Can They Do This?

The president of my community is the developer. They have never paid a euro in community fees or held any owners meetings.

The developer is now sending out notices to the owners, via 'his' administrator, stating that they owe large sums of money.

Some of the money owed is identifiable as genunine community fees, but additional sums are owed dating from the last few weeks that none of us are aware of.

How can this be?

Has the developer passed his debt back onto the owners?

I am sure, according to the horizontal property act, that any changes to community fees have to be approved by the owners committee! Even then only full paid up owners can vote for it.

Is it legal for the developer/administrator to 'cook the books' like this?

Ask for copies of the accounts, copies of any AGM minutes detailing any agreed "extra" fees, and details of the "approved" annual budget - from which you can calculate your share according to the coefficient on your escritura.

Of course, no developer, administrator or self appointed "president" can make up charges, and if they threaten legal action, tell them you'll see them in court.

It's quite normal in the first year for the developer in person to be President where he also owns property and at the same time appoint all his family to other position such as administrator and maintenace contracts etc etc

The clue is usually in the surnames!

I could just about accept the level of corruption for the "first year", but how long should a community have to wait for 'democracy' to take hold?

I know several communities with similar issues and some of them have been going on for years.

In fact, it's probably even more of an issue now as they aren't able to sell the remaing properties and therefore they will still have the majority vote unless the bank takes them back, at which point things do tend to improve.

juandos, unfortunately for democracy to kick in you just need a little....patience!

Justin

Surely the developer only has the majority vote if they pay their fees??

True - but unfortunately the total apathy of the rest of the owners usually allows the developer to get away with anything. I attended a community meeting recently where a grand total of 3 out of 21 apartment owners turned up. Pathetic. The administrator is charging (those who actually pay) any amount he feels like, with no justification, no formally agreed budget, and yet nobody, it seems, cares. You get what you deserve. Whilst you may not get things changed on your own, as long as you know with 100% certainty that you are in the right, my advice is to stand up for your rights, and put your concerns in writing to the administrator. Insist on some (legal) justification for the extra funds requested.

Sometimes the administrator refuses to discuss business in any language other than Spanish which is a great way of keeping al extranjero's away from meetings and then admin + president get on with their little dictatorship.

But it is very easy to organise a coup if that is what you what to do and then re-appoint all etc.