August 16-17, Lviv: More than 90 representatives of Associations of Co-Owners of Multi-Apartment Houses (ACMHs) and initiative groups, which aim to establish ACMHs participated in two-days educational seminar held by Lviv City Council under support of UNDP Project "Municipal Governance and Sustainable Development Programme”. The training was held with the financial support of the Swiss Confederation.
Lviv municipality became a partner of UNDP Project "Municipal Governance and Sustainable Development Programme" in November 2006. In framework of cooperation the Municipal Support Unit was established in the City Council. Today, this unit is being transformed into the Resource Centre for support and development of ACMHs, which will provide all necessary information on ACMH, its functions and how to establish ACMH to the city residents. In addition, the Resource Centre will organise the seminars, training sessions, meetings with heads of successful ACMHs for interested parties.
Facilitating establishing ACMHs is one of the priorities of the executive bodies of the Lviv City Council. As of March 2010, 350 ACMHs were registered in Lviv. In 2009 UAH 2.72 mln were allocated for the needs of ACMHs from City budget and reconstruction works of elements of buildings (roofs, utility systems, elevators) in 42 buildings of ACMHs. Also, the session of the City Council adopted decision № 2693 from 18.06.2009 "On Approval of Programme for Support for Establishing and Operation of ACMHs in Lviv Municipality for 2009-2012".
At the request of Lviv City Council, UNDP/MGSDP conducted a seminar for representatives of ACMHs and initiative groups which aim to establish ACMHs. The seminar was conducted by UNDP/MGSDP Specialist Leonid Tulovsky. Andriy Sadovyi, Lviv City Mayor delivered a speech at the seminar and pointed out the importance of reforming the housing and municipal economy of the city through establishing ACMHs and confirmed that Lviv City Council will continue providing support to local ACMHs.
The participants got familiarized with the legislation, regulating establishing and operation of the ACMHs. In particular they received information on property rights, obligations and relations between the owners of the premises in a multi-apartment house, the procedure for transferring the house into balance and procedures for the establishing ACMH.
"In order to establish ACMHs, the residents should understand the role of ACMH and realize that the owners are obliged to maintain their property, which is clearly stated in Article 382 of the Civil Code of Ukraine. Therefore I would recommend all local self-governance bodies provide residents with credible information about what is ACMH, how to establish it, what are the objectives, how it operates and what is the decision-making process like", said Leonid Tulovsky.
During the seminar, the Specialist of UNDP/MGSDP told about planning of economic activity of the ACMH including estimation of revenue and expenditure of an organisation, calculating contributions for maintaining ACMH, contributions to Capital Repair Fund, the procedure of procurement, transfer of adjacent territory into ownership of ACMH, the energy saving measures, participation of ACMH in national and international assistance programmes.
"The main reason for the slow creation of ACMHs is the lack of information. Poor technical condition of the building and lack of professional house managers are the derivative issues. If enough ACMHs appear, there will be house managers. Subsequently they will able to protect their interests with authorities and utility service monopolists. The very first task of the Centre is to create conditions for informing residents about ACMH, the basic mechanisms of governance, providing assistance at the initial steps, coordinating their activities and assisting the ACMHs to find providers of services and providers to find ACMHs. Also, we aim to create an opportunity for the ACMHs to communicate and become an influential community of the city", said Galyna Kohut Head of ACMH Support Section of the Department of Housing Economy and Infrastructure.
Representatives of the ACMHs, who participated in the seminar, received a lot of practical information they can use in their daily work.
For further information, please, contact Galyna Smirnova, Monitoring and Communications Officer of UNDP/MGSDP, by tel. (+38044) 253 50 68 or via e-mail: galyna.smirnova at undp.org.ua
