Home is where the annoying people argue over cubic metres
In Finland it's extremely rare (I'm talking about a theoretical possibility here) to own your apartment. Instead the apartment buildings are organised as non-profit limited-liability companies and you can buy the shares that correspond to a particular apartment and allow you to have control over it. No board approval is required and the shares are bought from open market, usually through a real estate agency. This arrangement is unique to Nordic Countries and is considered as much owning your own home as actually directly owning a house.
What follows from all this is that the company is required to hold annual meetings for the shareholders, in which they elect a board of directors that take on the responsibility of managing the association during the upcoming year. The board sets the monthly fee of upkeep, keeps the property in good condition, and may initiate large renovation projects when necessary.
These meetings are generally very tedious, as people who have no knowledge of finances, real estate regulations or the reality of making renovations, argue endlessly over the colour of tiles and want to completely disregard the need to actually plan things instead of wanting to get to it and make decisions on the fly. As such, these meetings are not very popular and are often regarded as something only the elderly take part in because they have nothing else in their lives; I think that in twenty years in the same apartment, my parents have attended one meeting.
Mostly for this reason N and I took part in our very first annual shareholders' meeting last week. The meetings may be boring but they have the power to make big decisions, and if you leave the decisions to pensioners who are guarding their last pennies ferociously, nothing will get done. It was the most boring two hours I've had in a long while but I'm glad we went. The apartment buildings are over thirty years old and in some serious need of a makeover on the outside. It's important to know what is happening and be able to influence it, because the costs will come out of our pockets.
I was dreading the meeting, because in every housing company there is always at least the one person who will argue over every decision made. And to no one's surprise at all, ours was a woman in her sixties. She clung to every figure presented, trash-talked the few students and tenants living in the building (apparently they're all leeches living on someone else's expense and dirty to boot) and questioned all decisions made by the board. *sigh*
Still, it was useful to be there. Of course you can always read from the minutes of the meeting that there will be a substantial renovation of the outer walls and windows in 2011 but I personally prefer to hear all the plans and discussion that precedes and surrounds such decisions. And it makes you feel like a real home owner :)
What follows from all this is that the company is required to hold annual meetings for the shareholders, in which they elect a board of directors that take on the responsibility of managing the association during the upcoming year. The board sets the monthly fee of upkeep, keeps the property in good condition, and may initiate large renovation projects when necessary.
These meetings are generally very tedious, as people who have no knowledge of finances, real estate regulations or the reality of making renovations, argue endlessly over the colour of tiles and want to completely disregard the need to actually plan things instead of wanting to get to it and make decisions on the fly. As such, these meetings are not very popular and are often regarded as something only the elderly take part in because they have nothing else in their lives; I think that in twenty years in the same apartment, my parents have attended one meeting.
Mostly for this reason N and I took part in our very first annual shareholders' meeting last week. The meetings may be boring but they have the power to make big decisions, and if you leave the decisions to pensioners who are guarding their last pennies ferociously, nothing will get done. It was the most boring two hours I've had in a long while but I'm glad we went. The apartment buildings are over thirty years old and in some serious need of a makeover on the outside. It's important to know what is happening and be able to influence it, because the costs will come out of our pockets.
I was dreading the meeting, because in every housing company there is always at least the one person who will argue over every decision made. And to no one's surprise at all, ours was a woman in her sixties. She clung to every figure presented, trash-talked the few students and tenants living in the building (apparently they're all leeches living on someone else's expense and dirty to boot) and questioned all decisions made by the board. *sigh*
Still, it was useful to be there. Of course you can always read from the minutes of the meeting that there will be a substantial renovation of the outer walls and windows in 2011 but I personally prefer to hear all the plans and discussion that precedes and surrounds such decisions. And it makes you feel like a real home owner :)