Expenses rise again in December/Demian today
Expenditures will arrive in 30-35 percent increments in December, the month in which a bonus of 20 percent of the basic fees charged by building managers and half the Christmas bonus will be paid, the La Plata Federations Chamber of Directors report said.
These amounts are being paid as part of a joint agreement reached in recent weeks.
In this way, buildings with managers will have to face an increase of up to 35 percent between salaries and other operating costs that have increased (maintenance bonuses, cleaning supplies, among other items).
Under the salary agreement, those who earn 1 million pesos in December will receive an additional 200,000 pesos for year-end bonus and 500,000 pesos half bonus, sources from the consortium’s room of directors in La Plata explained.
Expenditures have seen growth slightly higher than the inflation rate recorded in this year 2025. However, Sebastian Libanon, president of the local Chamber of Consortium Directors, explained that the value of expenses in La Plata does not represent 30 percent of rents, as happens in the autonomous city of Buenos Aires.
Regarding late payment, sources from the Chamber confirmed that the late payment rate is about 20 percent in the city. In many cases, 10% of them are chronic defaulters, while the other 10% are called “rotating”. And in this last batch are those who lag behind for a few months and then catch up in a short time. In this case they are not always the same.
“The level of delinquencies remains high, although the increase in the dollar before the elections helped reduce debts, because many owners sold the dollar to catch up,” they explained from the local chamber of consortium managers. As indicated, there has been significant regulation in the last six months, both for the sale of properties with debts and for direct agreements between owners and administrators.
According to the latest records, the level of delinquency is still around 17 percent in the autonomous city of Buenos Aires, and is similar in most parts of the Buenos Aires province, although in closed neighborhoods it reaches 18 percent, according to specialists in the sector. The stranding of La Plata, which exceeds these values, is of concern to local officials, as the federations must cover ordinary expenses (cleaning, maintenance, services, salaries) and extraordinary expenses (repairs, equipment replacement, reserve funds).
A lawyer specializing in horizontal ownership and consortia said, “The expense is the blood that feeds the consortium. Without the expense, the system will collapse.” The professional stressed that officials have a legal obligation to file legal action if payments are not made.
The lawyer, one of the advisors to the local administration room, pointed out that “there are many cases that end in trial, but they do not reach the judicial auction of the property because the agreement is made after a judicial ruling in the civil and commercial courts.”
Defaults in building unions are a very sensitive indicator of the overall economic situation. Therefore, there may be several possible scenarios in the short and medium term – some of which are already visible in different cities in the country – depending on how household income and construction costs develop.
Payment delinquencies can increase if fixed costs continue to rise. Associations have expenses that grow month by month: common expenses for managers, travel and additional expenses, services, maintenance, insurance, water and power supply and elevators.
They explained that when expenses rise above owners’ salaries, many neighbors begin to prioritize other obligations, and delinquencies tend to escalate.
One effect that is always feared in this area is the possibility of a “cascading effect”, with an increase in chronic defaulters and a decrease in the reserve fund, which could result in those who pay having to confront income shortfalls as expenses rise, among other consequences.