Horizontal law and cost of lifts!

I am sure I have read somewhere that if you are in a urbanisation which has lifts to the upper floors of the urb but you live on the ground floor and therefore receive no benefit from having lifts, then you do not contribute to the upkeep, maintenance etc of those lifts.  Am I correct ..can anybody help?

Having looked on other Spanish forums it seems that if the majority of the owners vote and want the elevator than you are also liable to pay for the installation and upkeep.  In most places it seems to be part of the community fees.

Joan

Hi,

We have a ground floor apartment, plus lifts up to the solarium and the 4th floor. But you do have to contribute albeit you may not use the lifts.  

We had to have new doors fitted up on the solarium and a lot of people in the ground floor apartments did not want to contribute as it did not effect them, but they had to in the end.  

It might seem unfair but you are part of a community.

Pat  

John

Click here for horizontal law pdf

thanks

 We have the same issue but if the lift is in your block then you have to pay for it, whether you use it or not!

Do you have underground garages?  Could you use the lift to get to your apartment?

Justin

i have to pay as i am on the 1st floor but i have a friend who is on the ground floor in his urb and doesn't use the lift and I can rememer seeing somewhere that if you do not benefit or can use something eg lifts for ground floor residents then you are excluded from paying for them...quite logical i think. BUT i cannot find where i read this info.

i have to pay as i am on the 1st floor but i have a friend who is on the ground floor in his urb and doesn't use the lift and I can rememer seeing somewhere that if you do not benefit or can use something eg lifts for ground floor residents then you are excluded from paying for them...quite logical i think. BUT i cannot find where i read this info.

I know this was well looked into on our urb but we was all told it is part of the community fees.

I do know of residents on other urbs on the ground floor  that have to pay as well.

But hope you find where you have read it, I know there would be a lot of happy people.

Pat  

Our urb has numerous 2 storey blocks of apartments but only one block has a lift. I have noticed that the maintenance costs are shown on the urbs accounts which means we are all contributing to it. In 5 years I have never even been in that block, I can understand why anyone in a block with a lift should contibute but not why a villa owner should contribute to a lift in an apartment block they never enter.

Regards, Poppyseed

Hi Poppyseed,

No I'm afraid I do not understand that, have you queried it?  I presume you have.

I suppose they think it is easier as you are part of that community to treat you all the same, seems a bit unfair though.

Pat 

if you buy a property on a community you also are buying part of the community so you are liable for part of its expences,at least thats how i understand the horizontal lawas

Hi All

We are looking for comparisons of lift contracts, our community have lifts on the development and we think they are quite expensive can anyone give us a clue as to what they pay on their development for lift maintenance and how many times a year they are serviced please.

Jojan

Sorry, what is that all about???

Jojan

Seems like a daft argument to me .A bit like saying "I don't  swim so won't pay towards the Pool upkeep"...

If you are on a Community & in a Building with lifts there is a cost but also an enhanced value to the property.

Hi Joe

Yes we understand that but we are trying to get the best price possible for the lift contracts and we were thinking there maybe somebody who knows what their development is charged for a lift contract and how many times per year they are serviced so that we had a comparison with ours.  We all need the lifts on the development but before we move from one contract to another it is wise to get a little bit more information, in fact we wonder if there is a Spanish law on lift servicing, here in England we choose how many times a year you get them serviced in accordance with the use but it may be different in Spain.

Hope that is a little more explanatory we are just trying to get value for money, word of mouth is the best form of good business and somebody out there may be able to help us before we start trawling through all the lift companies for quotations.

Jojan

I am 100% with you on that Jojan  . We have 2 lifts and pay approx 2500e a year (for what) . We also pay a fortune for fire extinguisher checks. There seems little competition & our Administrator says prices are all pretty similar. 

Hi all,

I am a Lift and Escalator consultant in the railway industry and took a particular interest in the lifts budget for our development that includes 3 blocks of 62 apartments that are built around an open space that includes 2 stair wells, bridged to each landing level balcony, each with 2 lifts, one of the lifts being the smallest size necessary for disabled persons requirements under European law, it is just big enough to fit one wheelchair and occupant only or alternatively 6 persons, the other 3 lifts are 4 person lifts and are a waste of space in my opinion as an L & E Engineer. The developer at our development would have been better installing the 2 stairwells and 1 lift only of 8 person size that is also big enough to fit a wheelchair plus occupant and 2 other persons, it can also alternatively fit an electric wheelchair that the smaller 6 person lift would not.

At our development the original budget in 2008 included 6,000.00 Euros for the 4 lifts and 1,500.00 Euros for the lift emergency telephone service (used when a lift fails and lift company arrange to release trapped passengers). I advised our replacement Presidente, taking control from the original Presidente (Developer) that only the 6 person disabled lift would be necessary to meet the EU and Spain regulations re lifts for the disabled so only the 1 lift has been put into service and there is a saving. Our development still has properties for sale and most are none resident owners so 4 lifts is not appropriate to 3 storey apartment blocks with basement car park, 4 lifts are more appropriate to a 10 storey hotel. Lucky for me, I own one of the Town Houses and so do not contribute to the lifts fees. Note that fees for the lifts should include for the maintenance that can be anything from 2 to 12 times per year, an independent inspection is necessary once or twice a year, all subject to how much the lift is used. Also remember that lifts have a life expectancy of approx 15 to 20 years, I suspect, re the standard of lifts provided and a budget would have to be formed to provide for that cost in years to come, also don't forget the insurance to cover for the lift's that would be part of any budget.

Hope the above info is of help. It would have been better if some of these developers had got the necessary advice rather that putting in more lifts to make it look good re selling them to unsuspecting clients that don't realise the future cost implications?

Regards,

Raileng

raileng

Thank you very very much for your response that is most helpful.

Jojan