Community fee help

Hi

Need a little bit of help..........................bought an apartment and was told community fee approx 300 - 350 euros per year  and then contacted administrator regarding how much and how we pay, however he told us approx 460 euros per year but on speaking with someone in the community there was alot of debt/arrears. Should new owners be picking up this debt/arrears ? 

Many Thanks

Nicola 

 Hi Nicola,

ok two possible questions there.

1.  You will not be paying on behalf of other owners who are in debt.

     The amount you pay will be specific to your apartment, and the quota for that will be defined in your deeds as a % on the community cost.  So even if other owners are in debt you will not pay more.

2.  New owner are libel for any debt on their apartment.  

     Of you but an apartment that has outstanding debt, then you are libel for it.  At the time of purchase you should of been informed if the property had any outstanding debt.  Which you should of agreed with or the seller should of settled.

If you have any further queries, just ask

Phil

You could ask the administrator for a copy of the annual budget as agreed at the last agm (a copy of the minutes should include it) and then use the coefficient stated on your escritura (deed) to calculate your share. It's not always quite as straight forward as that, however, since not all propeerties necessarily contribute to all the communal expenses (for example, if there are any commercial locales, they may not contribute towards the up-keep of a pool), but it would be a starting point and would also let the administrator know that you are not one to be messed about. You could also try asking a neighbour with a similar property how much they currently pay, just to make sure you are not being charged more than you should be. By the way, 1) virtually every community has arrears, and 2) 460 euros a year isn't a lot by most standards, unless you have a tiny studio, so don't worry too much about this. Most important thing is to keep your own payments up to date - don't become one of the debtors, that will only add to any problems the community has.

Hi

Thanks for the information.

I do have a copy of last years minutes from AGM , and it was then they put up fees (July2010) as they had a quite a big shortfall from 2009/2010 as i took ownership november 2010 i want  to know why i have to pay into shortfall ?

Any outstanding fees were paid upto november 2010 by the builder.

Nicola

An annual budget is simply a best guesstimate. At the end of the year, if there was a deficit, it just means they got it wrong. This has to be taken into account when calculating the coming year's budget (to try and get it right next time!) Don't look at it as making up for last year's shortfall - if the previous owner (in your case the builder / developer) paid all his dues up to the date of transfer, you can't really ask for anything more. Try to chat to neighbours about it if you're concerned, to get their thoughts about how your community works, but I don't think you should worry about it.

 What happens when a community rejects the proposed budget?

Do the Administrator and President have to go back an rework the figures?

Well somebody has to! If it cannot be agreed during the AGM, an EGM would have to be called pretty soon afterwards. A community with no set budget is headed for disaster IMHO.

if the budget is not agreed don't they have to carry on with the previous year's figures?

 It's the first budget. Nearly 500k Euros and only about 10% identifyable as benefit to the owners.

Not that it's really any of our business, but I'm mighty curious about what the other 450k is for then?