Worth knowing about finances

As a resident in a property owners' association, it can be a good idea to familiarize yourself with the association's finances. This way, you can gain an understanding of the association's financial health and what common expenses entail. On this page, we guide you and ensure you receive the necessary information related to your ownership in the association. This can include information about water and heating bills, common loans, and much more. Read on for more details.

Here's what you need to know about water and heating bills

In this section, you will receive a brief presentation of how the water and heating billing works. Every month or every quarter, you will receive an advance invoice for the payment of water and heating. This is a prepayment based on an estimate of your expected consumption.

When the heating and/or water accounting year ends, an assessment of your actual consumption for that period will be conducted. Subsequently, you will receive a heating and a water bill. Depending on whether you have paid too much or too little during the accounting year, you will either receive a refund or be charged the remaining amount.

When selling your condo

When selling your condo mid-way through a heating and water accounting year, it's important to be aware that the accounting for the entire period will always be settled with the current owner of the apartment.

If you have any questions or need further information, please don't hesitate to contact us.

If you are contributing to a common loan in your owners' association and wish to settle your share of the loan, you must inform us in writing. You should also specify the desired date for the settlement. We will then send you a settlement offer detailing the remaining debt, interest, and the account to which the settlement amount should be deposited. Please be aware that fees will be charged by both us and the financial institution in connection with the settlement.

If the loan has a fixed interest rate, please note that you should also expect to pay a differential interest or premium.

You can send the instruction to us as the association's administrator. Please note that our expected processing time is up to 14 days.

Interest Deduction

If you are contributing to a common loan, you will receive interest statements each year, during January or February. The interest statement provides information about your share of the interest expense for the previous tax year, as well as the remaining debt at the end of the year.

Your financial obligations

As a flat owner, it's important to remember that there are some expenses that everyone must contribute to. This includes common charges and advance payments for heating, for example. It's essential to make these payments within the stipulated deadline.

If you inadvertently miss a payment, we will send you a polite reminder to settle the amount. We'd like to avoid further issues, but if you still fail to pay, we will have to involve a debt collection agency to recover the outstanding amounts, in agreement with the owners' association board. If the non-payment unexpectedly continues, forced sale is the last resort.

Of course, we don't wish to end up in such situations, so we encourage you to make your payments to the owners' association promptly. This will help us maintain a well-functioning owners' association. If you're not already enrolled in Direct Debit (the British equivalent of PBS), it might be a good idea to consider it, as it ensures automatic and timely payments.

In many owners' associations, there is a provision in the bylaws concerning members' obligation to make payments to the association. This is crucial for ensuring that the association can cover its costs. You can read more about this in the bylaws and house rules (url).

The security can be established in various ways, but in most owners' associations, it is done by issuing a homeowner's mortgage note to the members to secure the association's receivables. This means that the association has a lien on the members' flats as security.

In rare cases, the security may also be provided in the form of an indemnity letter, or the deed may be registered as establishing a lien.

It's important to understand that this security measure is implemented to ensure that the owners' association has the funds to cover expenses and maintain the property.