This article is published in the journal Polis, No 03/2013, in the issue dedicated to current problems of  housing sector reforms in Serbia. Polis is the journal for public policy, published by the Palgo Center from Belgrade, in cooperation with the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities. 
 

A problem of maintenance of condominium buildings emerged with the mass privatization of public housing stock. Still current transitional laws on housing, the anachronic property relationships and the unregulated newly established condominium  property, the culture of living and the attitude towards property, inherited from the socialist period, the regulations for which there is no determination to be implemented, the withdrawal of the state from the housing sector and extremely low investment in maintenance – all this has led to a trend of accelerated decay of housing stock, reduced value of individual and national capital and endangering of people’s lives and health. This problem, which is immanent to most countries in the post-socialist transformation, requires a comprehensive reform and incremental introduction of adequate legislation and practice.