Homeowners' Association and Debt Restructuring: What now?

Questioner

Can a VvE (Owners' Association) be obliged to forgive a debt through debt restructuring? As an apartment complex, the owners are required to be members of the VvE. A monthly contribution is due for general costs and maintenance. One of the owners is in arrears with the payment of this contribution. Due to bankruptcy, the owner has ended up in debt restructuring. Through debt restructuring, debt forgiveness has been agreed with a number of creditors. Our manager has informed us that the VvE must also accept this waiver. The current costs are paid, but no repayments are made. We (the board of the VvE) find this very strange. This means that 20 households will be required to pay for the owner concerned. In our opinion, it can never be the intention that the debts of a co-owner are settled at the expense of other private individuals. There are other owners who have done everything they could to avoid debt restructuring. The amount is over 7200 euros, which is 340.00 for all households. For many, an enormous amount. We therefore foresee more defaulters and ultimately bankruptcy of the association. In concrete terms, we ask ourselves: - can we as private individuals be obliged to forgive a debt and thus in fact have to pay the arrears due to debt restructuring? - can we challenge this decision?

Lawyer

You describe the situation in which owner X has ended up in the WSNP (Natural Persons Debt Restructuring Act). This means that he/she must make an effort for three to five years to raise as much money as possible to pay off the debts. The WSNP is aimed at giving the person a clean slate after that period if he/she has made sufficient effort. In practice, this means that concurrent creditors will be paid between 1% and 10% of their claim. The remainder can no longer be collected. Article 10 of the Bankruptcy Act gives every interested party the opportunity to object to the decision within 8 days after the bankruptcy has been declared. I suspect that in your case this period has already expired. In that case, you no longer have any options open to you. Your administrator could or should have informed you of the possibility of objection and the very short period.