Should the developer of a residential condominium be exempt from the payment of association dues for unsold units?
A unit owner of a Makati condo has called out a property developer to “pay its fair share” of the association dues. The complainant estimated that collectable association dues were about P26 million. He also claimed that the condo association was losing about P2 million per month.
The unit owner argued that the developer itself was a member of the association and should contribute (commensurate to the number of unsold units) to the pool of money needed to operate and maintain the common areas and facilities, as well as to sustain the expenses for the delivery of common utilities and services.
“The developer already made money selling us the condo units, yet they do not want to pay their fair share to maintain. It is so unfair,” the unit owner lamented.
Through its legal counsels, the property developer countered that it was exempt from paying dues, citing the Condominium Act, which states in the Declaration of Restrictions that every condominium unit “shall be assessed for authorized expenditures of the condominium’s management body separately for its share of such expenses in proportion to its power’s fractional interest in any common areas.”
“Clearly, the law itself states that condominium unit owners may or may not be required to share in the said expenses if the Declaration of Restrictions so provides,” the counsels said.
In this…
