What is my right - sky dish installation

Mojarity owners of our complex are Spanish. The community has satellite installed but all the channels are in Spanish.

We would like have our own sky dish intalled so we can have English channels. We are not going to win a majority vote in the community meeting to get extra dish installed for English owoners since we are minority on the complex. So that route is blocked. My questions are;

1. If we get our own sky dish installed on the roof, does community have the right to pull it down?

2. In general, how can we get sky dish installed taking into consideration we are minority in the complex but we pay as much as the community charge as the rest. Can we, the few English owners, put some fund together to get a lawyer to force the community take care of English owners as they do to Spanish owners?

What is our legal right regarding the sky installation.

Thanks for any help.

I would approach your president first and ask his thoughts. A dish mounted out of the way on top of a block is unnoticeable, whereas one fixed to your terrace could be considered an eyesore. With one dish, you can have up to 8 digiboxes fed from it (although more than 4 is not recommended). If you are all in the same block, it is not a problem, but if you are split up around the community it could be problematical.

I have recently just read somewhere that it may be possible to have 2 separate LNB's on the one dish, one ponting to 28 degrees for the Astra satellite and the main one at 21 degrees (I think) which is continental Europe.

Mark

Interesting idea about the two LNBs. But surely the dish has to angled slightly differently to pick up the two signals? The dish would still have to be at least 1.3 metre for SKY, but maybe the existing community dish is?

Flyingcat, answer to question 1 is, if you install a dish (on communal property) without proper permission, then yes, of course the commuity can take it down. Question 2, first, have you spoken to the president yet? Do you know that you are not allowed to install your own dish. You would have to check the estatutos to see if it is specifically forbidden.

This is a topic that has been raised before, but I'm not sure what the final verdict was. One would think that to deny any community member the right to receive the TV of their choice would contravene some EU law or other. But it must be remembered I suppose, that officially SKY are not permitted to broadcast in Spain, and therefore, although it is surely not illegal per se to receive a signal "by accident", it might be difficult to argue a legal case for justifying erecting a huge individual dish, when the community already has supplied one that theoretically is adequate to receive any legal broadcasts.

continuing with Roberto´s posts:

And if this gets to be expressly forbidden, you can challenge the legality of that as you ahve got a right to enjoy telecommunications in your home.

If you are asking for extra  items you would just need the third of the quorum  for them to  be installed, but if the spanish speaking members are enjoying that   service already ( as you said) and the community is someone sponsoring it, you have got the right to have the same service in your own language. You just need to communicate that to the President.

That is under basic principles of equality and non discrimination out of our Constitution text.

So, let me just get this straight, Maria.

If the community already provides satelite TV for Spanish speakers, other members of the community are entitled to erect a different dish in order to receive satelite TV in their own language? And even if the estatutos state that members may not erect their own dish, this can be challenged under Spanish non-discrimination laws?

Sounds like a  for SKY, then! BUT, as Maria says, you still need to communicate with the president, as there may be a certain place where you can put your dish, and there may be certain requirements regarding the cables not hanging down walls etc. For example, my dish is directly above my living room (about 5 metres away) but I had to use 80 metres of cable to connect it, using the existing channeling in the building, so that no cables are visible at all.

Thanks everyone.

Our complex is new, most owners are Spanish from big city like Madrid (the developer is Madrid based company). We do not know who is the president of community (we have been given a telephone number and that is either no answer or someone who does not speak English), however, community charge has been taken from our bank account without any delay.

So the situation is that we do not know who we can talk to. And I guess other English owners are facing same issues, hence, some dishes already installed on top of the roof (the roof of the complex) and are well hided, which cannot be seen from any part of the complex except you climb on to the roof.  We are lucky owning a top floor apartment, however, someone told us the roof belongs to community not us.

We are requesting for an extra fob for the garage door which has taken months and still not sorted out. Imagine to get sky dish sorted, probably will take years. Therefore, we have decided to install the dish (of course, well hided as the others).

Maria, If that comes to the legal fight for our rights we certainly need a lawyer like you.

Stands to reason that the roof is communal, unless you have a private solarium. If others have already installed individual dishes, then it may be a case of "custom and practice", but personally I would still try and go through the correct channels to avoid any future hassle.

I don't really understand how you can not know who the president is - by law you should have received minutes of the first community meeting, which will include details of the elected officials. Do you at least know who the administrator is? (They're the ones taking money from your bank!) If you cannot make contact with the president or vice-president, go direct to the administrator, who should be able to help you.

Regarding the fob (mando) for the garage, you would probably be better off just going direct to the company that supplied the garage door and mandos - you should find the name & contact info either on your mando or on the garage door somewhere. You may need to present some ID and proof of ownership of a garage space, but then they should be able to supply you with an additional mando - at your expense, of course, but if you want more copies of the key for the entrance to your building, you would have to pay for them and get them made yourself too.

Hmm!

Okay!

I am buying a property in a development which has a communal sat system to pick up sky, however the dish is out of alignment, and the service is sub standard.

As part of our community fees is for this system:

1) I would consider withholding that part of the community fees that pays for this system, until it is rectified.
2) As it is a town house with a private solarium, I am considering erecting a dish on said, until the aforementioned communal system has been rectified.

It appears that the community rules fobid ANY and ALL private sat dish installations, however I feel I have the right to enjoy, as Maria said, telecommunication services in my home, and if any communal system that is installed is of unsatisfactory standard, then I have the right to withhold payment for said, AND install measures to receive same, UNTIL it is rectified.