The chit-chat area

Hi All

I have been reading with interest all your comments but haven't as yet introduced our selves. We are Peter and Amber from Cornwall, UK. and have a 2 bed in phase 2.  We are very much looking forward to moving in. Does anybody know the status of phase 2? No point talking with Pearla!

Hi Peter and Amber,

Last time Igot news regarding Phase 2, we were told that they expected to meet the original/contractual date (November 2007), and that is for our apartment in Block 1. Another question is: Do I belive that this is true? I don't know :o)

As far as I know all the buildings are done, so we are only wating for phase 1 be delivered to all the buyers.

Peter and Amber, which block are you in?

Congratulations Jamnet hopefully we will all be there soon.

Good luck with all the cleaning it will be worth it in the end,

Lorraine

Hi All

Congratulations to Janmet and hope we are all close behind you in completing. 

Just a quick question relating to gericom's comments on 3 Sept re Plusvalia tax, I notice Janmet mentioned a figure of Euro 500 but we've been told ours is Euro1,500 approx.  Does anyone know what this figure is based upon, we are in a 2 bed 2 bath apartment on the semisentano.

Look forward to meeting as many of you as possible at the Calypso Bar at 8 pm on 16 sept 07

Regards

jim and Joan

Hi All,

Just got back home this evening. We met Janmet unloading furniture today. They showed us around their apartment. We also met  with Max and Saskia. We decided to head to our apartment, and take the new road from Don Juan to the Airport and time ourselves. It took us exactly 15 minutes door to door, so this new road knocks about 10 minutes off the old route through Los Boliches. I brought a friend of mine up to Don Juan with me who lives locally, and over the years has seen a number of new developments go up. You will all be pleased to know he was very impressed with the blocks and the preparation of the surrounding grounds. Very tired now and very depressed coming back home. Will add more at a later date.

Good luck all with the completions

Westport

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Hi Max.

Thanks for that information very intersting indeed. So do you think we wont be able to cut a gate way through our fences then.

Congratulations on getting your keys, have you moved in yet, my sisters were in Don juan yesterday and said  that they saw a man moving in and he had a little girl around three and was moving a big fisher price toy into the apartment so I guessed it must be you. How s the signing over going it seems to be slow enough. I am waiting on the solicitor to email me a date to go over to sign.

Hi Max!

We are all going to need the community rules in English eventually and I am prepared to contribute to the cost of having them translated - do you know how much it will cost?

Hi Max

As usual you are supplying us all with information that you think will prove to be very useful for us all now and in the next few months which we thank you for.Like you we think that having the Don Juan family on site in the early days will help our cause as far as getting things done but we are a little concerned as to when everything is finally finished and we have all completed that having one of them acting as president may not work for us all as a democracy - Obviously they can get voted off after 12 months I assume but what sort of damage could he do in the first 12 months - We personally have never dealt with this sort of situation before so are not sure what it all means and how much actual power a president has got  - would you have to be present at meetings for your vote on anything to count ? Or are you able to have a proxy ? As the developer does not seem to have any scruples is that how they will all be ?

Having the community rules translated into English as soon as possible we think is a must as we need to be prepared quite quickly to ensure our votes are counted in future decisions as not too many of us are based there at the moment but could be in a few years time and whilst we are all buying into the Spanish way of life I am sure we would all like to be able to have our voice heard especially when it comes to personalizing our space ( fences and gates and things ) and the more simple things in life like television ( don't groan or laugh too loud but me and Janmet need our coronation street ! ), quite sad really I know but it is just another example of the sort of thing I mean

I don't know how any others feel but we are with Davmunster and would be prepared to subscribe to the cost of translation as soon as possible forewarned is forearmed as they say - Who would have drafted them in the first place though ??

Anyway hope everyone who have finally managed to complete are happy that it has now happened - some of you have been waiting such a long time...........

Mo and Chris

Hi all,

Congratulations to those of you allready having the key to your apartments, and we are also interested in having a translations of "The House roules", hence we will pay our share of a translation fee.

