An apartment debt fell on the shoulders of all residents of the apartment building.

An apartment school – all the neighbours?

“Why do all apartment owners have to pay for garbage removal and other services, and the municipality of Kaunas is not ready to do it? This is an unconstitutional approach,” says the president of an association of building owners from apartments that operates in Kaunas, Šilainiai district.

Delfi’s editorial office knows the exact data for this community, but it will not be released to protect children living with their mother in a social housing owned by the municipality of Kaunas. It seems that they are, as a kind of shield, used not only by the housing association, but also by other companies, as well as by the municipality, the tenant who is in debt.

“The situation is as follows: the municipality bought an apartment, let a resident in, but from the first day we did not receive a single penny. Every year we send letters to the municipality of Kaunas informing about the accumulated debt with the community,” he said. the head of the home community.

Kaunas residents assured that the community does not generate profits, but only performs the function of an administrator, covering the costs of certain activities with the funds raised from the population.

“Everyone pays, but there is one who is insolvent. Then the question arises: who has to pay for it? If a person is insolvent, it is the burden of the state, not of a community. Because in this case, the financial burden falls on the residents of our house. It turns out that I am forcibly using the funds of other residents to pay taxes and not accumulate debts, “said the head of the community to the Delfi portal.

There is no property, only debt and three children.

As the social housing resident’s debts increased, the housing association hired an attorney and filed a lawsuit with the Kaunas District Court as a defendant, attracting the city municipality, the owner of the social housing.

“My goal is not to push a person onto the street, not to confront them with other residents of the house who pay their bills honestly. My goal is to provide the landlord with an invoice and receive a deposit. And as the landlord will get this amount back from the tenant , it’s his business, “said the Kaunas resident who runs the apartment owners association.

He stressed that if the tenant does not pay the taxes, the obligation to pay them falls on the owner, in this case the municipality of Kaunas.

It is true that the community of residents of the house has the opportunity to recover unpaid funds from the tenant who does not pay the municipal social housing. However, this path, according to the President, leads nowhere.

“She lives in an apartment with three minor children, the municipality will definitely not evict her anywhere. She could go to the bailiffs and wait for the money to go to the community account. But whatever it is, this resident has no property What pocket to take if you’re drowning in debt, ”said the Kaunas resident.

He said he found out the real financial situation of the mother of three children living in social housing in court when this woman’s Kaunas creditors list was made public during the trial.

“It just came to our attention then. They don’t pay taxes not only to our community, but also to the municipality,” said the Kaunas resident.

The fact that this woman does not pay taxes to her owner while living in social housing was also established by the Kaunas municipality by the court that heard the case.

The court was favorable to the municipality of Kaunas

After examining this case, the Kaunas District Court made a decision in favor of the housing construction community. The demand was confirmed and the residents were ordered to pay a debt of 413 euros from the municipality, and they were ordered to pay interest until the full execution of the judicial decision.

However, residents of the apartment building did not rejoice in this court decision for a short time. Although the amount awarded to the community was not large, the Municipality of Kaunas did not want to pay it and filed an appeal with the Kaunas Regional Court.

In its complaint, the municipality stated that the social housing lease contract with the woman was signed in the spring of 2015 and contained a clause indicating that the resident himself agreed with the administrator of the house on the payment procedure.

In other words, the municipality houses the tenant in a social department, but is not responsible for its unfulfilled obligations. This was essentially confirmed by the municipality itself on appeal.

“The municipality rents social housing without commercial purposes, does not seek or receive profits and fulfills the function established by law. Renting a social home is not an ordinary commercial activity that generates profits, but one of the functions of the public administration, therefore, the appellant is not responsible for the obligations assumed by the tenants of said home under the lease and established by legal acts, ”representatives of the municipality of Kaunas told the court.

The Kaunas Regional Court upheld the municipality’s appeal and reversed the decision in favor of the multi-apartment community. The Community was ordered to pay the State budget 42 euros as legal costs.

A dispute was won

In the appeals court, the president of the losing association said he would not give up. Together with the lawyer, he intends to appeal against the unfavorable decision of the second instance court of cassation.

“It just came to our attention then. Some bureaucrat could sit down, write, and give this problem to the Seimas to solve. That in such cases, when a person is insolvent, the state would pay these taxes for him. This problem must be solved globally. and not move to a smaller legal unit, “said the Kaunas resident.

This is not the first case when this company is suing the Municipality of Kaunas for debts. Some time ago, residents successfully resolved a dispute over the non-contributory social housing tenant. Finally, the municipality itself evicted the man and paid the amount granted to the community with interest.

“Instead of 1 thousand. 2.5 thousand euros of debt were paid. Euros Then the question arises, why is money wasted from the same city budget?”, The head of the community argued.

Debts threaten eviction, but children protect against it.

After requesting a comment on this situation, the representatives of the municipality of Kaunas received an explanation that a contract is concluded with the social housing tenant, which defines the rights and obligations.

One of the obligations is to pay the public services and other taxes, as well as part of the taxes to the community. It is emphasized that it is due in part to the fact that the municipality, as the owner of the apartment, contributes to the renovation of the house, the replacement of windows or other similar works.

When asked what to do with other occupants of the house if the social housing tenant does not pay the tax society, an explanation was obtained that said borrowers are urged to pay and are warned of the imminent consequences.

“The rental of social housing can only be terminated through a court. And the municipality can initiate its termination either for misconduct or for debt. Recently, the number of terminations of these contracts has been increasing,” said the representatives of the municipality.

However, there are some reservations when it is especially difficult to evict even a large debtor from a municipally owned social home. One of those cases is when minors or minors live in the house with the tenant.