How to activate a dormant VvE before it blocks a sale

A dormant Dutch owners' association (VvE) is breaking the law. It must keep a reserve fund; for housing the yearly contribution is at least 0.5% of the rebuild value or what a maintenance plan sets (article 5:126 Civil Code). Skipping Chamber of Commerce registration risks a fine of up to 27,500 euros.

There is an association you joined automatically the day you got your keys, one that has sat in the deed of division for decades, and that has never held a meeting, never collected a euro and has no bank account. That paradox is called a dormant VvE, and it looks harmless right up to the moment one of the owners wants to sell.

Dormancy, in other words, is a pile of unmet obligations rather than a quiet neutral state. The good news: activating a dormant VvE takes a few evenings and some paperwork, not a lawyer.

What is a dormant VvE?

A VvE comes into existence automatically the moment a notary splits a building into apartment rights. You do nothing to join and you cannot cancel the membership: it is attached to your apartment. What you can fail to do is anything at all with it, and that is exactly what happens in many small buildings. Dormant means, in practice: no meetings, no monthly contribution, no reserve fund, often no entry in the trade register and insurance policies nobody has looked at in years. You see it mostly in buildings with two to four apartments, where the neighbours know each other and sort everything out informally. That works for years. Until it doesn't.

Is activating a dormant VvE mandatory?

There is no article of law headed "duty to activate", but the separate obligations add up to the same thing. The reserve fund duty has carried a legal minimum contribution since 1 January 2018. And the Handelsregisterwet, the Dutch trade register act, names the owners' association among the legal entities that must be registered (article 6). An association that does nothing is therefore breaking the law by definition, even if nobody notices.

Note: not being registered is an economic offence in the Netherlands. The maximum fine is a fourth-category fine, 27,500 euros since 1 January 2026 (article 23 of the Criminal Code).

On top of that, Dutch law requires the building's regulations to deal with an annual operating account, the owners' contributions and the insurance of the building. Staying dormant conflicts not only with the law but with the very rules every owner accepted at purchase.

What are the risks of buying into a dormant VvE?

The biggest risk surfaces at the worst possible moment: the transfer at the notary's office.

The notary must attach to the deed a statement from the VvE board listing what the seller still owes the association and how large the reserve fund is (article 5:122). With no board, nobody can sign that statement, and with no fund, the figure on it is zero. The buyer and their lender see it in black and white a few days before completion. A sale that stalls or collapses at that point drags down the price of every apartment in the building, including those of owners who never planned to sell.

A dormant VvE also pushes maintenance ahead of itself without saving for it. When the roof finally does leak, the money has to appear in one go, and whoever just bought in foots a bill they never saw coming. Then there is liability: if a roof tile lands on a parked car, the joint owners are answerable, with or without a functioning association.

If you are eyeing an apartment in a dormant VvE, ask for minutes, annual accounts and the reserve fund balance before you sign anything. If none of that exists, you are buying a home plus an unpaid invoice of unknown size.

What steps does activation take?

Activating is mostly a matter of sequence and putting things in writing. This is the path that works in practice:

• Retrieve the deed of division and the applicable model regulations, from your own purchase file or the land registry
• Register the VvE with the KvK; that requires a board member, so combine this with the first meeting
• Invite all owners in writing to a first general meeting, with an agenda, and record every decision in minutes
• Appoint a board; unless the articles say otherwise, the law expects a single board member
• Open a bank account in the name of the VvE, separate from anyone's private money
• Adopt a budget and agree a monthly contribution, including the legally required reserve fund payment into a separate account
• Commission a long-term maintenance plan (MJOP) so the reserve matches what the building actually needs
• Check the insurance: buildings cover (opstalverzekering) for the whole property and liability cover for the VvE

That first meeting is the hinge: it gives every other step its formal basis. One pitfall from the field deserves its own mention: in dormant VvEs the buildings insurance frequently runs in the name of one owner privately. It looks sorted, but it does not cover the building the way the deed of division demands, so put transferring it to the VvE straight on the agenda. How to work out the contribution is explained in the mandatory reserve fund.

How do you keep the VvE awake without a professional manager?

A small building does not need a paid manager; it needs rhythm. Fix the annual meeting on a recurring date, collect the contribution by direct debit, keep minutes and accounts somewhere everyone can find them, and update the KvK entry at every change of board. Community management software such as Vecinly keeps agenda, documents and contributions in one place, so continuity no longer depends on one volunteer's ring binder. Whether your building can run without a manager at all is the subject of self-managing a small VvE.

Divide the tasks, too. One owner watches the account, another the maintenance. That way nobody carries it alone: the classic reason a freshly woken VvE nods off again within two years.

Activating a dormant VvE costs a few evenings, one registration and some discipline; staying dormant costs a multiple of that at the first sale or the first leak. Dig out the deed of division today and send the invitation for that first meeting: the hardest part will already be behind you.

Updated September 2026. This article covers the law of the Netherlands, is informative in nature and does not constitute legal advice.