notice required for 1st meeting

Hi

We are due to complete on a new  development, could anyone advise what notice the developer will  legally be required to  give us in order to call the first community meeting and AGM?

Any advice welcome.

Dave

The Horizontal Law states that at least six days notice should be given for an AGM, and "extraordinary meetings shall be called with sufficient time to inform all parties concerned". Take that however you like. It has been well documented that many overseas buyers, and in many cases local buyers as well, fail to receive "sufficient" notification of impending meetings. It is not entirely clear to me whether the developer has any legal obligation to issue notice of meetings to an address outside of Spain, and if no alternative Spanish address is provided, the unit address may be deemed by default to be your correspondence address (but don't quote me on that last bit!)

My point here is basically that you should make every effort possible yourself to ensure that the developer has adequate information to issue you with "sufficient" notice, because they are unlikely to go out of their way to contact you. Try to make sure they are clear that you do wish to be present at the first meeting, confirm that they have the correct contact information, and keep in touch with them and any other buyers you know in your development to give yourself every possible chance of attending the meeting.

Best of luck with your completion, and of course your first community meeting. Believe me, it's an experience you are unlikely to forget in a hurry!  

I agree with Roberto, the onus is on you as an owner to get the info.

He is right about the amount of notice for an AGM, BUT that does not have to be to each individual, a notice in the Urb for that period is sufficient.

Also there is no legal need to send any information OUT of Spain, you are supposed to have a fiscal address in Spain that all correspondence can be sent to.

Having said that, in our Community we make sure that information, ie notice of meetings, are sent out to the addresses we have on record wherever they may be. We also try to give about 2 months notice ( to the individual ) of the AGM....................................................and they still moan!!

Best to keep in touch with the developer and keep your ear to the ground!!

Thank you both for taking the time and trouble to answer my question regarding the 1st meeting of a new development.

Could i ask if you could offer  further advice, at what point would the developer call the 1st meeting. Also could you supply any information that would help with our 1 st meeting, what should we be looking out for etc etc.

Any advice will be greatly received

I would expect the developer to call the first meeting pretty soon after the Licence of First Occupation has been issued, even if there are still unsold units or buyers yet to sign, since he will want to unburden himself of maintainence costs as soon as possible (by passing them on to new owners). I don't think there's any official point at which it will be called.

Read the Horizontal Law (the President's Bible - available here in English: http://www.eyeonspain.com/spain-magazine/horizontal-laws.pdf) in order to familiarise yourself with the workings of a community in Spain before attending the meeting.

What to look out for? All sorts of flying things - like insults and furniture. These meetings can tend to be pretty riotous affairs. One thought - if there are still unsold units at the time of the meeting, it would be worth raising the subject of the community fee for these units being paid by the developer until such time as they are sold. Often, developers will try to avoid paying, even though they are still the official owners of these units, and therefore must contribute like everyone else.

Over to you Karen, for any other tips..........