Community Fee Payment

 Greetings

We have an AGM in about 5 weeks and need clarification on what constitutes being in arrears and so not being able to vote. 

Our fees are payable every january, april, july and october.

When is one considered to be a debtor?

Many thanks in advance.

It will be in your community rules the time when you are not entitled to use the facilities, because of debt

You are classed as a debtor if all your fees due are NOT paid when the AGM or EGM begins.

If your fees are not up to date you will not be entitled to vote at that time, however you will still have use of ALL the Community facilities and it is illegal to be deprived of them for none payment of fees.

On my community failure to pay in full 1 month after the issue or notice of payment is considered debt. Even without notice the community knows payment is by end of January and end of July each year.

If you only part pay that is still a debt and you have no vote at AGM's or EGM's and the community can agree to start action.

I don't believe you can be stopped from using community facilities, e.g. lifts, pools etc. 

Should each owner be notified of their community fees and due dates each year?

Regards, Poppyseed

Your lawyer will have sorted it out if you purchased a resale, if your in a new build, as soon as the LFOs are sorted you will have to with your other local tennents go through the setting up of your community, and there are many treads in this site about that

Not always it all depends what has been agreed at previous AGM's or when the community was first set up. I don't think it states in Horizontal Law that you must be informed of each payment or when its due.

You should your President or Administrator for clarity.

On my small community 15 houses (where I have been President for last 7 years) our administrators send out in writing or via email the bill each half year. This note says ignore this invoice if you pay by direct debit. I don't think all communities send out invoices, if they don't its still the owners responsibilty to pay by DD or transfer etc.

 Any changes or minutes should be in writng but we agreed to use email to save money and put this thru at last years AGM, we only therefore have to write to those without email.

If we change the amount of community fees this goes into the minutes and everybody is copied on this via email or post.

After this change we do not have to notify people of the amounts as it remains the same until we make a change.

When I signed for an apartment some 3 years ago I was informed of the fees at the signing of the escitura and therefore I only have to be informed of any change to the amount.

If the comunity was set up before purchase the lawyer, would have contacted them to check as he has to about any debt on the property, as mine did, and also as they do for all bills, he sets up all DD required,and as you say the adminerstraters and president will also send regular minutes and the actual papment demands.

 Thanks for all the input about when fees are due but can I go round again?

If fees are to be paid in January, April, July and October when is an owner considered to be in arrears?

Opinions here vary from "by the end of the first month of each quarter" to "by 31/12/xx - eg the end of the year" which is a bit daft as the community would not have enough cash to operate.

We are asking our lawyer soon  but thought it would be useful to hear what other communities define as a debtor.

Hi Vistaverde - I think that there are really two definitions of when you become a debtor - the community will have agreed when they class someone as a debtor, and for us it is one month after the due date.  Beyond that date there are fines and penalties added to the debt and these increase monthly so can mount up really quickly! 

However, if there was an AGM or EGM even one day after the fees were due then anyone who hadn't paid would be classed as a debtor.  As a few others have said, you cannot vote if you are not fully paid up.  Our community asks for fees by direct debit whenever possible and this is taken approx a month after the AGM as that is when the actual level of fees is decided.

Just a point about setting up Direct Debits - we have had lots of debtors this year (we are a really large community) who thought they had a DD in place and for some reason the money was never taken from their accounts.  Regardless of whose fault this is (usually the bank's) it is the owner's responsibility to check that they have paid their fees.  A further issue is when people change their email address or contact address and there is no way for them to receive minutes or other communications about their property. 

The joys of community living!!

You are a debtor immediately after the date the fees are due. if your fees are due Jan, April, July and October then you will be a debtor for the amount due on the day after you should have paid.

Some Communities have voted at AGM for differing payment times but any debt which is NOT paid on the date it is due will make the owner a debtor.

Forgot to mention in my earlier posts. We had a debt problem when I took over as President but we used our administrators idea of increasing the fees by 20% immediately at the AGM.

However if you pay within 30 days you get a 20% discount. As those present at the AGM were fully paid up voters and paid by DD everybody agreed and the debt issue dissappered.

If the DD fails due to bank error etc. I still give the 20%.

We have one debt issue at present and this is very tricky as the owner has no job, up to this point we never had a problem with them.

 Thank you for all your help - still a little confused but now realise what the majority of communities define as a debtor.

Can anyone advise on our situation please.

There is a small community of 42 house, only a handful  have been sold as these houses were 'sold' by a company who have gone in to liquidation and are under police investigation. Some of you who use this thread will know who I am reffering to O--P

The site is a mess and a few people who did go through with the purchase have paid their community fees to date.  The rest of the unsold house's are still owned by the developer, who is president of the community.

I have just received notice of the next (2nd) meeting for January and was sent by e-mail a list of non-payer's.  Most of these are the developers houses but also people who have purchesed and I think, are truley fed up with the whole situation as there have been, and still are, many major snagging problems with the house's.

We are also still having major problems and would like not to pay!!!!

The developer who still owns most of the houses is President of the Community as most of the other owners live in the UK.

What can we do as a small group of owners to get the people to pay, as there is obviously not enough money to make the site any better?

Look forward to  any suggestions.