While the heating season is due to open on October 15, Mathilde fears that her radiators will remain cold this winter. Riddled with debt, his co-ownership did not pay for the heating for six months.
© Capital/Christine Lejoux
It is around the October 15 that the radiators of most condominiums with collective heating will be restarted. But in Mathilde’s “copro”, nothing is less certain. “Will we have heating this winter?”she asks herself. If this question bothers her, it is because her co-ownership of 80 lots, located in Pau, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, combines 60,000 euros of debt. “The cleaning company has taken the co-ownership to the commercial court because it has not been paid since April and therefore no longer maintains the common areas”says Mathilde, who fears a similar scenario with heating. This was in fact not adjusted during almost the entire last heating season.
“How did we get to this point in two years, when the co-ownership was well managed before?”she asks herself. Mathilde knows the answer very well but can’t believe how quickly the situation has deteriorated. In 2022, its copro elects a new trustee. At the same time, gas and electricity prices are soaring, due to energy supply difficulties caused by the outbreak of war between Russia and Ukraine. Certainly, the government reacts by establishing a tariff shield. But this does not fully compensate for the surge in gas and electricity prices.
Co-ownership: “Because I don’t have 20,000 euros for the renovation, I have to sell my home”
A credit on the tariff shield still not received
Above all, the co-owners must advance the payment of the invoices through their charges, the trustees then reimbursing them with the assets received from the energy suppliers under the tariff shield. Gold, “here, the co-owners have modest incomes”explains Mathilde. Many were therefore unable to pay their collective heating charges. And if they ended up obtaining the payment of a first credit of 13,000 euros, they still have not seen the color ofanother credit, of 15,000 euroswhich their energy supplier sent to the trustee. As a result, the co-ownership today totals 25,000 euros in arrears of charges. We understand that she is no longer able to pay for cleaning and heating.
But, all this, “we learned about it only a few months ago, from the trustee’s accountant, who told us that the copro had no more money since the end of 2023”laments Mathilde. This summer, a new trustee took over and “pulls out his hair in front very poor management from the previous »relates Mathilde. Unable to regularize the accounts, the new trustee cannot launch new calls for funds to pay the charges. He nevertheless urges co-owners who can to pay them despite everything, so that he himself can pay the overdue bills.
Co-ownership: “To pay for the renovation, I dipped into my LEP and deprived myself of vacation”
“Our dream of building assets has turned into a nightmare”
“The new trustee told us that he will redress the situation of the copro. But when and at what price?worries Mathilde. “The co-owners, who bought here with a view to their retirement and to leave a legacy, find themselves today in an aging residence but who does not have the means to repair infiltrations in the cellars or on the roof.”
As for those who would be tempted to sell their property, they are trapped in thelack of regularization of accounts, which makes it impossible to establish the dated statement, this document required by the notary to inform the purchaser of a property of the financial state of the co-ownership and the accounting situation of the seller. “Our dream of building assets has turned into a nightmare”she laments, while finding the courage to go out and clean the heavy trash containers herself: “We have to, otherwise we would live among rats and cockroaches…”
If you too would like to share your difficulties as co-owners, do not hesitate to write to us!
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