AEA Community Charge

Just  checked my Spanish bank account Friday 9/3/07. Another payment has been taken out  904.90 Euros, I have a 2 bed phase 1 appartment. Does anyone know are we due to pay this month, I only paid 358.02 Euros in January.

Seems a lot,   that security guard is getting paid well.

Anyone with any comments, I will be ringing Monday, keep you informed.

Cheers

Mark

Just for info:  we completed on 6th February this year and paid the 300 Euros for the fund, plus 351 for the first quarter community fees.  Having queried something with AEA they sent me the account sheet (for us) which showed the next quarter's payment due, of 351 Euros!!  I am now waiting to hear from them as to why the first quarter's payment wasn't correctly calculated, to take into account the fact that we weren't even owners in January!!!

I just wanted to bring this to the attention of all who are due to complete - and maybe those who have completed and were incorrectly charged.

Needless to say, we will probably have a lengthy wait to hear anything, but in the meantime are withholding the second quarter payment.

Joy to deal with, aren't they!!!




This message was last edited by Pitby on 5/8/2007.

Jan ..in a word No. They messed up a few of our payments recently. I hesitate to say this but if your quarterly fee is €351 and you have a standard 2 bed 2 bath apartment then the fees have been reduced. When i first signed the fees were over €600 per q , reduced late last year to €500. I need to check mine again.

John, that's why we didn't query the first community charge, as I had read here that the quarterly payment for a standard two bed/two bath was approx. 500 euros, so we thought they had in fact apportioned it appropriately.

I do realise though that the charges will drop as more people complete, which is obviously what is happening.  I recall GaryB saying that his initial charges were really high also.  But to be honest,  I've never understood why that should be, especially if we're all putting the same amount into the "sinking fund".

I still have to receive full accounts, etc., from AEA - no documents were given to our lawyers, even though AEA said they were!!  Anyone help there???

Jan

I am at aloss sometimes to understand how it is calculated. Apparantly when an apartment is ready community chgarges are then payable either by the developer or the owner. Unsold proprties are still paid for by the developer. So as more apartments are released then immediately we should see a benefit. But last time it changed AEA wrote to explain this and sent a list with everybody's name in phase 1 on it and their charges. ( no such thing as data protection here!!!)..but i have heard nothing since. I will check my account to see what went out .

John, it's due to all the comments on here about AEA that we instructed our lawyer, specifically, NOT to sign any direct debit for AEA.  Until we get clarification of what the charges should have been for the first quarter and what we are actually paying for now (besides common utilities, cleaning, landscaping and security for those areas/blocks completed!!) we won't be paying anything to AEA!!

Personally, we think that the sooner we gain control over the development and can make appropriate decisions about AEA the better!  They are employed by the owners/developer, and it's such a shame that, at the moment, the owners are in the minority and the developers are pulling the strings.

Jan. I couldn't agree any more with you as lack of accountability is a trait of AEA it seems. I tend to tak ethe same view as some others in that it is not in the developer's interest to see the village not being looked after properly. A t this moment they need AEA to do a good job so they can sell all their stock.

This message was last edited by JC1 on 5/9/2007.

I signed 23rd Jan and was billed 294.84 euros on 9/3/2007 and the billed 390.30 on 2/4/207 which seems a lot of money in a short space of time. My quarterly charge is 390.30.

My analysis shows the following:-

From the 23rd Jan until the end of March is 68 days out of  90. 68/90 x 390.30 = 294.80 i.e. first payment is spot on.

Second payment paid on 2/4/2004 is second quarter in advance. again correct.

So for me all looks ok so far.

I have the quota fees for a number of blocks 1,2,3,4,7,8,9,10,12,13,14

This message was last edited by manilvajl on 5/9/2007.

Jeff, would really appreciate the quota you have for block 10.  If you need my email address, PM me.  If they are able to bill you correctly, then what happened with us???

Still haven't heard from them about this, so shall be chasing them up soon!

Jeff

I am waiting for this info to be sent by AEA but would like to see block 4 data. I think you have my email address.