Max: We would like to meet when we come to Spain to arrange some future cooperation, we arraive Thursdag around noon.

 You did your homework well. A few additions as far as they are relevant for our situation:

-          the community can choose the language of the meeting and minutes by majority (correction: the official minutes must be in Spanish, but we can order the administrator to provide an english version)

-          to change the community statutes you need an unanimous vote (except for some specific exceptions)

-          these statutes are not the same as the rules; they can be changed by majority vote

-          for some important decisions the majority needed is specified as 3/5 th of owners as well as shares

-          if you don’t vote (either by proxy or yourself) you have 30 days to object otherwise you are considered to have voted in favour

-          and most important if 25% of the owners ask the president for an extra meeting he is obliged to call one.

There are three elements which together determine our rights and obligations as a community:

 - the Law of horizontal property which defines the framework and establishes the obligations and rights of the community as well as protecting the rights of individual owners. I already have a copy of this in English. It’s contained in a useful book ‘You and the law in Spain’

 - the statutes and rules of the community which I doubt I have. I do have a copy but it’s a copy of the Montecanada version. I therefore doubt this is correct. I suspect that the developer did not yet register our community, making it illegal. People who still have to complete: ask this specific question to your lawyer!

 - the provisions in your ‘nota simple’ (the purchasing contract). For instance I found some strict rules for the gardens of the semi-sotana apartments. It looks like we are not allowed to have higher fences, no roof over our garden etc. Reading it closely it looks like we’re not even allowed to make a terrace! Again ask your lawyer to translate this passage before going to completion.

Before we have established the legal status of the current set of community laws it’s no use translating them. An English copy of the general passages of our purchasing contract seems the first requirement. Who can get his lawyer to do this for free?

P.S. Eoin, tall, bald guy carrying an enormous plastic kitchen for his daughter, yes that would be me. It are difficult times for her as school hasn’t started yet and mum and dad are a bit stressed so we moved some of her toys to get her at ease in the new home. She has no grasp of home as it normally means living somewhere for a few months at most, but hopefully it will sink in over time. She is always the fastest adjusting member of the family so it will work out well.

Monté Canáda was built a few years ago by Arrohabitatge - it is in Torreblanca. We stayed there in April. My observations were:

The building was generally of high quality but the appearance of the development was not helped by the "personalisation" of the apartments. Many have glazed their balconies to create an extra room. Some had built awnings on the roof terraces. The gardens were all done differently - patios barbeques and one even had a shed that looked like it was fresh out of B&Q! If our purchase contract has tighter conditions because of this it may be no bad thing provided the restrictions are not unreasonable.

The residents we spoke to were generally happy but the pools were closed for 6 months of the year to save money.

It seems to me Max and Gericom know a lot about the law governing communities etc - good to see some people have not wasted the long waiting time! However we know very little about our own situation and the priority has to be to find out more about our purchase contract conditions and community rules. I will be asking my solicitor about the "nota simple" as I am sure other will and if we all share we will be in a better position to discover whether we have a problem or not.

The situation with the Don Juan family is interesting - as Gericom says it may well be a good thing and I would suggest trying to work with them to get things done before branding them as "the enemy"

I have major concerns with the Developer and his family. There main priority is to do as little as possible for as much money as possible and they capitalise on the fact that most of the purchasers at Don Juan are non-Spanish speaking. Be aware that when the residents of Monte Canada took possession of their apartments there were that many faults due to careless/poor building that they formed a demonstration outside the developer’s office. I believe there were about 40 people involved; the developer’s response was to lock the doors and call the police.

I have experience in building and construction and have been on site many times over the last 3 years. The quality of the developers work is very poor they have used the cheapest materials and quickest building techniques. They cover everything up with paint and tiles to make things look acceptable. Do you know for instance that there is only a 100mm separation wall between apartments. Be careful when putting your pictures up as you could quite easily put a nail or screw through your neighbours water pipes / electric cables!

IN MY OPINION DON THE JUAN FAMILY ARE NOT TO BE TRUSTED AT ALL.

regards, Andy