The government is revolutionizing housing cooperatives. Homeowners will pay more.

• The government is focusing on transparency - cooperatives will face term limits for their boards and the obligation to publish documents online.
• Tenants of municipal apartments will have to take into account new rules for income verification and changes to housing benefits.
• The changes will also apply to housing communities.

On Friday, September 19, the Council of Ministers' legislative and programmatic agenda included the proposals for three housing-related bills authored by the Ministry of Development and Technology. These include:

• amendments to the Act on the Protection of Tenants’ Rights, Municipal Housing Resources, the Civil Code and the Act on Housing Benefits,
• amendment to the Act on Ownership of Premises and the Construction Law,
• amendment to the Act on Housing Cooperatives and the Cooperative Law.

The adoption of all laws is planned for the second quarter of 2026 .

The amendment to the Housing Cooperatives Act is primarily intended to address the consequences of the 2017 changes, which resulted in many people losing their membership in cooperatives despite still living there or having related rights. The bill reinstates membership to such individuals and their heirs.

Additionally, the law introduces term limits for management boards, eliminates term limits for supervisory boards, and allows for the replacement of the general meeting with a representative meeting. A significant new element is the requirement to publish cooperative documents online, which is intended to increase transparency. The reform also aims to protect members from bearing the costs of other tenants' debts.

The draft amendment to the Tenant Protection Act and the Housing Benefits Act aims to streamline regulations and provide municipalities with new tools for managing municipal resources . The issue of security deposit refunds upon lease termination will be regulated, and a clear mechanism for calculating compensation in the event of loss of title to the premises will be introduced.

An important element is the extended verification of income and assets of people applying for municipal housing - it will also cover the ownership of single-family houses in the same or neighboring town.

The new regulations also change the rules for inheriting a lease agreement after the tenant's death: automaticity will be replaced by a claim to conclude a new agreement

- the project provides.

The minimum frequency of income verification for municipal tenants is to be 5 years.

Additionally, municipalities will be able to rent up to 20% of new or renovated apartments to people with average incomes , charging them a higher rent, and allocate the funds to the development of the housing stock.

Housing benefits will be granted under new rules – for example, a rent increase resulting from income verification will not affect the benefit amount. At the same time, municipal authorities will be able to deny the benefit if a community survey reveals discrepancies between the declared and actual number of residents.

The draft amendment to the Act on Ownership of Premises and the Construction Law aims to adapt the operations of housing communities to the realities of the last 30 years. The legislator wants to streamline regulations that currently cause many disputes – both in the courts and in the daily functioning of communities.

This includes clearly defining which building elements, such as balconies or measuring devices, belong to the common property and which to the individual premises.

It was noted that the structural elements of the balcony (loggia, terrace) constitute common property, the maintenance of which is the responsibility of the community . These include the girders, the balcony slab with insulation, the balcony railing, and other balcony elements constituting parts of the building's facade. This clearly establishes that the interior space of the balcony is a component of the premises (and therefore the sole responsibility of its owner).

The new regulations are also intended to clarify the definition of a housing community, indicate its subjectivity and the scope of owners' liability for the community's obligations.

The changes also provide new practical solutions. Communities will be able to independently pursue claims for defects in common areas, without having to collect assignments from all owners. It will also be possible to increase advance payments for owners of units whose use generates additional costs.

An important element of the project is the introduction of an obligation to provide access to the premises in the event of installation inspections, breakdowns, or safety threats – along with the possibility of imposing a fine, and in extreme cases, police or fire department intervention. The community will also assume responsibilities related to the maintenance of meters and allocators, which is intended to eliminate disputes over their legalization and replacement.

Further modifications concern the community's management and decision-making processes. The project envisages simplified procedures, for example, eliminating the requirement for a notarial protocol for the appointment of a trustee and introducing a definition of ordinary management activities. Resolutions will be passed more easily, including electronically and by simple majority vote in a circular ballot.

There will also be an obligation to establish a renovation fund and clarification of the rules for the owners' oversight of the management board. Annual reports will be in written form and include a financial section, and owners' meetings will also be able to be called at their initiative if the management board fails to fulfill its obligations.