The neighbour who does not pay
What a committee can actually do about an owner who stopped paying, what a management company can do, and where the line between the two sits.
Every building has one, and some have ten. An owner who stopped paying two years ago, lives abroad, and answers no letters. The other owners cover the shortfall without agreeing to, and the committee runs out of ideas. Here is what can be done, and by whom.
Make it visible first
Most non-payment survives on darkness. Nobody knows who owes what, so the shortfall feels like the building’s fault. The first thing that changes is a monthly statement that every owner opens, with the building’s shortfall on its own line and the names behind it visible to the committee. Most people pay when they can see what for, and when they know their neighbours can see it.
Remind, in writing, every month
A reminder that arrives every month, from the company, with the amount and the months, is different from a neighbour’s message. It is a record. It is also, for many owners abroad, the first time anyone told them clearly how much and for what.
What the committee can do
The law puts the obligation to pay on the owner, whether or not a tenant lives in the apartment, and it gives the committee a path if the owner will not: a formal demand, then a claim. That path exists and has been used. It is the committee’s path, taken with the committee’s lawyer, and the decision to take it is the committee’s alone.
What we do, and do not do
We make the money visible, we send the reminders, and we prepare every statement and every document the committee’s lawyer asks for. What we do not do is collect debts as a service, and we would rather say so here than at the meeting. A company that promises to collect for you is promising to sue your neighbours on your behalf, and it will want to be paid for that whether or not it works.
The building where half the owners stopped paying
There is a kind of building no company can run well: the one where half the owners stopped paying years ago and the other half is tired. We say so upfront. What that building needs first is a meeting, not a manager.
