Managing a Building in Azerbaijan: What the Housing Code Says

A multi-apartment building in Azerbaijan has to be run in one of three ways, and the owners are obliged to choose. That is the core of the Housing Code (Mənzil Məcəlləsi), adopted on 30 June 2009, approved by Law No. 845-IIIQ and in force since 1 October 2009. This article covers who chooses, how, what happens if nobody does, and what an owners' association is. It reads the Code as in force on 26 December 2025.

The three forms

Under art. 141.2 the owners of premises in a multi-apartment building must choose one of:

1. direct management by the owners themselves;
2. management by an owners' association (mənzil mülkiyyətçiləri müştərək cəmiyyəti, MMMC) or a specialised consumer cooperative;
3. management by a managing organization (idarəedici təşkilat).

The form is chosen at the owners' general meeting and can be changed there at any time. The decision binds all owners in the building (art. 141.3). A building may have only one managing organization (art. 141.10). The Code speaks of owners of premises, so owners of non-residential premises are inside the same body.

If the owners choose nothing

The Code does not leave a building without a form for ever:

• After six months without a chosen form, the municipality must convene the owners' meeting (art. 141.4).
• After a year, the municipality must run an open competition to select a managing organization (art. 141.5), under rules approved by Cabinet Decision No. 128 of 1 July 2010. The owners are then obliged to sign a management contract with the winner (art. 141.6).

The municipality does not become the manager. It procures one, and a private managing organization ends up under contract with every owner.

The owners' association (MMMC) in short

An MMMC is a voluntary association of the owners of premises and a non-commercial legal person (arts. 119.1, 119.2).

• Creation. The general meeting decides by more than half of all votes in the building, and the participants who create it must hold more than half of all votes (arts. 119.4, 120.1). It can also be formed by the future owners of a building still under construction (art. 120.5).
• One per building. The owners of one building can create only one MMMC (art. 120.3).
• Legal personality. It becomes a legal person on state registration and has bank accounts and a seal (art. 119.6). Registration follows the general law on registering legal persons; we do not describe a procedure or fee here.
• Organs. The participants' general meeting, a board and an audit commission (or inspector).
• What the board owes. Monitoring timely payment by each participant, keeping the participants' register, record-keeping and accounts, and putting an annual income-and-expenditure estimate and financial report to the meeting (arts. 128.0.2, 128.0.3, 128.0.7). The audit commission audits the finances at least once a year (art. 130.3.1).
• Funds. A reserve fund and a repair fund can be created by decision of the meeting. The Code sets no mandatory capital-repair contribution and no minimum rate.

Who can manage, and is it licensed

A managing organization is a legal person or sole trader that manages the building under a management contract, whatever its organizational-legal form (Cabinet Decision No. 128, para. 1.2). Managing a building is not a licensed activity, and there is no certification regime. Municipalities must ensure equal conditions for managing organizations and assist with raising managers' qualifications and organizing training for those who intend to manage (art. 145.1), which is assistance, not certification.

One owner holds every premise

Where one owner holds all the premises, that owner takes the general meeting's decisions alone, in writing, and the convening procedure does not apply (art. 45.7). For a developer that has not yet sold anything, that is the route to set the arrangements, but the power to decide alone ends once there is a second owner. From then on the ordinary rules apply, and the owners may still choose the developer's company as their managing organization if they decide to.

Choosing a form: a short checklist

1. Convene the owners' general meeting. Notice rules are in our article on the general meeting, quorum and decisions.
2. Put the choice of management form on the agenda (art. 43.2.4).
3. Vote. The choice passes on a majority of the votes present; creating an MMMC needs more than half of all votes in the building.
4. For a managing organization: select it (by competition or otherwise) and sign the management contract. For an MMMC: complete state registration.
5. Record the decision in the minutes and keep them with the building's documents.

What Unitify does

No statute requires software here, and Unitify does not replace the decision or the contract. Once a building has chosen its form, Unitify gives managing organizations and MMMCs in Azerbaijan a resident app, reports for owners and Yigim integrated for payments. At Avant Park in Baku, the share of payments made through the resident app rose from 19% to 74% in three months.

See Unitify for Azerbaijan and pricing, or book a demo.

Sources: Housing Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan, 30.06.2009, consolidation in force from 26.12.2025, e-qanun.az/framework/46955, arts. 43, 45, 119-131, 141, 145; Cabinet of Ministers Decision No. 128 of 01.07.2010, e-qanun.az/framework/19802. Checked 10 September 2026; recheck for later amendments before relying on it.