Supervision of apartment buildings in Cyprus to be transferred to district self-government organisations

The parliamentary Committee on Internal Affairs has approved the transfer of supervision over jointly owned buildings to district self-government organisations (EOA). These are the bodies that, following the local government reform, are responsible in Cyprus for water supply, sewage and building permits. The powers will be transferred to them once the conditions set by the EOAs for the Ministry of the Interior are met.

There are three conditions: a modern online platform for registering management committees, the financial sustainability of the new function and coverage of the initial staffing costs. The ministry has been given three weeks to provide a final response to these requests. Discussions on the bill are expected to be completed in 2026, possibly with a transitional period.

Committee chairman Aristos Damianou recalled that AKEL submitted an 80-page legislative proposal on jointly owned buildings back in 2019. “Serious shortcomings in the application of the relevant legislation were identified,” he said. According to him, at the meeting both the ministry and the EOAs moved away from their original positions.

Ministry of the Interior representative Antonis Oikonomidis called the meeting “very constructive”. He noted that, for the first time, a supervisory body would be established to maintain registers and monitor the work of management committees.

DISY representative Nikoleta Constantinou said that the party was not satisfied with how the bill addresses the collection of debts for common expenses and called for “effective corrections”. ELAM representative Evgenios Hamboullias expressed “cautious optimism”: according to him, residents who fail to pay are one of the main causes of buildings falling into disrepair and posing a safety threat.

Head of the Limassol EOA Yannis Tsouloftas stressed that the conditions must be met before the powers are transferred, so as not to repeat past mistakes when functions were handed over without legal instruments or financial support. Head of the Larnaca EOA Angelos Hadjicharalambous expects the law to resolve long-standing problems, including those involving dangerous dilapidated buildings.