community president gone crazy!!!!!!

debwal

i'm sure i would feel just the same in your position. Why the hell should you abide by rules if even the president doesn't?. Who the hell do they think they are??

Phew, ....what's the answer then i wonder?, not just to the president, but the community fee problems etc. It sounds like some sort of ruling ought to be in place where everyone pays in to the community as a legal requirement, and if they don't pay, should have services to their apartments stopped. Either that or some sort of large deposit paid at the time of contract sign, to cover the first year or two of the community fees.

I know that sort of thing is no help in your situation now, but makes you wonder if it would be the only way in future to make everyone do the right thing by paying their way. Like you say, people would also be more inclined to abide by the rules, if it was a level playing field.

Could you vote the current president out as soon as their term ends, and then get legal documents drawn up on community fees, rules and  regs on the site etc?

As i didn't get as far as completion, i haven't had to face this situation, but  i fully sympathise with your grumble. The system in your place, clearly does not work. Can you find a community that is working, and find out how they operate?, or is it the same on all sites?  I often read of community fee problems. It sounds like the whole thing needs a good shake up, to benifit everyone paying their way, and severly punish those who don't. Taking people to court takes forever, but if they had been forced to pay something up front, and risk losing it, if they break the rules, they might think twice?

".........Some dogs bite, and some cats kill small birds and animals in horrible ways. Yes, and some kids sh*t in the pool

"...The only reason we have a lovely range of small birds in our garden, is because cats are not welcome!" And the only reason we don't have bird sh*t and rat droppings all over our garden is because cats are allowed to roam freely - cleaning up after themselves as cats always do. Imagine a community where one type of animal is acceptable and another not. What next? A community where only Brits are accepted - No Spiks Allowed??????

"....The issue here is consideration for other people sharing common ground. Rules are made because unfortunately, some people refuse to do just that." Finally, you seem to have got Debwal's point. You may have noticed that she is now keeping her cat in (and you may remember that I recommended that if possible, it's probably in the cat's best interest anyway), but her grievance at the very beginning of this thread was that the president of the community is openly disobeying the rules, and encouraging the presence of strays.

".....** EDITED - Please respect terms of posting **" Ooh, I wonder what was edited? I apologise if my remarks annoy you (although nobody else ever seems to have a problem with my teasing sarcasm), but at least whatever I said wasn't deemed so offensive that it had to be edited out!

Roberto, I think that you have opened a can of worms, pardon the pun.

Has anyone seen the other comments about our community on this chit chat thread with regards to the community fees we pay?   We pay for all this C...p. pardon the pun again!

OK, bickering over (hope you forgive my wicked ways, Goodstich? )

Your last post, and Debwal's theoretical scenario, raise some interesting points.

I have just completed on a new property. It's actually just a store room, but even so, I will be part of the new community when it is formed. (0.49% of it, to be precise - can't wait to make my voice heard at the first meeting!) At the Notary, I was asked, by the developer, to hand over €50 towards the setting up of the community. This money was actually paid to the administrator appointed by the developer, and I got a receipt detailing what it is for. But based on my quota, this would indicate that the administrator will be collecting around €10,000 to "set up the community". Whilst there are obviously costs involved (the community has to be officially registered), this seems a bit steep to me. Presumably any money left over, will go towards building up a slush fund for the fledgling community. I'm not sure of the legality of the developer demanding that I pay this money prior to signing, but it's probably quite a good idea? (See Goodstich's suggestion below). This is only the second time I've bought a new property, and the previous time I was not asked for any such contribution prior to the first community meeting. I wonder what other members have found to be the norm?

Goodstich, paying your community fees is a legal requirement, and non-payment can lead to your property being embargoed. There's another current thread about this, so I won't elaborate here. Also, community rules & regs, if introduced correctly and recorded in the minutes of the relevant meeting (which have to be registered), are legally binding. Implementing them of course can be a totally different thing! Any existing rules can be modified by majority vote at community meetings.

As for the question of who's responsibilty it is to make sure buyers are aware of any community rules that may affect them, prior to purchasing, I imagine from a legal view, it's yet another case of "buyer beware". Of course, very few sellers are likely to point out any rules that they feel may jeopardise a sale, unless specifically asked, and even then, only if they are as honest as Morerosado! The lesson here is obviously, if you have pets, you should check what rules exist pertaining to them. But, if you are buying off plan, at the time you sign your contract, the rules for the community will not have been set up, and if you are buying re-sale, how easy is it to find out such rules? How many people have bought re-sale property, and asked to see the community statutes before agreeing the sale? I wonder if Debwal's community has a clearly visible sign anywhere stating the no pets rule? I have only ever come across one building with a clear sign stating this at the entrance. Anyway, I think it's quite rare, because so many people have pets, which are considered as much a part of their family as their kids, that an outright ban on pets would be not dissimilar to a ban on kids - which would be considered rather un-PC, I think? Oops, I'm off again!

Are we all "done" now ? Pretty much agreed, dare I say, that what's good for the goose is good for the gander (& we all know how much cr*p they sh*t, don't we ?)

Huh? "....there has never been a meeting recorded where there was a vote about changing the no animals rule". Do you mean to say, the no animal rule is written in the estatutos (community statutes)? This would surely mean the developer put that rule in there, but you would have had no way of knowing that at the time you signed your contract to purchase - as the statutes wouldn't have even been written then, most likely. Now that seems pretty unfair to me.

