Costs of managing and maintaining the common parts of a building

Under Article 6(1), point 10 of the Bulgarian Condominium Management Act, owners must pay the costs of managing and maintaining the common parts of a building under condominium ownership.

Under Article 11(1), point 5 of the Act, the general meeting of owners sets the contributions towards these costs. Article 38 expressly provides that resolutions of the general meeting are enforceable. This applies even though Article 40(1) entitles each owner to ask a court to set aside an unlawful resolution.

Under Article 40(3), filing an application to set aside a resolution does not suspend its enforcement unless the court orders otherwise.

Resolutions of the general meeting have a special legal status: they are neither private-law transactions nor administrative acts. Accordingly, they are governed neither by the Obligations and Contracts Act nor by the Code of Administrative Procedure. These management decisions consist of parallel declarations of intention by a majority of those present, directed towards a common objective. Unlike a contract, they do not arise from matching declarations by opposing parties, nor are there reciprocal rights and obligations that have to correspond. They are a distinctive form of multilateral act, adopted by a group without separate legal personality to achieve a common purpose relating to the management of the building. The people bound by them therefore form a substantially wider group than the parties to a multilateral transaction. Once effective, resolutions bind all owners, including those who voted against them or did not attend, as well as people who later become owners or occupants. Conversely, they do not continue to bind, in that capacity, those who cease to be owners or occupants of the building concerned after the decision is taken. A multilateral transaction, by contrast, does not extend to a person who disagrees with the intention expressed by the other parties. For example, under Article 357 et seq. of the Obligations and Contracts Act, the establishment of a civil partnership and decisions on its affairs require the partners’ unanimous agreement.

The nature of these resolutions also determines how they are reviewed. Any party or interested person can invoke the nullity of a private-law transaction without a time limit. By contrast, judicial review of the lawfulness of a condominium resolution requires a civil action to set it aside, and that action must be brought within a procedural time limit. Once the time limit expires, the right to bring the action is lost. It runs from notification of those entitled to sue. Article 40(1) restricts that class exhaustively to the owners.

This article does not constitute a legal opinion or legal advice concerning any particular situation or person. For assistance with a specific case, consult a lawyer with practical experience of the Condominium Management Act.