I recently received this post from one of our friends on Arenal Golf, if you go into Arenal golf you can read the whole thread.
However this is what he pm'd me, which I feel may be of interest to those of us who have completed and curious to what our community charges may be.
We have a 2 bedroom 2 bathroom apartment on Arenal Golf. The community charge is based on the size of your apartment ,parking and storage areas. We completed on our apartment in April. Paid €300 into the community fund which really just goes to boost the fund. We were not charge community charges until Nov and then five withdrawls of aprox €74 were taken from our account and none has been taken since. They told me it would be taken on the first of the month but they don`t seem to take it on a monthly basis.
The charge also depends on the number of pools, size of communal gardens, tennis courts etc. The more expensive the upkeep the higher the charge. We have a golf course which is not open yet and we are expecting the charge to increase when it does.
Friends of ours on the same developement but on a different phase are paying €56 per month. Other phases have had an overspens by their administration and have had their charges almost doubled for a few months to make up the shortfall. I don`t like this idea as they seem to just take the revised amount from your bank without ant proper explanation.
When your community is set up proper and you have a president, vice president etc. You will decide upon a yearly budget. If you can keep within the budget then you can keep your fees under control If you go over budget then thats when the problems start.
The community charge has to cover the cost of the upkeep of all communal areas, cleaning, electric. gardens, pools, tennis,golf if you have it.,repairs, life guards, security.etc The list goes on. One of our phases decided to close one pool for a period of time in order to reduce costs to stay within budget.
This is not to say what our charges will be but it does give a guide.