apartment (condominium?) accounting

[Liz]

On Tue, 01 Nov 2016 10:21:50 +0000
Bram Mertens <mertensb.mazda at gmail.com> wrote:

> Now that I own an apartment I need to register some additional
> transactions and I couldn't find any information on this yet so I'm
> hoping for some pointers and advice.
> 
> I'm new both at owning an apartment and Gnucash and unfamiliar with
> the English terms so I'll try to explain as best as I can.  I've used
> wikipedia to get the translations for some terms.
> 
> The Homeowner association has appointment a company to manage the day
> to day operations of the building. In Dutch this is called a
> "syndicus", I believe the English term would be trustee or syndicate.

Before we go any further, you have explained excellently the functions
of the parties, although the terms you have tried to use don't fit my
(Australian) experience.
What is not discussed is the legal status of the homeowners'
association.
Here the "Body Corporate", recently renamed "Owners Corporation" is a
legal entity. Because of that, I as an individual member of the owners
corporation do not own any part of the funds of the corporation.
There is no need for me to account for any part of my holding.

The other terms used /here/:
The company appointed for day to day management is a "strata management
agent".
The bank account for the general day to day things is "administrative
fund" and the account for the long term maintenance is a "sinking fund".

I doubt if other English speaking areas use the same terms!

Liz