Slovenian Reserve Fund (Rezervni Sklad): How Much and Who Pays

In Slovenia a reserve fund (rezervni sklad) is compulsory where a property has more than two owners and more than eight individual units. Every owner contributes monthly. The statutory minimum is the area of his unit in m² multiplied by a rate set by the building's age: up to 10 years €0, over 10 to 30 years €0.20, over 30 to 60 years €0.25 and over 60 years €0.30 per m². Owners may agree a higher amount, not a lower one.

The legal basis is art. 119 of the Property Code (SPZ), the Housing Act (SZ-1) and the Rules on the criteria for determining an owner's contribution to the reserve fund and the minimum contribution.

When a reserve fund is compulsory

The threshold is the same as for a compulsory manager: more than two owners and more than eight individual units. The fund covers the future costs of ordinary management.

How much: the minimum by building age

The Rules set three criteria: the area of the individual unit, the age of the property and reconstruction. They place the building in one of four age classes, and the manager multiplies the area in m² by the amount for the class:

• Class I, up to 10 years: €0 per m²
• Class II, over 10 to 30 years: €0.20 per m²
• Class III, over 30 to 60 years: €0.25 per m²
• Class IV, over 60 years: €0.30 per m²

Example: a 60 m² flat in a 40-year-old building (class III) has to pay at least 60 × €0.25 = €15.00 a month. In a 15-year-old building the minimum would be €12.00, in a building over 60 years old €18.00. That is the minimum. In the maintenance plan the owners may also set a higher monthly amount, based on the estimated value of the maintenance works.

Reconstruction. A full reconstruction (all the necessary main investment maintenance works have been done, for example the roof, installations, façade, thermal insulation and lifts) counts in the calculation if the works were done in the last ten years; in the first year after it the property is treated as five years old. For a partial reconstruction, where at least two of those works were done, it is treated as 20 years old.

How often. The age of the property is determined once a year, and the manager calculates each owner's monthly contribution once a month. The contribution is paid monthly into the reserve fund's transaction account.

Where the area comes from. If the valuation has not been done, the manager gets the area from the land register or the building cadastre, or from the document that is the basis for the entry of ownership. Area data for the individual units of one property must be obtained in the same way.

Who pays and who decides the amount

The contribution is the owner's contribution: each owner of a unit pays by the area of his unit. The owners can adopt a higher amount in the maintenance plan, which they adopt by a majority of more than half of the co-ownership shares (adopting and amending the maintenance plan is ordinary management).

Whose money it is and where it sits

• Joint property. The reserve fund is the owners' joint property. The manager keeps it separately on a special account.
• No refund. An owner has no right to demand a refund of his payments or a division.
• Purpose. The money can be used only to pay maintenance costs and necessary improvements and to repay loans taken for those purposes.
• Loans. Taking and repaying a loan charged to the reserve fund needs the consent of all owners (art. 29 of SZ-1).
• Fiduciary account. The manager, in his own name and on behalf of the owners, opens and runs a fiduciary account for the reserve fund, separately for each multi-apartment building. The owners may decide that the money of several buildings is collected on one fiduciary account of the manager, and the manager must then keep separate bookkeeping for each building.
• Ten days. If owners pay through the manager's transaction account, the manager must move the reserve-fund money to the fiduciary account within 10 days of payment.
• Protection. The reserve fund is not part of the manager's bankruptcy estate and the manager's creditors cannot reach it.
• Countersignature. The owners may decide that the manager makes payouts from the fund only with the confirmation of one of the owners.

If an owner does not pay

The manager must demand payment from an owner who does not pay into the reserve fund in writing. By law the manager's demand counts as an authentic document under the enforcement act, so it opens enforcement without a prior lawsuit.

Statutory default interest is the European Central Bank's main refinancing rate plus eight percentage points, set for each half-year separately. Unpaid management costs and reserve-fund contributions sit on the individual unit as a statutory real charge in favor of the other owners, up to five times the minimum reserve-fund contribution, and it ranks ahead of the other charges on the flat. Because that charge does not appear in the land register, the manager's statement of unpaid obligations is the only way a buyer can know what it costs.

How Unitify works here

• Charging by area. Unitify applies the charge rule you set for the building: per square meter, per apartment, per resident or a flat amount. For the reserve fund, set a per-m² rule with the amount for the building's age class, which you determine yourself. Enter the area from the valuation (točkovanje) where the building has been scored, otherwise from the land register, the building cadastre or the document that is the basis for the entry of ownership, the same way for the whole building.
• Invoices and arrears. Invoices go out automatically, and payments and balances are tracked per unit, so each flat's position is at hand when the manager issues a statement of unpaid obligations on request.
• Payments. Unitify processes payments through Stripe, which supports Slovenia. UPN QR, Flik and SEPA direct debit are not Unitify integrations.
• What Unitify does not do. It does not open or run the fiduciary account. That is the manager's job with the bank.

See the Slovenia page, pricing and how to convene an owners' assembly. To see how this would work for your buildings, book a demo.