Possible problem with our new community.

OK, heres the basic situation.

A new build, completed this year. Approx 40 of the 120 apartments have been sold, so the builder still owns the other 80. The builder has pulled the sales team out of the complex, and although they are finishing off all the bits on the complex and appear to be doing the snagging, they seem to be effectively mothballing the site. Now, thats no real problem, and up to them of course, we are still happy with the compex as it is.

Now, we are now hearing rumours that the builders expect the current owners, not them,  to foot the bill for the community running costs (maintenance etc.).

Am I correct in thinking this cannot happen? I think I am correct in saying that the builder must pay their portion of the running costs and cannot expect the 40 owners to foot the entire community fees between them? Am I right?

It might be that rumours are untrue and wires are just being crossed, but just wanted to confirm.

The other thing is. If the builder does accept they have to pay their portion, they will still be majority owners. So, what if they decide that we dont need a gardner, pool cleaner, cleaner, maintenance man etc. etc. and make the running costs very low so that their liability is also low? Does that make sense? In that case the complex would quikcly become shabby, dirty and so on.

Any advice would be great.

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Hi Superdon

Of course the builder (who still owns the remaining unsold apartments) must pay his portion of the fees.

Whatever it costs to maintain your community is shared equally amongst all owners.

So builder pays 80 / 120ths & the rest of you (40 of you) pay balance which is 1 / 120th each property.

I think I'm making sense.

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Hi superdon,
You did not mention if your Community has been officially 'handed over' from the builder to the Community....ie. have you had your first AGM ?
If not then the builder is paying for everything anyway cos it's not officially yours.
As you don't know if the builder had to pay comm fees for the unsold prperties, I suspect the community has NOT been handed over.
It is unlikely that the builder will hand over until he has sold more properties simply because he WILL be liable for comm fees.
The downside, of course, is that as the builder is probably fppting the bill, only the basics will be done.

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No, the community hasnt been formed, and passed over.

So, as you say, until that happens we can just expect the basics to be done? How basic can that be? For example, we have lifts in the complex, but at the moment these are not powered. 

How bad could they make it? Can they not do gardens, communal cleaning etc??

Is there any rules to say when they must create the community?

Sorry for all the questions. It looks like the best solution for them is to do as above, not create the community and pay for as little as possible. But, our complex them turns into a right mess!

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I don't think there are rules about handing over.

I would not expect the builder to hand over till he has sold a substantial amount of properties because it is not in his interests.

It sounds as if you've drawn the short straw cos all they will do is enough to be legal. There should be some kind of insurance in place, but you would have to check that with the builder ( he prob has public liability ) and anyway, as it has not been handed over, any accidents are his responsibility.
You should get the pool cleaned and you may get grass cut.
If the lifts were mentioned in your deeds then they should be working.

Unfortunately there is probably little you can do till hand over.

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It's a good question, and one that's probably going to be asked a lot more . In the past, when all units were sold before completion, this would not have even been an issue, but it's going to be far more common now. I don't know the answer. I've never heard if there is a time limit between LFO being issued, and the developer officially inaugurating the community. Hopefully Maria or someone else will know the answer?

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Well. Just heard the community is being formed on Friday at the first meeting! So, not sure what to make of this now. I guess its good in some ways.

The company is Alhambra Holdings - anyone heard of them?

Interesting point about the lifts - yes they were in the deeds and contracts.

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Well, once the community has been officially formed, legally the builder / developer is surely liable to contribute for all the unsold units. In practice, it may well be a very different story, and as you have already realised, he will hold the majority vote, so if he "votes" to delay getting the lift working, you may have a big fight on your hands.

Good luck, and let us know how things pan out. I think there'll be many others in your position wanting to know.

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should we have been given more than 3 days notice of this initial meeting?

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I think the minimum is three days.

Each owner should have been sent an agenda and a proxy voting form, however there is no necessity to send these OUT of Spain, although it is accepted as common courtesy.

As long as the meeting has been published ( ie on a Community notice board where all owners can see it ) I think it is within the law.

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mm, fair enough. I think its all above board though.

One more thing at this - and thanks so much for all the replies so far - with the developer owning 80% of the development, is there any point in trying to madly rally around the 20% of people that hav bought to try and pass the proxy on to someone? I mean, even if we did that and scrambed all the people to allow one to vote for us all, we would still be out-voted by the developer wouldnt we?

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What you say is very true but you should do it anyway and then at a later date it will be noted if you have registered your disapproval or objection to anything which is voted in. You also have 30 days from recieving your minutes of the meeting to register your objection. remember thogh, that your minutes may only be posted out within Spain to your address here.
Good luck anyway and let us know what happens.

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