“Property owners' meetings in St. Petersburg are increasingly being declared invalid” — Tatiana Tereshchenko for Delovoy Peterburg
In St. Petersburg, the number of general meetings of property owners declared invalid has sharply increased. This trend is linked to the raider takeovers of "management companies."
For owners, this is a way to influence the fate of their property and exercise control over management; for management organizations, it is a source of legitimacy for their actions, explains Tatiana Tereshchenko, Head of the Analytical Department at Prime Advice Law Offices.
According to experts' estimates, the increase in the number of court disputes reflects not only the general level of conflict in the housing and communal services sector but also a changing attitude towards the decisions of general meetings as legally significant acts. The financial burden they create is becoming increasingly tangible, and the consequences long-term, which heightens owners' sensitivity to the quality of procedures.
At the same time, Tatiana Tereshchenko notes that judicial practice in recent years has consistently shifted its focus to examining the procedural side of the general meetings of property owners, which naturally leads to an increase in the number of satisfied claims.
The management of apartment buildings remains an area where divergent interests intersect, while the general level of legal awareness among owners continues to grow. As long as the practice of holding general meetings of property owners does not become more transparent and professional, judicial control will retain its role as a key corrective mechanism,
— forecasts Tatiana Tereshchenko.