On April 12, 2023, and pursuant to the first transitory article of Law No. 21.442, on Real Estate Co-ownership (“Law”), the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (“Minvu”) published in the Official Gazette the approval of the text of the “Standard Rules of Co-ownership” (“Standard Rules”). The purpose of these Regulations is to provide specific rules to those condominiums that do not have their own co-ownership regulations. Thus, the text prepared by the Minvu will be applicable as a regulation for those condominiums that were created before the entry into force of the Law, or which, having arisen thereafter, originate in a community that does not imply co-ownership under the terms of the aforementioned Law. Likewise, it will be applicable if a regulation has not been issued one year after the publication of the Law.

These Regulations regulate all the relevant matters as required by the Law, among which we highlight the following novelties or modifications:

• Possibility of electing qualified administrators.
• Modification in the execution of debtors of common expenses;
• Telematic assemblies or meetings are allowed and the participation of tenants is added;
• Pets are allowed in the units, as long as they are appropriate to the environment, hygiene and surface area of the unit, and,
• Collective fire insurance, among others.

On this matter, we must remember that, according to Article 100 of the Law, condominiums under the old law will be governed by the Law and, consequently, are obliged to adjust their internal regulations in accordance with the Law, an obligation that must be complied with within one year from the publication of the latter.

However, the Law itself states that its regulations must be issued within 12 months from the publication of the Law, which has not occurred to date. As a consequence of the above, the Executive Secretariat of Condominiums, through its Circular No. 2, has instructed that the 12-month term to issue or update the co-ownership regulations must be counted from the date of publication of the Regulations of the Law, which has not occurred to date. Therefore, the period for each condominium to modify its bylaws has not yet begun to run.

Should you require additional information on this matter, please contact Sven Herlin (sherlin@jdf.cl), and/or Julio Trucco (jtrucco@jdf.cl).