other building costs onto the homeowners (communal expenditure of electricity, water and so on),
  • charging dues to the homeowners not paying reserves regularly,
  • covering building costs made toward third parties, from the funding means of the building transactions account,
  • doing other jobs in accordance with obligations stated in the contract from the Law of Ownership and Other Proprietary Rights
  • reporting to each homeowner about the business of the building from the previous calendar year, in an appropriate way, latest until June 30th of the current year,
  • collecting multiple offers for the jobs of building maintenance repeated in periods longer than one year, as well as for large interventions in communal parts of the building.

Agreed management / Management through contract

Contract management is implemented through the stipulations of the Co-ownership Agreement and the Management Contract, that is, through special decisions, made by the homeowners votes in a simple majority by ownership interest.

All homeowners participate in regular management by implementing the upper-mentioned provisions and decisions, via their Authorized Representative and the Manager of the building.

Manager´s fee

For the execution of jobs connected to building management there is a fee amount determined in the Management Contract. The amount is calculated on the basis of maintenance coefficient by the square meter of useful surface of all residences and other spaces in the building.

The building pays the fee to the manager once a month, based on the Management Contract, onto the transactions account of the manager.

Manager alteration

If the manager of the building is acting against the rules stated in the Maintenance Contract or the Law of Ownership and Other Proprietary Rights, he/she can be relieved of duty by the homeowners. The homeowners are in that case obliged to write and send the Decision on Cancellation of the Management Contract, signed by majority of the homeowners (more than 50% of the homeowner´s share), agreeing with the cancelation of the Management Contract. The duration of cancellation period is three months for both parties and starts with the first day of the first approaching month.

Examples of Manager´s duties

In the case of main water pipes rupturing in the building, the homeowners (or homeowner) inform their authorized representative, who then informs the manager of the building about the water pipes rupturing in the building.

If the rupture of the water pipe is a matter of urgent repair, the manager is the one who initiates the procedure for urgent repair. The same happens if there is a problem in the main vertical, which belongs to the communal part of the building. After recovery, the manager pays the bill to the contractor and sends the request for damage payment to the insurance company.

If the rupture of the water pipe occurred inside the apartment, the homeowner is obliged to repair all damage and pay the contractor, but may retroactively ask for damage payment from their own insurance (apartment insurance), in case they have one. The only way to repair private damage through insurance is to additionally arrange and pay for apartment insurance (pipe rupturing).