The government will not provide state funding for a new system to oversee management committees in jointly owned buildings, Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou informed parliament, as the proposed legislation returns to the House interior committee later today.

The district local government organisations (EOAs) have asked for funding to cover the cost of taking on the new responsibility, but Ioannou rejected the request, saying the bodies should finance the service from their existing budgets.

“State funding is not provided for the exercise of this responsibility,” he asserted.

The government argues that oversight should be transferred to the EOAs rather than remain with the land department, whose current scope remains limited.

Under the proposed law, local authorities would be given greater powers to supervise management committees and deal with problems including unpaid communal fees, poor maintenance, lack of insurance and failures to establish committees.

Ioannou said the initial costs should be limited and staffing requirements relatively small.

The service would eventually become self-financing through fees collected by the EOAs.

Additional staff will be required, with a land department study already identifying the staffing needs of each EOA.

Ioannou said requests for new posts could be included in the preparation of next year’s budget.

The state will, however, fund the software platform needed to operate the new system.

The platform will draw information from land registry databases and connect with the ‘Ippodamos’ (Hippodamus) planning system.

The minister has proposed a transition period of up to two years to allow for the development of the system, creation of registries, recruitment and training and the establishment of procedures.

Cyprus has around 30,000 jointly owned developments containing about 200,000 residential units, according to the land department surveys.

The proposed reforms come amid concerns over the condition and management of older apartment buildings.

The bill is due to return to the committee for further discussion later today.