The solution included in the draft law provides that the manager of the residential building would be entitled to initiate construction in his own name for the benefit of the community regarding the necessary works in the residential building. Therefore, even though the primary goal of the draft law is to directly promote the improvement of energy efficiency in buildings, the amendments provide for the possibility for the manager to propose works in a residential building regarding the construction process in a broader sense.
In order to ensure the legality of such manager’s actions, the draft law provides certain protection mechanisms for apartment owners. At the same time, what is mentioned in the draft law is not related to the manager’s right to undertake financial obligations on behalf of the community, because the Law on Apartment Property stipulates that in such cases the manager needs a special authorization.
The Ministry of Economy (ME) states that the housing stock in Latvia is outdated, which at the same time has low energy efficiency, at the same time, the pace of renovation of multi-apartment residential buildings is insufficient.
In order to rapidly improve the situation in the field of energy efficiency of buildings and maintenance of buildings in general, it is necessary to provide the right and determine a certain freedom of action for residential house managers to initiate construction on their own behalf, as well as to perform other necessary actions for the implementation of the construction process in multi-apartment residential buildings, according to the EM.
The purpose of the amendments to the Law on the Management of Residential Buildings is to improve the technical condition and energy efficiency of multi-apartment residential buildings, promoting the pace of renovation of buildings, establishing a wider scope of rights for residential building managers regarding the initiation of construction.
Since Latvia regained its independence, approximately 10% of all residential buildings were built after 2003, while 3% of the total share of multi-apartment buildings were built after 2003.
According to the EM, statistical data and trends indicate that the current pace of building renovation is insufficient. Until now, 740 buildings were renovated in the first multi-apartment residential building energy efficiency program from 2007 to 2013, while 627 buildings were renovated in the program for 2014-2020, reaching a total of 5.1% of all multi-apartment buildings that need to be renovated.
The Saeima will still have to decide on the relevant bill.