For the last eight years, a reader has been administering and maintaining the common parts of a block of flats. As an administrator, he would like to know whether the law regulating condominiums has brought new responsibilities and liabilities to such a role.

The Act regulating condominiums, specifies in great detail the functions and duties which an administrator should abide by during his term of office. The administrator's role under this law is somewhat more defined than it was under the relative provisions of the Civil Code.

Primarily, an administrator must notify the Land Registrar of his appointment. As an administrator, his main functions would include the execution of decisions of the meetings of the condomini, ensuring that all common owners observe any rules provided by law regulating the common parts of the block of flats.

Furthermore, the administrator is also responsible for regulating the use of the common parts of the condominium and the performance of services in the common interest so that all the condomini are assured the maximum benefit possible.

The administrator shall apportion the costs necessary for the preservation, maintenance, ordinary and extraordinary repairs, rendering of services and alterations carried out to the condominium for the common interest. He shall collect the contributions from the condomini and may set up a floating fund to which they shall contribute their share.

Furthermore, he is also obliged to perform such acts necessary for the preservation and protection of the common parts and to render accounts at meetings of the condomini. Other functions would include claiming and receiving monies or interest on behalf of all the condomini and taking all necessary steps to have in force an adequate insurance of the condominium.

Besides the above, there also exists administrative functions which the administrator must perform, such as, inter alia, the duty to keep a register of all the condomini; a record of all the meetings held by the condomini; and a record of the posting of notices sent to the condomini for such meetings. Furthermore, notices of all meetings shall be affixed onto a notice board which must be fixed in a prominent common part of the condominium. All decisions taken during the said meetings as well as any decision or directive which the administrator deems to be of importance that it requires to be brought to the notice of the condomini shall also be affixed to the said notice board.

Moreover, the administrator must register with the competent authority any set of rules drawn up by the condomini to regulate the use of the common parts and the apportionment of the expenses incurred in connection with the common parts, including rules concerning the preservation and administration of the condominium.

Finally, in matters relating to the common parts of the condominium, the administrator has the representation of all the condomini and has also the judicial and legal capacity to sue the condomini or third parties and to be sued. The administrator who does not fulfil his duties properly may be held responsible for damages.

Send your legal problems, of general public interest, together with your name and address, to The Lawyer, c/o The Sunday Times, P.O. Box 328, Valletta CMR 01 (fax: 2124-0906; e-mail: sunday@timesofmalta.com)

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