Service Charges at Condado ??

Afternoon

With all the mass completions and general good news currently awash over the forum, does anyone have an idea what the Polaris service charges will be on Condado once completion has taken place ??

Anyone got any up to date info on when charges will start and how much they will be monthly ??

Many Thanks
Mark

Hi Mark,

I assume by service charges you mean community fees.  If so, then for what it's worth and for comparison purposes the following is what I pay for a 2-bedder on Villamartin Golf just outside Torrevieja (I'm purchasing on Golf Suites).  The Community of Owners, set up by the owners themselves following substantial completetion of the urbanisation, fixed a quarterly community fee for each property based upon the floor area.  My apartment is 76 m2, and I currently pay Euros 170 per quarter.  This covers insurance (of the public areas), pool and garden  maintenance, water and electricity for public areas, general repairs, and admin +VAT. This is reviewed annually depending on the auditors report.   Because some property owners allowed their facades to fall into disrepair, which affected residents and holiday lets, we have an additional reserve fund of Euros 30 per quarter which covers  painting.  This way all the properties are maintained in a consistant and presentable condition, and are the same colour!!   So we are looking at Euros 200 per quarter.  Bear in mind that  Villamartin Golf has been established for many years with all facilities up and running.  Condado will hopefully exceed the success enjoyed by other golf communities, but it will take time.  I don't wish to put a spanner in the works, but some contributors to the forum have intimated rental returns of c300 - 400 per week.  I reckon it will be a couple of years before Condado can achieve anything like this, and for some owners, it will be limited to maybe 15 weeks a year; there will be hundreds of properties in the ''to-let'' columns.

I will finish the bottle now, retire, read this again in the morning and no doubt regret the negatives.

keeve

Hi Keeve,

This roughly fits in with the amounts PW told me when we were out in April. They quotes 50 - 70 Euro per month for a 2 bed apartment. 

It will be interesting to see how the charges are fixed. 
For example :- Will it be for each individual garden's committee to decide or will there be a Jardines De Alhama rate decided for all garden owners.

hope you enjoyed the rest of the bottle.

Phil

Just Found this on another forum.

Thought it may help people concerned about community fees.


"The Spanish Law is very clear on this. Owners on urbanisations are legally obliged to make a financial contribution to the community. In the case of Hacienda Riquelme (and other similar resorts) the fee per apartment is determined by the size of the building in comparison to the overall resort, as per the records held at the Land Registry.

Each apartment within each building is then required to make a contribution based on the square meterage as detailed in the Escritura. This is all detailed under the horizontal property act under Spanish Law. 

Spanish Law is very strict in cases of non-payment and can empower the community to reposess properties if payments are not made. Sometimes banks make mistakes and clearly there is a process which has to be followed to enable mistakes to be rectified, however, if an owner clearly states that the will not pay - for whatever reason, then the process to recover funds is swift!"

Phil

Phil,

As long as I can remember there have been debtors within my community in Villamartin.  Some, as you say, have been inadvertantly put in that position due to mix ups with their banks and are quickly put right.  Others unfortunately simply refuse to acknowledge their financial responsibilities which in turn eventually falls to the other owners.  The Administrator appointed by the community of owners will chase up debts and take legal action to recover monies.  I expect  there will be several communities formed in Jardines, possibly appointing the same Administrator, though the owners can take advice on that.  I'm sure several owners will have been involved in communities on other urbanisations.

keeve

Dont we just pay direct to Polaris? I thought there's a Polairs form we sign and provide Bank Account details  and that covers security, refuge collection, gardening, pool maintenance and property painting. Have we misunderstood this? I know some developments generate their own committee to gather fees and administer maintenance of the development/Garden or area they are in but isnt that when they are residential rather than a resort. Would welcome input on these points as various pieces we are reading has confused us

We remember our Polaris agent talking about individual gardens generating rules for the use of the play area and pool and at that time they still had those BBQ areas. He also talked about collecting money for any pool furniture/benches the gardens may want for communal use but thats not the same as community charges is it?

 

Hi Jan & Mike

Maybe worth you asking Carol if she can get some clarification on this whilst she is out there, if she has time?

ADDED TO LIST

Mu understanding from another forum for the other developments is that PW will control the site until that part of the development is complete. At some time, no doubt decided by PW, they then transfer control of the site across to comittees who establish the community fees etc. PW do keep overall control though and can step in at anytime if they are unhappy with the way things are being run.

Do we have anyone who has previously purchased on another PW develpoment that can help on  this please????

Phil

Hi yes- it'd be good to have this a bit clearer as we have been presuming all along its a monthly payment direct to PW and set by PW. Maybe someone at La Torre can help out as well, as I know they started paying just before Christmas and I think that information sort of fixed this in our minds as another Polaris debt..

I have a contact on Mar menor who can find out about La Torre as he always gets my accommodation osrted for when I go stay, will ask him this week to find out what he can about how La Torre works.......Added to list 

We did fill in a form with our completion documents for our community fees and I think that these were payable to Polaris World.

After reading the La Torre forums and Hacienda forums it seems that initially Polaris choose the company who will be the community administrators. In La Torre the owners representatives have just  taken over the Community responsibilities from PW and appointed a new Administrator of their choice rather than the PW appointed one. When they took over they started with a large debt.  I have also read somewhere that La Torre has saved 1m€ by changing administrators and changing some of the contractors

Mar menor are now running their Community affairs and EV are in the early throes of starting to organise. PW will continue to be elected and run our Community affairs and set our budgets and charges unless the owners start to organise themselves to take control over their own Community affairs. The budgets alone, if you can get to see the figures from PW, will run into millions of euros every year. 

Thanks for this info- its clearer now. This must be why we thought we paid PW direct but it also explains where the committee develops from.