Changing the way community fees are paid

I've been looking all over for this information, and I can't seem to find it. Our community fees haven't increased in the 6 years the community has been in existence. Some owners want a percentage increase - which is the fairest way, as those with the biggest properties pay the biggest share. Others - notably the villa owners - want a fixed charge paid by everyone.

The President and VP are saying that they can do this, if enough people vote for it, but several of us are of the opinion that this would be changing the way our community fees are paid, and that therefore it would require a unanimous vote. The same person tried to get the community fees changed so that everyone paid exactly the same a couple of years ago, but as that would have meant big increases for most of us, it was vetoed.

Maybe I'm using the wrong search terms, but I can't find anything other than that fees must be paid, etc. Does anyone know if there is something out there that spells it out? Whichever way the voting goes, we want to know if it's legal or not, and whether we could refuse to pay the increase without risking our properties.

The way community fees are calculated will be a function of the original statutes of the community and almost certainly are determined by the size of plot or apartment, here at MCC it is by size of plot.

The changing of those calculations constitute a change to the statutes and therefore can only be done with the approval of ALL owners.

You will need to read your statutes to confirm my opinion.

Barry

This is my understanding unless your community statute says otherwise...

Unanimity is only required for the validity of those resolutions, which involve approval or modification of the rules contained in the charter of constitution, or the Community statutes.

Angie

My last community charged every house the same price 320€ per year up from 200€ over a period of ten years, which to me is only fair and correct, a large Villa didn't use anymore of the community services then i did with a slightly smaller Villa, the pathway lighting was the same for everyone, the pool was the same for everyone, i cant see just because you got a bigger sized plot you used more of the collective services.

Our charges went up the same for every house accordingly to what had to be spent on any repairs etc, when the pool wanted to be repaired due to lose tiles the extra full cost was divided up by every house, by a one of payment, and that was your share to pay, which we did.

I think what your actually saying is that the largest Villa's are paying the most charges, and if they (Charges) were all the same the smaller ones get an increase, but again what do the larger one's use more of then the smaller one's.

If you haven't had any increase in 6 years that can surely only mean one of a couple of things, either your community is very well  maintained that no major repairs are needed or your fee's cover any expenditure not worthy of the mention.  

  Sandra,  have a look at

                          http://www.spanishpropertyinsight.com/legal/the-comunidad-de-propietarios-ley-de-propiedad-horizontal-commonhold-law/

Thanks everyone - particularly johnzx, for that really useful link. We had the AGM today, and voted for a 10% increase, and also to cut back on non-essential work for the next 12 months. Our Administrator confirmed our suspicions that the fixed rate increase would be a change in the way we paid our fees, and so we needed to reach unanimous agreement.

The meeting went a lot better than anticipated, and we do seem to have reached some sort of common ground, which is good.