Buenos Aires Tenants and Owners now get to control their apartment building online

The head of the Government of Buenos Aires, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, today presented the new free online platform “Consorcio Participativo”, which will allow tenants and owners to access information on the administration of the building where they live or rent out to participate in a virtual way in the assemblies and control common expenses.

“The platform represents a very important advance in terms of transparency and in the professionalization of the administrators,” said Rodríguez Larreta during the presentation.

The official said that the tool “will allow the settlement of expenses, payment of salaries to staff, check expirations, issue communiqués to co-owners and even carry a ticket system for claims or complaints made by neighbors.”

“Participative Consortium”, which will start operating in January 2018 and can be accessed on any computers, tablet, or smart phone. It will be exclusively for the inhabitants of each building and must be enabled by an administrator with a legal registration, who must also generate a user for each apartment.

Online, neighbors will be able to obtain the body corporate regulations, pay their expenses, control the doorman costs (Porteros), repair budgets, insurance policies and other documentation related to the obligations of the administrator, who will be in charge of keeping the information updated.

“This system brings every neighbor into the management of the administrator, enabling conditions of transparency and security to be ensured within the consortium,” said Facundo Carrillo, Secretary of Citizen Attention and Management.

In order to increase participation in the body corporate assemblies, voting on the topics discussed will be open on the platform for two or three days prior.

Objections against the new rules

However,  the organization Tenants Agrupados warned that “more than a virtual platform is necessary is to control the administrations than through a body such as Consumer Defense, where complaints often not followed up.”

“We also want to add that the expenses can go up month by month without any justification,” Télam Gervasio Muñoz, a spokesman for the organization, told Télam.

Also, as part of the project and through an agreement between the Government of Buenos Aires and Banco Ciudad, the consortiums will be able to obtain a free current account for the payment procedures they carry out, which will allow a saving of 7,000 pesos on average per year for each building “, according to estimates of the Secretariat of Attention and Citizen Management.

In addition, the City Bank will grant to the consortia soft credit lines for maintenance works and arrangements in common parts.