The first Assembly will soon be called by the Developer to hand over the condo to the owners.
This is a very important and very legally binding step.
All Owners must be aware of the legal situation regarding any actions voted on that day.
These byelaws or local rules will become the law of the condo and cannot be changed without a formal assembly of owners to deal.
If the Assembly votes for no dogs then no dogs are allowed to be kept on the condo for example.
The President has no options but to apply such rules if in place, and courts will up hold these rules 99% of the time. Providing they are Legal.
This is sometimes not understood by owners, a rule can be passed correctly by an assembly but in fact is over ruled by higher law.
Example is; the owners agree to speed limits of 60kmh this is done at an assembly and is therefore technically legal for the condo. Of course the Spanish alw states 20 kmh and so the higher law would be the one that counted.
I want to advise you of the situation of the Administrator being selected and offered to the condo at the assembly. Although this is good that we have an Administrator, it is unknown as to the contract details regarding his duties etc.
It is very stronly recommended from passed experiences of this situstion that you all consider a byelaw that states; The President/Board of directors ( depends on the make up of the Board), has the power to recruit, dismiss, hire or reinstate all employees and or contractors including the Administrator.
This allows your Board to run the condo without having to call an assembly each time action is required.
If you do not like the Board having such powers you really should not vote them in! The need to be able to run the day to day business without calling special meetings is important to you all. The cost of official meetings is veryhigh and time consuming. The meeting has to be recorded with the public records office and a Notary has to make them legal, all of which cost lots of money.
I had an administrator when a condo president, that was voted in at the assembly and the results were as follows: He spent monies to purchase items that were in the budget without any contact with the board. This resuled in cheap quality items of high value and very high running cost being inflicted on the owners.
When I challenged this via our Lawyers, I was told that he could not be removed without an assembly being called, and he was within his role to spend agreed line items within the budget as the assembly had agreed the budget spend,
This may not happen here of course, but you must protect your rights at the assembly.
The fact the developer gained an opinion from some owners regarding the administrator is not binding, i is the assembly and your votes that count.
We want him but under our control and most certanily not added to the Board make up in any way, I doubt if any owner knows of his terms of work, and this is very important.
He is not an individual, he is in fact a service provider, in that he is head of a company. This means anyone in the company can carry out the work on his behalf, except representing his role in law.
He will not be dealing with day to day issues I am sure, more the legal and finance control of taxes etc.
Another issue is employees!!!!!
You must forget all the laws of the UK etc and understand the laws of Spain.
Employees here have far more rights than most other countries, the courts will 99.9% support the rights of the employee over the employer.
The social security payments, the holoday bonus and Christmas bonus add up to alot of extra cash. The social security is possibly 35% for example. The worker has set holidays and about 3 weeks bonus payments every year.
You also have to provide a retirement fund of a set % for workers that can be drawn after about 15 years. I think the allowance is 15 days pay per year worked.
I knew of a condo that had no such fund and found along serving gardener retire and the court found for him regarding the payments due. This resuted in the condo buying a small house to compensate for lack of funds reserved.
Employment also brings problems of sick cover and the need to provide tools and equipment etc.
Please think long and hard before you hire an employee, The better option is to contract in services.
Black market employment is often used here, be aware of the legal and financial dangers. You could face very high fines and be responsible for very high personal injury claims. (it is not unknown for such peolpe to have convienent accidents to make such claims).
The above applies to you as private individuals if you emply a maid or workman, make sure you know what is required and the laws of employment and termination.
This condo is a legal association and has many legal processes to go through.
One final point is the play area is not part of the condo due to the town hall ato the and developer agreeing the action. The roads and streets are under the control of the town hall.
This is good from the financial point of view. The condo do not have to fund them.
Of course nothing is for nothing in this world. The owners can not restrict parking or through traffic; they can not restrict play area activities or times. Thes also are part of the town halls control. All owners can do is complain to the Mayor like any other tax payer in the area.
Most owners would see their homes as both a place to live and an investment. This is only possible if you take steps to make sure the two are protected by a few common sense rules.
Your investment is affected by your location, your location is affected by your fellow home owners.
Things like uncontrolled pets and rubbish will not give ´Steet Appeal´ to the site.
I hope this has been of use to you all as we need to be ready for this assembly.
Regards John
This message was last edited by tedmelos on 12/20/2007.