VVE contribution: Am I within my rights?

Questioner

Dear Sir/Madam, Perhaps you know the answer to my question. At the end of January 2010 I bought an apartment. At that time there was no VVE because the houses were sold to the residents from a rental situation (and the owner of all the apartments was therefore the only one). At the time I inquired whether there was a VVE and if so, what and when I had to pay. I was promised - unfortunately by telephone - that I would only have to pay if the VVE was active. At the end of 2011 I received a message from the VVE, which has since been established by the owner who still rents out most of the apartments, that the VVE is therefore active and that I have to pay the overdue VVE contribution from the end of January 2010. Despite registered letters of complaint I have received little to no response to my complaint to date, but I have received threatening letters regarding debt collection agencies. I would like to know, am I in the right or am I in any case obliged to also pay the overdue VVE contribution, despite the fact that the VVE was not active/not established at the time? Thanks in advance and kind regards

Lawyer

The VvE already existed at that time, by law. The law stipulates this. It may be that it was dormant at the time. That cannot be assessed without more information. There must be minutes of general member meetings, in which the amount of contribution is determined, etc. You must have been invited to these AGMs and have received an agenda. If that is not the case, the VvE has not acted correctly and you may be able to go to the subdistrict court. Whether that is useful (in terms of feasibility and amount of the amounts) cannot be assessed in this way.

Lawyer

More specifically, the following applies. Article 5:124 of the Dutch Civil Code stipulates that an association of owners is created by operation of law when a building is divided into apartment rights, provided that the deed of division also contains the deed of incorporation and the articles of association of a VvE. This also applies in the event that all apartment rights are initially still in one hand, as is the case here. It is therefore first important to determine when exactly the division took place. If it took place before you bought the apartment, then you are indeed still liable for the outstanding service contributions.

Lawyer

You have bought an apartment right. The deed of division must therefore date from before that and be in your documents. That is not the point. The point is whether you have been informed and invited, have been able to vote, etc.