Furniture Stores

Thank you Daffers, you have given us all a good guide. I have read the problems that have been experienced within the El Hacho community concerning fees and how they have been spent.

One of my concerns is that our development is barely occupied, in the units that have been offered for completion. The other blocks are still awaiting completion of the 'El Penoncilo Road' which is taking forever and a day... one problem after another has resulted in the other part of our development not gaining completion go ahead for the purchasers. What happens to the service/community charge when only 29% (approx) of a block is occupied and the surplus is owned by the developer??? Presumably the developer pays difference???

Hi Laurdan:

I am not sure when ours started, as we didn't buy off plan, but a completed property that had never been occupied.

As I understand it the development was completed in late 2004, and we bought in Aug 2005 and the community had already been formed at that time.

I think it is usual in Spain for the first president of a community to be the developer, it certainly was in our case, and any unsold properties the developer picks up the community charge for. Indeed in our case the developer hung on to approx 25 properties, hoping to sell at a higher price, and which are still unsold, and they are responsible for charges, that is if you can get the money from them.

In addition to the community it is usual to have an agent to manage the community, collect charges and pay suppliers etc., and the biggest one around Duquesa is AEA, which is in the port.

One additional point I should make you aware of is the initial budget. In our case in 2005 the budget was substantially under estimated, to such an extent that in 2006 and 2007 we had to pay a catchup payment of approx. 500 euros per year to get us back on line.

If, when your community is formed and the budget is less than the amount we pay, which incidentally is collect every 3 months, I would suggest that you accrue for our amount, as I don't see that your costs will be substantially different from ours.

Daffers,

Can you confirm the management charge for 12 monts is 2600 euros?

Hi Pdrich1:

Yes we currently pay 650 euros per quarter, which amounts to 2600 annually

This is a bit worrying, because in our case, as Tracey has stated, only a minority of apartments have been sold.  This leaves us at the mercy of the developer to set the fees.  I am sure our initial fee was 300 euros when we completed.  I expected about 1000 euros max.

Paul.

Hi Pdrich1:

I would expect the developer to set the budget low, as in our case, this way they would contribute less for the unsold apartments, and hope that they sold some by the time the budget catches up.

Even so, I would suggest you accrue (budget) for our amount, then you won't get caught out with a surprise, like we did.

I know our costs on the face of it might appear high, it's not until you put it down on paper do you realise just how much the on costs are, but I can assure you I have given you accurate amounts.