The following information was received through contacts as Quara are doing the same at another of their developments in Villamartin area.
In essence it means that the builders – Quara – have taken the first step in officially handing over the sector in which we own properties to us as actual owners. That first step will be at the meeting to be held at Villamartin Golf Course on the 1 February 2008.
The date cannot be altered and the meeting will go ahead – it has been registered at a Notary - and despite what you may hear to the contrary the administrators actually only need give three days notice.
At the meeting there will be two calls for those present – the first call will be to see if there are enough present to form a quorum – only four although I do not know whether this has to be four separate people entitled to vote or a total of four voters – actually present or by proxy. If there are insufficient a further call will be made half an hour later and then the meeting will proceed no matter how few people are in attendance. As stated the meeting will go ahead.
If you cannot attend it is in your best interests to appoint a proxy voter. Without your attendance or a proxy vote you will not have any say in how your community is run for at least the next year.
The first order of business will be to establish the constitution of the community which is fairly standard – although I would strongly suggest that the name of the administrator is not actually mentioned within the constitution. Once the constitution is finalised it is almost impossible to get it altered and if Canovas are named it may prove very difficult to get them removed should the need arise – more on that later.
The next is the election of officials.
The only official that must be elected is the President, and his job will be to oversee the snags for anything on the community that needs to be fixed, liaise with the administrators and builders over all matters affecting communal areas, arrange for contractors to be appointed for gardening, pool maintenance, cleaning etc., (all of these will be with the assistance of the administrators) and generally be in charge of the community for at least a year.
It has been suggested that at least one Vice-President be elected but where communities have mixed housing – blocques of apartments as well as houses and apartments – it might be wise to have two Vice-Presidents, one with specific responsibility for their own particular area – of relevance when finance is involved.
There is no need for a Treasurer as some people have suggested but an Auditor to check the accounts at the end of each year might be a good idea.
Other than that there is no need for anyone else.
The next item on the agenda is finance and the administrators will set a budget for the year based on their experience of dealing with numerous other communities.
This budget will then be split between all the properties based initially on size of property so a three bedroom house will attract a higher rate than a two bedroom apartment, but where apartment blocques are involved there will be an additional expense as they will be required to cover the extra cost of cleaning the corridors and the upkeep and maintenance of the lifts – which are not used by other owners in the sector. Hence the suggestion that the blocques actually have their own Vice-President.
Finally, to any other business which most would assume will revolve around snagging and resolving all outstanding issues with regard the communal areas. Whilst it is essential that all snags are brought up to date as soon as possible, a site meeting will be scheduled with the President - or his representative – an architect from Quara and a member of the administrators for the next working day after the meeting. At that meeting all snags will be noted so it is essential that anything you have to say on this is made available either before the meeting or at the meeting.
The only other matter of importance which needs to be brought up is the thorny issue of Community Rules – both General and relating to the Pool. I have acquired a number of different versions over the past couple of years whilst running Canal Print and have managed to condense them down to the most salient points effectively on two sheets of A4 paper. These would need to be supplied to every property as well as being displayed prominently on external notice boards. Anyone wishing to see copies of the versions I have can request them direct from me.
It is expected that the meeting will last between one and a half and two hours.
There are one or two important points which need to be raised which do not come within the framework of the meeting itself.
Firstly the administrators, Canovas. Basically we have no option but to accept them for the first year.
I have had two totally differing opinion of them – one from a man who wished to remain nameless and his comments by email word for word were - Our adminstrators/community officials are called Canovas and we get taken to the cleaners at every opprtunity. Its jobs for the boys most definatley. Be cautious.
However I subsequently met with the President of another community on Pau-8 who has been working with Canovas for almost three years and she says they are most helpful. She said they had even been able to help individual owners with problems over internal snags
I have been to see them today and despite the obvious fact that they were under a lot of pressure trying to set up at least 5 meetings – quite possibly a lot more – they were willing to spend as much time as was needed to discuss the many issues that are involved.
As stated, we have no option but to use them but they did seem very helpful and they even added my name to the list of owners as they had my property down as still being owned by Quara – the list, of course, was supplied by Quara. Therefore, if you have not received a notification form might I suggest you telephone Canovas on 0034 965 326 226 and ask Lisa to see if you are on the list. She is English which is a bonus.
Whilst at the administrators I asked about Quara and their payment of community fees for empty properties and was told that they do pay up when asked – although they are not normally asked until the end of the tax year.
Finally, I really cannot emphasise this point enough – If you own a property on one of the sectors that is about to have a community established you must attend in person or approve a proxy vote. I do not care who that proxy vote is provided it is NOT the administrators.
I have a copy of the book "You and the Law in Spain" which is good and provides a wealth of information.
Carol and Ian at plot 13 are concerned about Quara setting up the community at this stage with so much work still remaining on our communal areas. We had thought from our original discussions with Quara (no doubt long forgotten by them by now) that all three phases would be part of one community and would therefore share amenities and resources. We think that M3-1 is just Phase 1 although we could be wrong, if you are based in Spain you could ring else maybe email Canovas about what plots are included.
I am not sure if we can block Quara from setting up the community if we have more votes than they do at the meeting (which means if there are more properties sold to clients than unsold) but if we do not attend or appoint a suitable proxy voter which should not be Canovas or Quara we may have little effect.
We are not sure whether we can get out to attend the meeting and would ask anyone who has received the notification for M3-1 or has bought a property on Phase 1 to contact us by email which is our posted by name.