What are common expenses?
Common expenses — κοινόχρηστα in Cyprus, Nebenkosten or Hausgeld in Germany, charges de copropriété in France — are the costs of running the parts of a building every owner uses: the lift, cleaning and lighting of common areas, water for the garden and pool, the building's insurance, security, and repairs to the structure. Every owner contributes according to a share. In Cyprus the framework is the Immovable Property (Tenure, Registration and Valuation) Law, Cap. 224, which provides for the owners of units in a jointly owned building to share the expenses of the common parts.
How are the expenses allocated?
By a share per unit. In Cyprus the share is usually the per-mille figure from the title deed: a unit with 85 ‰ pays 8.5 % of an expense — €106.25 of a €1,250.00 lift contract. Some buildings use square metres or equal parts, and some expenses apply only to some units: a ground-floor apartment is often given no share of the lift. Software computes the amounts in cents and assigns the last cents by largest remainder so the lines sum exactly to the invoice; a spreadsheet that rounds each line usually leaves a gap. Elsewhere in Europe the share carries other names — Miteigentumsanteile in Germany, tantièmes in France — but the arithmetic is identical.
Who is the management committee?
Cap. 224 provides for a management committee elected by the owners to manage the jointly owned building: collect the common expenses, pay for maintenance and insurance, keep the accounts and call the general meeting. Members are typically owners, unpaid, and change at the AGM. Many buildings appoint a property management company to do the work under the committee's authority. Whether the committee or a company keeps the books, the same records are needed: the allocation per expense, the statement per unit, the payments, the reserve fund, and an audit trail that survives the next election.
The reserve fund, also called the sinking fund
A reserve fund holds money for major works — a new lift, the roof, external painting, structural repairs — collected as a levy alongside the monthly common expenses. In Cyprus it is standard practice for the management committee to keep one; whether a minimum applies to your building depends on the regulations the owners have adopted, so confirm with the committee or a lawyer. In France the fonds de travaux has been compulsory for most co-ownerships since 2017; in Germany the WEG expects an Erhaltungsrücklage. In every case the reserve must appear apart from operating money: its own levies, charges, payments and closing balance on each statement.
What happens at the annual general meeting?
The committee presents the accounts for the year, proposes the budget and the reserve levy for the next, elects the committee and votes on major works. Votes are typically weighted by share, and owners may attend by proxy. Minutes are kept, and in Cyprus decisions taken at a properly convened meeting bind the owners under Cap. 224. Good preparation means the year's statements, the reserve position and the compliance record — lift inspection, fire safety, insurance — available to owners before the meeting, and a tally that records each unit's share.
Where do buildings go wrong?
In the same five places, in Cyprus and elsewhere: a spreadsheet formula that differs from the title deed; a utility invoice entered twice for overlapping periods; the reserve fund spent as operating money; a handover in which the outgoing committee takes the records with it; and owners who cannot see the calculation and therefore dispute it. Each has a mechanical remedy — the share from the deed applied per category, an overlap check, separate fund balances, an audit trail that stays with the building, and a portal where the owner reads the same statement the committee does.
What does software change?
The arithmetic and the record. Set the method per expense category once; each approved invoice is allocated in cents across the unit list, the statement per unit is generated as a PDF with the common and reserve funds apart, payments are posted against the unit and cannot be silently rewritten, and every change carries an audit entry. Owners sign in and read their own units. A supplier invoice can be photographed and read into a draft. Domera does this for buildings across 31 European countries in the company's locale; for a Cyprus block that means per-mille shares, €1,240.00 and 12.09.2026.