Members of leftist political parties, solidarity groups and civic movement “I don’t pay” managed to block the eviction of a 5-member family. The activists chased the notaries out of the court room in Thessaloniki on Wednesday.
The home of the family was to be auctioned as the owner had a debt of 3.800 euros to a company managing property maintenance expenses.
The father, a 55-year-old man with three minor children, has been long-time unemployed and unable to repay the debt.
The company decided to bring the 80-square-meter apartment to auction with starting price at 15,000 euro.
The union of notaries normally refrains from attending auctions of the first residence. However, in this case, a permission was given.
The auction has been averted for now.
In times of economic crisis, apartment owners in multi-story buildings see their debts growing month by month due to the shared maintenance expenses covering cleaning, electricity and water consumption, elevator use, possible garden maintenance and heating in winter.
I know of several people who hit by unemployment or pension cuts are not able to pay such expenses that can be an average of 50 euro in summer time and double or triple in winter.
The inability to pay such expenses has led to arguments among apartment owners, arguments that often end up in the court rooms.
Especially, those multi-story buildings using heating oil have stopped to use it in the last couple winters, since 2012.
In Greece of bailout programs and loan agreements, there are thousands of people who see no way out.
I know it is crazy. In our apartment the natural gas is shared across the whole apartment so if someone doesn’t pay the whole apartment suffers.
It’s really crazy.
In civilized countries, natural gas is indiviual, meaning there is a meter per flat in the apartment so if someone doesnt pay, it doesn’t matter.
This whole koinochrista thing in GR is an absolute mess. The only shared expenses should be the elevator of the apartment and electricity.
I had a big fight with my utility manager the other day, she wants the bill of 420 EUR in CASH.
I told her i can only do bank transfer. She said if i dont pay her cash she will cut off the gas = )
Greece is falling apart.
with the new law (I reported about in Jan) you can have your own private natural gas connection – cost appr 3,000 euro, can be subsidized under circumstances.
Utility managers can be taxed for the money they collect via bank accounts.
Yes who wants to pay 3000 EUR right now.
I spoke with my lawyer about that. He told me no, as long as they issue a reciept for the money (they do) then they have no issue with the tax office if they investigate it as they can prove they are the utility manager.
Who has 420 EUR in cash these days? What a joke. Also the utility woman said she is paying the 1200 EUR gas bill for the whole apartment in cash, which is illegal!
I thought you ‘ve said many times you buy your groceries cheap and save money.
That’s the point. I don’t spend money recklessly. The issue here is cash, I refuse to pay people in cash, only bank transfer.
then solution is simple: enjoy an apartment without heating.
The Greek solution.
stay with the German solution: share and cost either with heating oil or gas.
This reminds of fans of Greece who love Greece “so much but would love it so much better without Greeks” but this was long, long ago. All these jerks woke up and invited their neighbours or simply talked to them or went home to cry in a taverna but even the latter somehow understood their mistake as otherwise one would find many books about it.