Most apartment owners' associations are doing a poor job, study

More than 80 percent of the chairmen of the apartment owners' associations (APLPs) are not prepared to manage the apartment buildings and don't even have the possibility to learn how, finds a study on the apartment buildings administrated by APLPs. The study's authors noted that the budgets available to the associations do not allow them to employ workers, and the fixing expenses are entirely covered by the residents, with municipal authorities having a humble contribution. And this is because the APLPs are governed by a superannuated law, dating back to 1993, which creates confusion and inefficiency in modernizing the infrastructure of the residential blocks, the experts say. According to the director of the Urban Development Institute, Veaceslav Bulat, the outdated legislation does not provide for modalities of financing the maintenance, repair and beautification of the shared spaces and territories adjacent to the apartment buildings. Also, the relationship between the associations and the public utilities is considered to be deficient. On the basis of a survey conducted among 100 associations in Chisinau, Ungheni and Floresti, the experts found that from financial point of view, the APLPs administering larger areas do a better job in managing expenses and have a healthier cost control than the APLPs administering smaller areas. APLPs were founded in 1997, at the initiative of the residents, for the purpose of placing their apartments under their own administration. Some 1,050 apartment buildings across Moldova are now administered by APLPs.