How I couldn’t discover who is behind the so-called owners’ association (Romania)

How I couldn’t discover who is behind the so-called „owners’ association” (Romania)

Living in Romania is an entire experience, mostly because of the apparent dissolution of the legitimate state authority and necessary public administration, and of the constraints upon them.

This is visible from consumer protection and widespread non-state violence to the functioning of basic state registries and licensing operators, not to add the dysfunctional taxation policy.

Ten years later, the victims and the families of the 2015 Colectiv nightclub fire, which killed 64 people and injured 146, mostly young people, did not get any sense of justice. And the society didn’t get any piece of betterment. It is still possible, and in many places required, to pay bribes to obtain licenses, while the control and enforcement remains rather paper checks. And this is not limited only to the private sector. Many infrastructure projects do not have the required authorisation and checks, except probably on the paper (if the paper hasn’t been yet modified by the decisionmakers to their own gains). Even public spaces without the required authorisations avoid to tell those entering in what are its issues, so you can make an informed consent, in case the building is open, if you enter or not.

In Romania, the management of the shared spaces of the multi-family homes and condominiums is done according to a law passed in 2018 by owners’ associations, in which the owners are members, and repealing the previous law, from 2007. The renters have also their interests representated in renters’ associations.

The law is relatively clear. The reality is more complicated, particularly if you want to check who are the beneficial owners of the association or if it exists, especially when you discover from the property developer that the association took its legal responsibilities for the management.

How the reality goes:

1. For several months, as a newcomer, you (I, in this case) trust the people, and the claim that the association exists, as you have a specific mindset on values such as freedom, rule of law and justice, functioning public administration, contractual obligations, keeping of records1, etc. You register to become a member and pay the utilities. From here the situation is getting stranger.
2. Everything went well until I wanted to check the founding documents of the association, especially the statute. There is no public registry with the associations, therefore you cannot find from a local administration or state authority if that legal entity exists, to check its contact data or the real bank accounts. And we, in Romania, share the same single market with France, for example, a country in which you can see even the property value of your neighbour and freely check the cadaster plan online. Back to the association. I requested its statute from its representatives and I received nothing. In addition, there is a national registry of associations, under the Ministry of Justice, yet several years ago they decided to remove the open access to the names of the associates.
3. To find the statute, I opened a case with the local court. Two months later I received a paper “in the name of justice”, delivered by the state post, with the request from the case judge to add several more documents to my claim (with a deadline of around two weeks to add them, not two months). When I opened the case, I also requested to have the notifications on updates sent electronically, as there was a portal in the past allowing for this, which was not approved. Somehow, someone I don’t know announced me three months later on the timeline for an appeal, which I didn’t do.
4. Since I remained without the basic necessities, including in several days, without water and lightning, and I still don’t know where my sewage goes and which is the company with responsibilities for waste disposal (relevant rather to track where my waste goes and if it is recycled and not burnt or hidden in the ground near the Capital), I reached out to the local administration to ask for more information. In this case too, the local administration refused to provide information. According to the law approved six years ago, the mayor is certifiying the administrators of such associations, and the local administration is responsible for their guidance and control. I asked for an audience, let’s see if we have new information. I paid all the local taxes and I won’t benefit from the tax amnesties adopted so many times by the national government or parliament, thus I am useless as a political client.
5. I also asked the bank where I paid the utilities bills – a state bank fully owned by the Romanian Government through the Ministry of Finance – if they have information on the association they equipped with an account, as it is basic due dilligence, including in relation to anti-money laundering and know your customer rules. Still no information almost one month after, strange given that you can obtain this information with a database search inquiry, and that association is not a private entity.

I probably miss several other points, but it has been a lot of time spent without any results. I have no relevant answer from authorities on the quality of the tap water. The authorities responsible for civil protection refused to provide a clear answer to the question on the building authorisation. Many companies through delivery apps are now refusing to deliver to my address, and the portal of the consumer protection agency does not work if I would like to submit a complaint. Back to the property, this is just one part. The other part concerns the content of the evaluation report, which mentions no associated social and environment risks, and contains quite large portions of missing and even false information, and even fake Google Maps data about which another bank states that it is true.

But how could you react when the notifications from the districtual court arrive two months later in even less important cases, when unauthorised changes occur in your bank statements, or when the police refused to register my declaration of lost/stolen passport, despite having this legal obligation?

1. In Netherlands, personal and organisational record databases, interconnectivity between record databases, electronic messaging and information disclosure to citizens, and identification of citizens and organisations are part of the critical infrastructures [↩]