17 Feb 2010 11:55 PM:

Poppyseed,

Don't give up, get detailed copies of the community accounts and try to estimate the additional cost you and other house owners are overpaying. If significant I would expect other house owners to come onboard and there are clearly avenues open for making a legal challenge. Of course cost of such action may be a prohibitive but I get the feeling that you don't have to go through the Spanish High Courts to get unfair community policies overturned.

Good luck

CathyP

 

Thread: Definition of Community Costs

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15 Feb 2010 9:06 PM:

Many thanks for your help 

Cathy

Thread: Definition of Community Costs

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15 Feb 2010 5:54 PM:

Thanks for the prompt response and the advice around HPA and I will certainly follow this up with my Administrator as she was also the administrator when the community was being set up so she should fully understand the issues. 

Should the original master deed not define a sub community then presumably I am legally obliged to pay a full share of all the community costs including the aprtment maintenance costs.  In that situation I will clearly be paying directly for  my own property maintenance charges but also making a substantial contribution towards the maintenance costs of properties I do not own or have any economic interest in. As it is very unlikely that any apartment owners are going to vote to change the system (turkeys and Christmas comes to mind) there would be no chance of getting the deed changed through the unanimous consent of the community. What legal option is then left open to me and the other townhouse owners to challenge the original deed in a local court

 

Thread: Definition of Community Costs

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15 Feb 2010 12:00 AM:

Hi everybody,

I think this may be a question for Maria but I would welcome legal opinion from any forum members.

In 2007, I purchased a townhouse on an urbanization consisting of 24 townhouses and an apartment complex comprising of 53 apartments. At the time of completion, my solicitor was provided with my cuota percentage and the initial urbanization budget. Like all other townhouse owners on the complex we thought our fees were very high (originally over €4000/year) but believed that this was because the community budget  was high, therefore, none of us sought to challenge the detailed fee calculations.

However, when I carried out an analysis of the 2008 fees, I found that  the Administrator was removing some cleaning and maintenance costs from the overall budget prior to applying the cuota. I found out that the administrator was actually holding two separate budgets, one for the apartment maintenance costs and one for the urbanization community costs (she called it the general fund). She was calculating the normal community fees by applying our cuotas to the general fund and then, for each apartment owner, adding a share of the apartment maintenance costs based on only the apartment only cuotas. As a townhouse owner this seemed a fair approach given that I am responsible for the maintenance and repair to my own house and it would be unreasonable for me to pay for the maintenance and repair of the apartment block to which I have no legal ownership rights or economic interest.

On further examination of the budget I found that despite the removal of some "apartment only" costs there remained an even bigger amount of similar costs within the residual community (general) budget. I raised the issue at the AGM and I then visited the Administrator with the President to discuss the matter.  The Administrator agreed that townhouse owners should not be paying for any maintenance or repair costs incurred on the apartment block as these costs were the sole responsibility of apartment owners. The Administrator agreed to ensure that all "apartment only" costs would be separated properly in future. Unfortunately now that this decision has been communicated to apartment owners they are angry that their fees (community fees + their share of the apartment only costs) have increased. They are contesting the Administrator’s advice and are now wanting to vote to put all costs into one single budget and share these out across the whole community. If this vote is agreed it will mean that townhouse owners will be paying individually for the maintenance and repair costs on their own properties and  50% of all the maintenance and repair costs of the apartment block i.e. townhouse owners end up subsidising apartment owners maintenance costs by 50%.

I think that the community Administrator Is right but I would welcome some independent legal advice on this one. Can anyone help?

Regards

Cathy

 

Thread: Definition of Community Costs

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