At the time of acquisition of title to an apartment, the owner also gains an obligation to look after the common property in the apartment building and pay the related taxes. This duty and other rights and obligations are set forth in the Civil Code of the Republic of Lithuania.

Apartment owners have joint partial ownership right to:

• shared structures in the building
• shared engineering systems in the building
• general-access premises and other parts of the building
• local engineering networks
• general-access land lot
  Apartment owners have the right to use general-access assets and an obligation to look after them properly.

Pursuant to the Civil Code of the Republic of Lithuania, taxes for services and works relating to the maintenance of common property are allocated among the apartment owners in proportion to their share of ownership in the partial joint partial property (pro rate the useful floor space are of the apartment or room).

Administration is the organising of the management of general-access assets in a building and the handling of domestic and financial matters. A detailed list of administration works is available in the Rules of Administration of General-access Assets in an Apartment Building.

Maintenance consists of organisational and technical measures to maintain the technological condition of a building: observations of the technological condition of building structures and engineering facilities done by certified specialists, registering defects in maintenance documentation, identifying the need for repairs, technological preventive and minor repair work.

Maintenance covers the general-access premises and structures, cold water and sewerage and electrical systems in a building.

The maintenance of heating and hot water systems consists of preventive and corrective actions: ongoing observations, technological checks, performance control, management, and restoration, service (hydraulic tests, rinsing, etc.), tuning, launch, and other operations and recovery from incidents.

This type of maintenance is carried out by certified heating system specialists in the manner and under the schedule set forth in the regulations and normative documents.

A community can be established in the manner prescribed by the Law on Communities of Owners of Residential Apartment Buildings and other Buildings. Advise on establishing communities is provided by the Municipality of Vilnius City as well.

Legal and methodical assistance in establishing communities:

Methodical assistance and information is supplied by:
The Association of Communities of Homeowners in Apartment Buildings of Vilnius (Stiklių g. 8, LT-01131 Vilnius, tel.: 8 5 261 1003).

Free legal advice is provided by:
The Legal Assistance Unit of the Legal Department at the Municipality Administration (Konstitucijos pr. 3, LT-09601 Vilnius, tel.: 8 5 211 2137).

Advice on matters of establishment and operation of communities is provided by:
The Building Administration Division of the Housing Administration Unit of the City Systems and Transportation Department at the Municipality Administration (Konstitucijos pr. 3, LT-09601 Vilnius, tel.: 8 5 211 2093, 8 5 211 2054, 8 5 211 2718).

Residents can dispose of their building and other bulky waste at special-purpose bulky waste collection sites. All the information about the sites (their locations, opening hours, contacts) is available at www.vaatc.lt.

If you observe a breakdown or a defect or an incident occurs, please contact the call centre at 8 700 80008.

A person who has purchased an apartment in an apartment building and has observe construction faults should first contact the builder, which in most cases is the seller of the property. If the builder is not the seller, the buyer should approach the seller with a claim for the remedy of the faults while the warranty is in effect.

Buildings with the warranty period still in effect are covered by the provisions of the Civil Code and the Building Law of the Republic of Lithuania governing the procedure for the remedy of construction faults discovered during the warranty period.

Under the Building Law, the warranty period may not be shorter than 5 years, or 10 years for hidden elements of the building (such as structures, pipes, etc.), or 20 years for defects that are found to have been wilfully concealed in those elements.

Article 6.327 of the Civil Code stipulates that the seller shall be liable, under the contract and the Code, for any nonconformity that existed at the time of passage of title to the buyer, even if the nonconformity is discovered later.

The Building Technical Regulation stipulates that, having found faults in the building workmanship, the builder must summon an authorised representative of the building contractor and execute a bilateral statement. The statement shall list the faults and set forth the deadline for the remedy thereof. If the contractor’s representative refuses to sign the bilateral statement, a unilateral statement drawn by the builder shall apply and shall be delivered to the contractor. Unless the contractor remedies the faults in building workmanship by the deadline specified in the statement, the builder may approach the court to have it order the contractor to remedy the faults in building workmanship or pay the costs of doing so, if the builder has remedied the faults at its own cost.

First of all, you should contact the builder, which in most cases is the seller of the property. If the builder is not the seller, you should approach the seller with a claim for the remedy of the faults while the warranty is in effect.

Under Article 6.338 of the Civil Code, where no warranty or fitness-for-use period applies to a thing, the buyer may file complaints regarding any faults in the thing within a reasonable amount of time, which may not be longer than two years after the date of the sale of the thing, unless the laws or the contract provides for a longer period of time. Since the terms of warranty are anchored in the Building Law, the buyer of the apartment has the right to demand that the seller remedies any faults that may be discovered during this period. If the seller is unable to have contractor remedy the faults, the seller must remedy them at its own cost.

If the builder (seller) does not acknowledge the faults, the apartment owner should initiate a partial expertise of the building to determine the underlying causes of the defects. A list of certified building expertise companies is available on the website of the Centre for Building Product Certification at www.spsc.lt. The expertise findings would be needed if the problem were to be resolved judicially.

You can notify the contractor’s unwillingness to remedy any construction faults during the warranty period to the State Zoning and Building Authority under the Ministry of Environment. The Authority would then provide the certification panel with material and suggestions to cancel the certification contractor’s activity that allows the contractor to engage in relevant construction work.