Also I think you might be able to say from the lists how many units are sold, as they would have a name against the apartment, The list i last saw showed no names against those units still not sold. If you could see what that ratio was we might be able to be in a position to begin running the community and AEA ourselves.

regards

 

John info in the ether. I have no data on how many sold.

They know me in the DV office, but if somebody asks for list of whats still available they may give it out. I might ask when I am there in July.

I have looked at Horizontal Law and I think the President can be forced to hold a meeting on the basis that they must a meeting once a year to approve budget as a minimum:-

 

Jeff

Thanks. Received it this morning and glad to see it has gone down to a near reasonable figure. Lets hope when phase 3 is up and running it reduces further.

So what we need to find out is the population of owners , their names and then canvas for am AGM as I am sure we are over 25% mark. That assumes that an AGM is not already being arranged. Do you know when the anniversary is of the formation of the community?  It must be soon I believe. ? I will ask our mutual friend JohnH.

 

 

 

Dear Jeff & John,

According to the Spanish documents I have the Act of Constitution was dated 24th November 2005 and was filed at the Registry on 21 Dec 2005 so it would appear an AGM is well overdue.

The document appears to state that on completion each owner will contribute € 300 towards a sinking fund for future maintenance and this appears to be totally separate from the quarterly charges.

As it is now some time since the meeting in AEA's offices and we still have not had any audited accounts I think a deputation (either in person or by email) is required to get them to get off their backsides and start acting in our interests instead of the developers.

I will be in Spain from Tuesday evening until Saturday if anyone wants to meet up to discuss further.

Regards to all

Michael I arrive in the evening of friday 18th so it might be difficult to meet unless its saturday morning but you will be leaving that day. Let me know what you think.

Michael,

I think the 300€ is a standard starting point with a community before a full budget is established. We did this in my community in Manilva 5 years ago, but within a few months (5) a budget was established and the annual amount was set and the 300 absorbed into the total and so we paid excess. It does not matter whether you pay the 300 standalone or included in a full year total. The promoter/builder may have paid the first 300 (and then full amount) if the property is unsold at completion time.

The reason an amount has to be paid early into a pot is because I think a community cannot go into debt under Horizontal Law.

Just a note for those interested!  We specifically instructed out lawyers not to give AEA a Direct Debit for community fees as we wanted to monitor these and pay them direct.  After we transfered (from our account here in the UAE) our first payment to AEA, we then noticed a debit to our spanish bank account this month and discovered that AEA had debited directly the second quarter's payment.  It transpired that our lawyers had mistakenly sent AEA our bank details BUT the real problem is how did the bank allow AEA to debit our account without an authorised Direct Debit???  All they had was our bank account number!!!

We bank with Banco Andalucia in Duquesa Port and obviously there are many who do likewise who are owners in developments administered by AEA - hence, they probably submit a long list of account numbers with values next to them when they collect funds.  But who, at the bank, ensures that they have authority to do so!?

We are in the throes of dealing with this with the bank - can anyone who has our bank account number just debit money from our account wily nilly??????  "Not impressed" doesn't really express our feelings at the moment!!

To all those wanting to pay on demand rather than to issue a DD to AEA - beware!!  Make sure your bank (hopefully more professional than Banco Andalucia) will be more careful!!


This message was last edited by Pitby on 5/22/2007.

Jan,

 

That is seriously scary.  Keep us updated with the response you get in dealing with this.

 

Caroline

Carolinej

Will do - am dealing with it now!!  Just make sure that your bank account details are not released to AEA, if you want to pay upon invoice/direct yourselves.  Our solicitor apologised profusely and is dealing with it!!  It  was another employee in their firm that faxed the details to AEA!!

Be armed!!

Not only aea have your bank details but so does the water company and electric company. I have dd's to all these.

Hi John, yes, we didn't have a problem with DDs for the utilities, just didn't want AEA having easy access to our funds!!!

We've been advised now by AEA that they will delete our information from their database (??).  So let's see if it work!