Housing law

There are certain differences between housing cooperatives and owner-occupied housing associations (condominiums) when it comes to incorporation, as well as the registration of share units and owner-occupied units. Part of the difference is ascribable to the fact that a housing cooperative, as opposed to an owner-occupied housing association, is an independent legal entity.

A housing cooperative is established by preparing a memorandum of incorporation. It is formed with as many shares as the number of planned residential units.

The developer will normally incorporate the housing cooperative pursuant to Section 2-12 of the Housing Cooperative Act and subscribe to all the shares himself, before transferring them at a later date to the buyers when the units are ready for takeover.

A housing cooperative must also be registered in the Register of Business Enterprises, and the shares registered in the land register.

Condominiums are formed by registering an application for the conversion of a property into sections. Developers themselves may be responsible for doing this, in which case they own all the sections until these are transferred to the buyers. In contrast to the incorporation of a housing cooperative, a condominium is not established by means of a meeting at which a memorandum of incorporation is signed, a board elected or similar. It is therefore the act of registration that is crucial for formation in this case.

If a property is to be owned jointly by several persons, and the owners shall each be entitled to the sole right to their unit in the building, the property must be converted into individual units. This is customary when large buildings contain several apartments, also called owner-occupied apartments, or offices and shop premises.

An owner-occupied housing association or condominium is a form of ownership in which the individual owner occupier owns an undivided share of the entire building, but with an associated exclusive sole right to a particular unit (apartment) within it.

If the joint owners in a condominium wish to adjust the distribution of the property’s area after the property has been converted into units, it is possible to re-convert the property. A re-conversion is required, for example, if a caretaker’s apartment is to be made into a separate unit for possible subsequent sale, or if a shop premises is to be made into an apartment, or when garage spaces, storerooms or similar are likewise transformed.

Household rules and regulations drawn up specifically for a condominium or a housing cooperative are an important requirement for the sound management of the property. These regulations may stipulate rights of use with respect to the communal areas of the property, determine how the building is maintained, or specify other terms and conditions that the association needs to regulate in detail.

Our lawyers advise a large number of housing cooperatives and condominiums and are greatly experienced in drawing up household regulations and rules, and in rectifying existing ones. Contact us should you have any questions relating to an association’s regulations.

Our lawyers assist many of our clients in preparing and implementing ordinary and extraordinary general meetings and annual meetings, including by advising providing housing association committees in connection with regulatory amendments, eviction proceedings/compulsory sale, the transfer of areas within the building, and plans for its development or extension.

We assist clients in internal disputes in their associations, as well as in external cases. Our lawyers have much experience in this field and provide support in the courts of conciliation, district courts and higher courts, should the matter not be resolved amicably.