The government withdrew after a wave of criticism. It’s about housing cooperatives’ money

The Ministry of Development and Technology has abandoned one of the most controversial provisions of the upcoming amendment to housing cooperatives. After comments from cooperative groups, the ministry withdrew the proposal that transferred important financial decisions from members to supervisory boards.

The information was provided during a meeting of the Parliamentary Infrastructure Committee, Deputy Minister of Development and Technology, Tomasz Lewandowski.

The general meeting will retain key powers

The original project assumed that the supervisory board would decide on the highest amount of liabilities that the cooperative could incur, unless the statute provided for a different solution.

After the ministry’s position changes, this competence will remain with the general meeting of members. This means that the most important decisions regarding debt and finances will still be made by residents associated in the cooperative.

Cooperative members criticized the ministry’s proposal

Representatives of cooperative organizations argued that delegating such powers to supervisory boards would limit members’ influence on property management.

It was pointed out that residents are the owners of the cooperative’s assets, therefore they should retain the ability to decide on matters related to multi-million liabilities. Experts also warned that the new regulations could lead to conflicts and weaken the principles of cooperative democracy.

The problem of low turnout remains

However, cooperative circles point out that the low attendance at general meetings is still an unsolved problem. It happens that only a small group of members decides on key financial decisions.

There are proposals to introduce a minimum quorum, which would increase the representativeness of resolutions adopted and limit situations in which a small number of participants decide about the cooperative’s assets.

This is not the end of changes for the cooperative

The withdrawal of the controversial provision does not mean the end of work on amending the Act. The project of changes regarding housing cooperatives is still being processed and is of great interest to both management boards and residents.

The ministry announces further work on regulations that will regulate the functioning of cooperatives, but after the controversial proposal is withdrawn, decisions regarding the maximum debt will remain in the hands of the general meetings of members.