Community Charge Debts

Hmm - interesting! We have appeared on the list of debtors for the community charge and have today received a letter demanding payment from a debt collection company. Quite right, I hear you say. Except....we have been paying the CC on a quarterly basis since we took the property on at the end of Oct 2009. We have the bank receipts to prove this. So, hubby telephoned the debt collection company to inform them of this. Later on today we got a call from them to say that the payments had indeed been received on time by AEA and then had been returned to our Caixanova bank account. Funny, we didn't notice any credits to our account. So we checked with our account manager. Nope, no payments returned to our account. The plot thickens, but our account manager smells a rat. So do the debt collection company - and the smell isn't coming from here!

I'll keep you informed - but this could be the reason for the high level of debt. AEA need to have a darn good look at their admin.

That's very worrying.  Do keep us informed.

Are you not, responsible/ or take on the debts, incurred by the previous owner?

Chills

 Your solicitor should check if debt exists on the property before you buy/complete.

However its not unusual for this to happen if there is anything wrong with bank codes, reference numbers etc. it may not be an AEA problem. Check that the reference on the DD has your apartment number on and which community.

ie DV Block x, Escalera y, Apartment z

DV x,y,z

If it cannot be reconciled it may be rejected. The banks make errors as well when the DD is not properly set up. 

I have written about this before. we appear on the debtors list and when I checked bank statements we are up to date for payments. I have emailed AEA on a number of occasions and not had a reply. However we have not had a letter from debt collection, so maybe they have put it right for us. A case of watch this space.

We have provided the debt collection company with full evidence that we have paid our charges up to date and they are satisfied with this. They are investigating the matter further at their end and will ensure that we are not bothered by any more letters.

Chills, we are most definitely not responsible for any debts incurred by the previous owner - these should have been settled when the funds were transferred. If someone has messed up, it's over to them. Not us!

From the way AEA have responded to bad debtors, I would think that any debt against your property, maryluv, sounds as though it may well actually be against the previous owner (don't know whether you bought from the developer or a resale).  AEA do take time to take action and if you completed late last year, I think it may well be the case that it is a debt incurred prior to your purchase completion.

I'm not sure, but I think chills is correct, in that the debt passes to the new owner if not paid before you complete - although, obviously, if it transpires this is about a debt incurred by the previous owner, then your solicitor should be able to explain.

Just to let everyone know, the debt was indeed incurred by the previous owner and we are not liable for it. Out solicitor has spoken with AEA to clarify this.

Glad to hear you got it settled. It seems incredible that the previous owners were allowed to sell without settling up!

Caroline

 I was just wondering if there is a time limit on collection of debt by the community. I read somewhere that the time limit is 3 years for debt collection in Spain. Does anyone know if it applies to the Community charges?

Thanks

If the owner defaults on the mortgage and the bank take ownership of the property then the bank is only liable for the current year and the previous year charges.

The commiunity then have to persue the debtor without security and that also means in the courts of their home country if they are not in Spain.  This is more costly to recover but if successful we do recover costs also.

Where we lose out is when the debtor is declared as bankcrupt.   Sadly we should expect that to happen for a good few of our debtors.  For this reason the community needs to start to build a surplus - which we are now doing.  The surplus will also be needed for the repainting which should only happen after repairs to stop leaks and water penetration that are often the route cause of the paint peeling and/or discolouration. 

The debtor figures continue to look worrying.  It seems about 10% or owners have abandoned their apartments.