Distribution of Community Fees

Our development is due to be handed over to the community of owners this coming Saturday.

The budget for 2008/2009 needs to be agreed &  is an agenda item.

There are approximately 40 blocks on the development. Some are just over Ground/First & Second Floors with stairs to access the higher floors. Other blocks are 4/5 floors high & have lifts built into the individual blocks.

The distribution of the maintenance costs is currently restricted to & shared by  the blocks that have lifts. Some are of the opinion that the cost of maintaining the lifts should be shared by all 553 apartments. Others question why they have to pay to maintain the lifts in their block when they have a ground floor apartment & will never use the lift.

Likewise, we have communal gardens but ground floor apartments also have their own garden which will be maintained by the community gardeners - should the ground floor apartments pay a greater share of the gardening budget on that basis?

There are allocated Car Parking spaces for all apartments. The development is made up of different size apartments & duplexes - should the proportion of community fees for the car parking spaces have any relevance to the size of the property.

Any comments welcomed.

Thank you

Noreen 

Thanks Morerosado.

I think I am going to need all the luck I can get!!!

At least it looks like the weather might be nice.

Noreen

Hi Noreen.

A lot will depend on how whoever it is has worked out how much Com charge to pay, it can be done as ALL paying the same OR by quota, ie., on the quotas stated in the deeds. The quota way is poss the fairest way then, if you have more area, for example a flat and a solarium, you would pay more. This way of calculating who pays what should be agreed at handover because it is virtually impossible to change it after because you would have to have 100 per cent agreement and obviously those who would have to pay more will not vote for it!!. I suspect tho, 'someone' will have already decided this on your behalf and you will be presented with that decision.

In a community, it doesn't matter whether you use the lifts, the gardens or the pool or ANY other communal facility, you still have to pay for their upkeep. If there are 553 apartments, then you 'own 1/553 of the community and are therefore responsible. It doesn't matter if some one has a garden and they personally maintain it, the communal gardens are just that, Communal. In Spain, when you buy on a Community, you also buy and pay for that responsibility.

Hope this helps, let us know how you get on.

Thanks for that information Karen.

I have just realised (I never was a great mathematician!) that there are 553 apartments & I have proxy votes for 53 plus my own which equates to 10%.

They better be nice to me.

Noreen

We don't do proxy any more, but have a voting sheet so people can vote exactly how they want. We found that not everyone was using the proxys for what the people who sent them in wanted so thought it best to do the voting sheet.

I used to have to phone everyone who gave me a proxy to ensure I voted how they wanted, it was a real pain and cost a fortune.

I KNOW you will do it ok tho. Good luck.  ( Trouble is, if it all goes pear shaped, your proxy people will blame you anyway!!)

I have given them all ample opportunity to provide me with their views. Amazingly only about 5 have bothered & 2 actually asked me to phone them with my views, to make sure that we weren't poles apart.

Fortunately, from lots of discussion on EOS & through our own email list, I have a pretty good idea of what people want & at the end of the day, I can only do my best. We also have a fairly good contingent attending the meeting in person & we are having a nice social get together on Friday evening - 27 at the Wok Buffet.

I daresay we will move away from proxies in due course as it makes sense for people to vote on individual issues for themselves.

Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Noreen

Lots of luck, Noreen.......................practice keeping calm, because believe you me these meetings can get very 'hairy'.

Let us know what happens.

Thanks for all your good wishes. I will let you know the outcome next week.

By the way, More, Annmarie says

• actually 553 divided by 54 is equal to 10.24074074...
• 54 is 9.764918626...% of 553
• which if you round to 1 significant figure is 10%

Those maths teachers can be very pedantic!!!

Noreen

I divided 553 by 54 on my trusty solar powered calcular  & it said otherwise. You just want to fall out with me so you don't have to meet me. I'd better go cook dinner, no one else will.  I've told Mr. More I'm going to teach him six basics (spag bol etc) & he can cook for us sometime. Not going for an easy retirement.

I bet he gets a part time job within weeks! - Poor Chris

You see there is your problem, using a solar calculator in the dreary UK winter time - it just can't cope.

We will meet some day I am sure.

Noreen