Fionnuala
It's the horizontal property act: that determines the basis of charge allocation.
If you have a three bed apartment is makes sense to me that you consume more of the community facilities.
"An assessment quota shall be allocated to every unit in relation to the value of the
building and expressed as a percentage of said value. Said quota shall serve as a
coefficient to determine individual unit shares in the expenses and benefits of the
community. Improvements or impairments shall not affect the quota allocated to an
individual unit, which may be altered only by unanimous agreement"
Charge allocation will never be perfect. Eg. Ground floor occupants might use the lift less.
Some rent out their apartments whilst others use their premises for say just 6 weeks a year but we all pay on the same common basis.
This seems to be a good translation here http://www.santamariaowners.com/Downloads/Horizontal%20Property%20Act.pdf
Should you pay be direct debit. ? Yes.
A.E.A. much prefer that method.
I'm just setting up a Direct Debit myself.
You need to be proactive.
It seems that whilst A.E.A. can email me notices of the AGM and even post AGM notices to my house in the UK they are completely
incapable of sending me a statement or invoice of my community charges. And thus if you do nothing you will find yourself on the debtors list
at the 2009 AGM !!
Hopefully the community charges will become lower as the site settles down and when all the apartments are built.
It would be interesting to see next years community budget. As an former Management Accountant I find the lack of quality information frustrating.
Paul
This message was last edited by PMillsom on 3/12/2008.