Complaints

Has anyone got any suggestions, helpful ( of course!!)

We have had several written compliaints against a Spanish owner who keeps racing pigeons on his solarium ( the solariums are private ) and he has built hutches and whatever on his solarium to keep them in ( he also breeds them ).

He flies them several times a day and they fly near the apartments and over them and drop their droppings and feathers along the way.

Several owners have complained quite severely about the pigeons and the mess and it was brought up at last years AGM. It was decided to take legal proceedings against this person ( bearing in mind that he is contravening the community rule that all pets should be kept under control and owners must clean up any mess made by their animals ) but before this action was taken, he himself requested a meeting between the Presidente and the community lawyer and himself.

A meeting has been arranged several times but the owner says he cannot attend cos he never goes to the area our administrator works in ( about 10k away ). He says he has all the licenses he needs from the town hall but he will not let anybody see or copy them. He has said he will wait for the judge in court to decide what should happen to the pigeons.

The community buildings on the roof, where the solariums are, ie. TV rooms, lift housing etc. are covered in pigeon droppings so this is causing a bit of a stir.

The 2008 AGM is just weeks away and I know it will all raise it's ugly head again........in fact, one owner who lives directly under the pigeons has not been able to visit his apartment because he suffers serious allergies compounded by the birds.

In England, pigeons are classed as vermin ( wild ones ) but I know here in Spain Palomas are liked.

How do we solve this????????????????????

Surely your administrator should be able to advise you on this, Karen? It really ticks me off, though, that problems like this invariably land at the president's door. How on earth should the president, who is (usually) just a layman, be expected to know how to best proceed, while the community is paying for the services of a so called "professional" administrador de fincas? Is yours as useless as ours, then?

Suggestions: Can you not arrange to hold the meeting somewhere where the stupid git can't make an excuse - such as in his apartment? Would it not be a good idea to have the meeting anyway, whether he turns up or not (obviously recording the fact that he didn't bother to show up)? Could the lawyer or adminstrator check with the town hall to see if he does indeed have any licences? (If he really does, I can see it getting tricky - and his confidence suggests he may have, unless he's just delaying or calling your bluff).

From what you've said about the guy, I can guess what action he would take if the roles were reversed, and maybe he is so cocky because nobody has so far done it. I hate to say it, but the profile is all too familiar. He sounds like a typical bully. As long as nobody stands up to him in terms he can relate to, he'll just stubbornly continue doing just what the heck he wants to. Of course, I'm not for one minute suggesting that anybody should resort to dubious tactics. There must be a correct, legal way to deal with this, particularly considering the plight of the allergic neighbour, but I really strongly feel that your admin and/or lawyer should be dealing with this for you. I would have expected them to by now have sent a burofax demanding that he desist from activities contravening the Horizontal Law / estatutos, and have denounced him to whatever the equivalent of the environmental health department is.

Good luck, Karen. It never rains, but it pours, eh? (And we both know only too well what happens when it pours!)

Roberto