Habitation License

I have a phase 2 property which was contracted to be completed in Dec 2005 (10 months late). I have seen that some of you have pushed and got your money back on just 5 months late completion with interest.

My solictor told me the developer would not cancel the contract but will give some compensation. I think its in my solictors interest to complete to get his whole fee. A lady in th DV office in the port told me I was entitled to the money back plus 6% (I assume for a whole year late).

The payments that were made to make up the 30% seem to include IVA. I assumed that IVA would be paid on completion.

Can anybody tell me if I should get the IVA back as well?

I am at present looking at asking for my money back or whether to keep it for rental income and I am going to build spreadsheet to analyse the cost vs income. If anybody is interested in this let me know.

The community fees seem to be high at present compared to the community in Manilva where I have a townhouse and we pay 1200 per year which includes 300 towards a painting fund. If anybody is concerned about high fees in DV I may be able to help as I have been President of my community for over 2 years and losok at the accounts every month. Other large communities pay about 2000 per year where they have good facilities, lifts, heated pools, security etc.

talking to Gary B who also has another property locally he agrees that the fees are high - although I gather that for the first year they set them higher to build a reserve fund. As I understand each year we can meet and decide if we re-elect the manager to get a new one - is that right? may be worth considering!

Nick

Just to follow up on the community fees. Ref Nick's comments.I would have thought the larger the community the lower the individual costs due to the economies of scale etc. Duquesa Suites have large overheads due to the number of pools and extensive gardens and a relatively small community of approx 250. I believe they pay around 1200 euros per annum.The current 2,400 Euros for a 2 bedroom 3,200 for 3 at DV seems excessive. Presumably when phase 2 is released the costs will come down?

Everything at DV seems to being put through AEA who should manage the suppliers on behalf of the community.  However at present AEA do not seem to be accountable to anyone and their service is poor. I understand that the Duquesa Suites community have also experienced poor service and told AEA that they have until Xmas to get their act together otherwise they will look for another management company. If they cannot handle 250 at DS how will they manage an additional 600 at DV?

The builder is supposed to set up the community and run it for the 1st 12 months. We've heard nothing about the DV community, does anybody know when the community will be set up and who the contacts will be?

Maybe we need a new thread for the community and AEA.

John & Jacqui

You are right the economy of scale should bring the cost down. In my current community the builder formed the community and at the first AGM 300 euros per house was agreed between the builder and the administrator in Feb 2002, as each house was purchased this cost moved to the house owner and the builder got his 300 back. This worked very well, because if 10 of 15 houses are sold for example the builder still owns 5 of them so he has to pay.

We took possesion of the house in March 2002 and in July 2002 we had an EGM because the administator was a pal of the builder and he was slow to fix issues. At the EGM we invited a new administrator and we/she agreed to switch and she took control. We set a new budget of 700 euros, it now 900 plus 300 for a painting fund. We have had this administrator for 3 plus years and they are very good. During this time we had a number of 1000 euro plus projects for improvements all paid out of the fund with no additional cost. This year we added a one payment of 450 euros per house to put pool heating in. With our budget we set it 20% higher and give 20% discount for payment within 30 days (this virtually eliminated debt !!) and we split the payment in two 6 month bills.

The start up of any community is (should be) the most difficult time, it then settles down.

You can call a an EGM at time as required......have a look at the Horizontal Property Act, I have inserted the clause below from Section 16 of the Act

(1) The meeting of the general assembly shall be held at least once a year to approve the budget and the accounts, and in any other time the president sees fit or upon request of 25 percent of the unit owners or a number representing, at least, 25 percent of the assessment quotas.

At this site and many others on the web.

http://www.eyeonspain.com/spain-magazine/horizontal-laws.pdf#search=%22horizontal%20property%20act%20english%22

The community set their own budget and agree accounts, but you need to cover all costs, must no got into debt, and establish a reserve fund. Read the Act when you cannot sleep is only about 18 pages.

As a member you can ask to see a copy of the accounts. As President of my community I get an email each with the accounts and I check for any anomolies and I offer the accounts to the other members.

Hope this helps. Jeff

Very helpful - I'll start so others can pick this up

Nick