Sorry, Debwal, not wanting to keep you from your curry - I can't remember now whether you said you knew about the rule before you bought? Can't be bothered scrolling back

hi can i just asked who changed the rules re dogs on leads, surely  community rules can only be changed at a meeting and has to have a majority vote. did that happen. if not  i would take the view of no pets means no pets so tell him if your cats have to go then so has his dog. im sure you wont here any more from him.

we all come to spain to live a happy healthy life, why are some people only happy interfereing with other peoples lives, its like they are on a mission to make everyone miserable because im sure if it wasnt your cats he was moaning about it would be something else

why do all presidents think they can rule the world.

Hi Mazz66, you are so right. We left the U.K to come to Spain to get away from all the moaning miserable people in there.  It seems to me that most of them have now come to  live over here!!  I believe that they now dont have the weather to complain about or how Englands gone to pot, so they complain about stupid silly petty things like where the bins should go and who shouldnt park there.  And of course as in many communities like ours there is the problem with the cats. (though hopefully most arent as bad as ours). 

 I will say that a lot of presidents feel that they do rule the world, and that they are paying extra community fees for that priviledge, well they are not! We all pay the same community fees and we all employ the staff and we all have a right to say how we want our communtiy fees spent.  But we do know of one president who is a great leader of his community. (thats what they should be called, no presidents, that title goes to their heads) and he has regular bbqs around the swimming pool and also has regular gatherings for all the community. Which I feel helps in building good relationships with your neighbours and a better living area.  What do you think?

debwal

sounds like we all agree that the president is more out of line than the animals, and should probably go first!!

as for the pets, what do you think?.....a yes or no vote by all on site, and go with the majority?

1

I think what you have to all consider here is that Preseidents in Spanish Communities are usually the President  for one single reason and that is that they are usually jumped up, small minded idiots who usually are retired or unemployed. When you ask them what they used to do for a career, they were usually something of little importance or total insignificance - that is the very reason that they become Presisent in the first place  as they have, for the first time in their life, a level of authority and a severe quantity of self-importance.

I actually think you should feel sorry for these people as moaning about your cats c******g is very likely the biggest situation that they have ever dealt with in their working life.

Debwal - It sounds just as if that is what your President is like ........ which, strangely enough, sounds identicle to my President!

I can only comment on our own fairly new community & President but on that basis I have to strongly disagree with spanishalice.

Our first community meeting was farcical & a total free for all with the appointed translator being absolutely useless because she had a sore throat & couldn't be heard. In amongst all the shouting a Spanish lady stood & addressed the room in Spanish & after every few sentences she spoke in English, showing a lot more respect for the non Spanish speaking owners than anyone from the administrators or developers did.

Monica was appointed as our Presidenta & in the few weeks since her appointment she has got the bit between her teeth & has resolved many of the niggly issues that have been generating lots of discussion. I was at my apartment at the same time that Monica was & even though she was on holiday, she didn't stop for the whole week - running around arranging rubbish collection, reviewing contracts for gardeners, getting the developer to accept responsibility for community snags etc etc.

Despite being so busy, Monica spent 2 hours with me going through many of the issues that had been raised by the owners group that we have established, offering solutions, discussing the way forward etc.

She is a quiet softly spoken lady but I detected a steely resolve to achieve the  results that the majority want. I think that as a community we are very fortunate to have her in her role.

Noreen 

"why do all presidents think they can rule the world?"

Maybe because nobody else wants to take on the thankless, unrewarding job of running a community, and all the cr*p that gets thrown at you (metaphorically speaking only, hopefully), but feel perfectly within their rights to moan constantly about how the poor sod who was "volunteered" for the position against his/her will is doing, and to complain about how every little detail of the running of the community should be done like this or like that, and expect the president to know Spanish law and administration inside out because that's their "job", even though they are just an unpaid layman and a neighbour just like the rest (and maybe doesn't even speak Spanish), and fervently believe that their opinion is the only one that counts and fail to recognise that the president is faced with many different opinions and has to try to find a happy compromise for everyone.......... but when asked to "step up to the plate" and actually help out in some small way, they run a mile and blabber on about how they came here to retire and have a peaceful life, or are working and their time is far too valuable to spend helping the community, and that nobody should expect them to do any more than pay their fees and are out of order for even asking.

Maz66, Spanishalice, I'm quite sure you are both good community members, pay your fees on time and help out in any small way you can, but if you are unhappy with your president, there's a very simple solution.........come the next AGM, when it's time to elect the new president, you know what to do!

And the very best of luck to you!

Hi Roberto, i agree with you because to be honest i would not want to be a president.  I have lived on 3 different communities but it cant just be coincedence that as soon as someone holds the title of president they change.  I used to attend all community meetings only to find that the meetings were only attended by  5 or 6 regulars who would go over the same old rubbish ( I understand that some people cant attend as they are not living in the country but they should all get a proxy vote that they can give to someone they trust).

the main problem is we are all individuals and all have different opinions and you are never going to get everyone to have the same opionion, It would be a very boring world if we did, but with regards to what this thread is all about my personal view is that the president is just being obnoxious, how can someone go around spouting about no pets when they have their own pet.

probably if this president didnt have such a problem with these cats most people on the urbanisation would not even be aware of them going about their business, and how would she feel if she had to keep her dog confined to the house.

I no longer live in a community as i was fed up with people telling me and  my family what i could or couldnt do.

Mazz - we're on the same wave length!

To be fair, I think it's only human nature that if you volunteer, or especially if you find yourself "volunteered", as president, the issues that you personally feel are important, keep finding their way to the top of the list of priorities. It's a challenge to keep in mind the "bigger picture", and to try to carry out your duties in as much of an impartial manner as possible.

So you opted out of community life? Lucky you. Now all you have to deal with is the politicians running the local council.   Different cat, same smell. (Pun intended)