The property manager and the Crossroad Bank of Enterprises

This has been enacted by Royal Decree of 15 March 2017.  

The property manager (“Syndicus”/“Syndic”) must be understood in this article in the sense it has under Belgian law.  A “syndic” is an administrative body which represents the interests of the owners of all the apartments in a building, collectively known as the association of co-owners.  The role of the “Syndic” is to ensure the upkeep of the building and to organize meetings during which a vote is taken on any repairs, improvements, etc., that are deemed necessary.  The services of the “”syndic” are paid for by the co-owners.

This registration is independent from the registration of the enterprise of the property manager and from the registration of the CBE itself (compulsory since 1 July 2003).

The obligation to register applies to each appointment of a property manager after 1 April 2017.  

For the existing ACO’s a transition period has been granted.  The existing ACO’s have one year to comply with the formality of registration, i.e. at the latest on 31 March 2018.

1. What are the objectives of this measure?

There are several objectives:

• access to information regarding the property manager is easier to obtain, without it being necessary to involve the ACO.
  This is in the interest of creditors of the ACO who can identify the property manager at any time, without having to go to the building (at the entrance of the building the identity of the property manager must be displayed);
  It also facilitates the work of plaintiffs when they have to notify a writ of summons to the ACO (a copy of the writ of summons must be sent to the property manager);
• the property managers who exercise the profession unlawfully can be identified more easily, and thus the ACO can be informed thereof.  When an ACO is confronted with a dishonest property manager (e.g. a property manager that accepts bribes from a supplier), other ACO’s where this property manager is also their property managers can be warned;
• the collection of statistical data is made easier.

2. Formalities

The appointment of a property manager must be registered with the CBE at the latest the workday before the day of the beginning of his function, or within eight workdays if there are less then eight workdays between the appointment and the beginning of his function.  “Workdays” is defined as being all days with the exception of Saterdays, Sundays, and legal holidays.

Changes and resignations must be registered within the same delay.  For each registration, change, or resignation, the registration office charges a fee of EUR 85.50 (rate for 2017, yearly adapted to the cost of living).

The registration office conserves the file of a property manager in the CBE for a period of five years.

3. To whom the obligation to register applies?

The obligation to register applies to all property managers, also the property manager of a sub-association (who can be appointed in a ACO with more than 20 apartments), even if the property of a sub-association is also the property manager of the main association, and also a provisional property manager (who can be appointed in case of negligence of the property manager).

4. Sanctions

The Royal Decree does not provide specific sanctions, but it is in the interest of the co-owners that their property manager is registered with the CBE.