How to read your common expense statement

What is a common expense statement?

The statement is the document the building committee or the property manager sends each period — monthly or quarterly in most buildings across Europe — to tell you your share of what the building spent and where your account stands. It is not an invoice from a company for a service to you. It is your fraction of the building's own costs: the stairwell electricity, the cleaning, the lift contract, the insurance, the reserve fund contribution.

That distinction matters for how you read it. A company invoice has one price; a statement has two halves. The building half says what the building paid and by what rule it was divided. Your half says what that rule produced for your unit, what you paid, and the balance. In Cyprus the committee's duty to collect common expenses comes from the Immovable Property (Tenure, Registration and Valuation) Law, Cap. 224, and the building's registered regulations; neither, as far as we are aware, prescribes a statement layout, so formats vary from building to building. The figures below are the ones every good statement carries. If yours arrives through an owner portal, the same lines sit behind each balance you see there.

Where do the opening and closing balances come from?

The opening balance is the closing balance of the previous statement. This is the first thing to check, and the one most owners skip: if last period ended at €0.00 and this one opens at €42.10, something was posted between the two statements — a late payment, a correction, an adjustment — and the statement should say what.

The closing balance is arithmetic: opening balance, plus the charges for the period, minus the payments received, plus or minus any adjustments. A positive closing balance means you owe the building; a negative one, often shown as a credit or "in your favour", means you paid more than was charged and the surplus carries forward. Sign conventions differ between buildings, so look for the words — a well-designed statement says "you owe" or "in credit" rather than relying on a minus sign.

What do the charge lines mean, and what is the allocation basis?

Charges are grouped by category: common electricity, cleaning, lift maintenance, insurance, water for common areas, the management fee, repairs. For each category a complete statement shows three things — the amount the whole building paid, the method used to divide it, and your share. The method is the allocation basis, and it is the part owners most often cannot see.

There are only a handful of methods, and the deed or the regulations normally fix which one applies to which cost: an equal share per unit, a share proportional to your floor area, your registered ownership share (often expressed in thousandths), a metered amount, or a custom rule such as lift costs that exclude the ground floor. Our post on how common expenses are allocated explains each. What you need from the statement is the number that turns the building's cost into yours: your 85 m² of a total 800 m² is a factor of 10.625 %; your 125 thousandths is 12.5 %. Multiply the building cost by your factor and you should land on your share to the cent — or one cent away, where the rounding difference was assigned to another unit.

What is the reserve fund contribution and why is it separate?

One charge line is not spending at all. The reserve fund contribution is the building saving for the works that arrive on a timescale longer than a year — the lift modernisation, the roof, the façade. It is usually divided by the same key as the main budget and shown as its own line, because it is not a cost that has gone up but money that is being set aside.

Two things to look for. First, your contribution for the period. Second, the building's reserve balance — a good statement shows the total the building holds, so you can see that the money exists. In most jurisdictions the reserve belongs to the community, not to you personally: it is not refunded when you sell, and the buyer takes over your unit's share of it. If the statement does not show the balance, ask for it; our guide to how much reserve a building should hold explains what a reasonable figure looks like.

How do the payment lines work?

Each payment the building received from you should appear with the date it was received and the reference it came with. Two common sources of confusion: a transfer you made on the 30th may be received on the 1st and appear on the next statement, and a payment sent without a reference may sit unmatched until someone recognises it. Use the reference the building gives you — usually the unit number or a code printed on the statement — every time.

If you have agreed a payment plan for older arrears, the instalment should be its own line so both you and the committee can see the plan being kept. And if a payment you made is missing, the fix is your bank record — the date, the amount, the beneficiary — sent to the manager in writing, not a phone call.

How do you check your own share in ten minutes?

You do not need to recompute the whole building. Six checks catch nearly every error:

• Opening balance equals last period's closing balance.
• Your factor is right: your area or share divided by the building's total, as registered on the title.
• Recompute one category — pick the largest — from the building cost and your factor.
• The charge lines add up to the charges total.
• Every payment you made appears with the right date and amount; compare with your bank statement.
• Closing balance = opening + charges − payments (± any adjustment, which should be explained).

Do this once carefully and you will know the shape of your statement; after that it takes two minutes a period.

What should you ask the committee or manager?

Ask in writing and ask for something specific: the invoice behind a category, the register of areas or shares the factors come from, the bank balance of the reserve account, or why a category is higher than the same period last year. Most committees answer a specific question in a day; a general complaint about "the common expenses being too high" tends to go nowhere.

Know what you can and cannot expect. You are entitled — in most jurisdictions, and certainly in practice — to see the building's invoices, the allocation key, the budget, and the totals: total arrears as a figure, the reserve balance, the accounts presented at the general meeting. You are not entitled to see another owner's balance; that is their personal data and a well-run building will not show it to you, just as it does not show yours to them. If you have a question the statement cannot answer, the general meeting is where the accounts are presented and approved, and where the allocation key can be changed if owners vote to. Our page for owners explains what the portal shows you and what it never will.