Community Funds dissapeared???

Hi All

I wonder if anyone has any advice you could give me please? I am asking on behalf of my parents who own an apartment in Estepona. Most people pay their fees with no problem but no one knows what the administrator is doing with the money. Recently they had to pay more to get the security gates put on the urbanisation as they were told the community fees couldn't cover the costs. Now the admin has put signs up saying it is illegal to use the swimming pools as they cannot afford to pay a life guard and they cannot get it licensed because the community money is gone!! We have found out that four of the developers own 20++ apartments and owe over €60,000 in fees but they are life long friends with the administrator so he is in no hurry to file the papers and force them to pay. It has been voted for over 2 years that the developers should be taken to court but nothing has been done.

Alot of the people on the urbanisation wanted rid of this administrator at the last meeting but it seemed to turn into an English/ Spanish thing and all the Spanish owners voted him back in because they seemed to think the English were against him because he is Spanish.(which,of course is not the case or why would they have moved to Spain?) When the administrator counted the votes against him,he refused to accept the votes by proxy (mostly English!!) as they did not have passport numbers on them?!?! We have since been told that this is not correct either?

There is a lovely Spanish lady living on the Urbanisation that would like to become the administrator and we all feel she would be perfect for the job as,of course, she has all the urbanisations best interests at heart and she speaks perfect English so that would straight away save thousands a year in translators fees. Also,anyone could go and knock at her door with problems as she lives there. The current administrator can usually only be found by email as he never seems to be in his office when anyone goes to see him. My husband did some building work there and it took us months to get paid as the administrator would not sign the cheque and we could never find him!

Sorry it's a little long winded,there are so many more stories about this guy but you get the general idea! If anyone has any advice as to how my parents can get rid of him and protect their money please let me know. We really have no idea where to turn now and they are being told the community will very soon be bankrupt.

Hi does the community not have a president ? You need to obtain up to date bank statements to see how much the community has left. Ask for expenditure for the year. I ask that does the community need a life guard? how much is the administrator being paid. as with the community payments to people should sign the cheques.

May be you could ask maria on EOS for any information.

Any way good luck

Hi Goldie

No,they don't need a life guard but he is saying it is illegal to use the pools without one? I am not sure how much the administrator is paid, I will ask my mum and post when I know.

Thanks for the advice,I will pass it on and let you know what happens. I have applied for the free book from those accountants which was being talked about on another thread so hopefully that will help?

Maria,if you have the time could you please let me know where we stand in your opinion?

Thanks again

You ( 25% of the owners holding 25% of the shares) can call an extraordinary General Meeting for the change of administrator and also, to ask the current ones for the issues you need more information about. If the refusal, negative or results of the meeting are not according to the Horizontal Law, you can of course go to Courts for the same purposes.

Best regards,

Maria

Thanks Maria

I have passed on the information to my parents and the lady they would like to become administrator.

Thanks for your help

When you do call a meeting those that have community payments outstanding have the right to attend but are not allowed to vote the spanish lady sounds ideal.

I didn't know that Goldie!! I'm sure the current admintsrator did not inform them of this and counted their votes!! I will speak to my parents ASAP.

Thanks for that,it may be VERY useful!

Please down load the horizontal law on marias link there is a lot of information in it.

I emailed it straight to my parents and they are passing it on to the president and the Spanish lady.

From what we can gather they are in the process of calling a meeting now. The administrator has finally filed the court papers in April of this year(at least 2 years waiting!) but he claims the Estepona courts are very slow so he has no idea when the case will be called.

Ok,newest thing!

The larger,children friendly pool has now been closed with barriers as the administrator says they need €9000 to hire a life guard for the summer!  Alot of people are up in arms as they have rented their apartments advertising 2 swimming pools,one child friendly.

It has been suggested that the people currently paying their community fees every month should pay together the extra money for the life guard.(they already paid more for the gates to be put on).

I have told my parents to tell them they are pensioners and have no more money to give but they are worried they will be taken to court. I am sure they cannot be taken to court if they have paid over and above the stated community fees for years?

This administrator is completely corrupt and refuses to reveal the proxy votes and no one is standing up to him. There is no doubt he will mirraculously be voted in again. Everyone we know has wanted him out for the last 2 years but he somehow keeps winning even though there is no money left?

The developers always make him administrator in their developements and then don't pay community charges and he does nothing about it. Old people like my parent who have moved here to retire in a lovely urbanisation are being screwed over by these people and we have no idea how to stop it??

Some comments below in bold green:

Ok,newest thing!

The larger,children friendly pool has now been closed with barriers as the administrator says they need €9000 to hire a life guard for the summer!  Ups! that is a lot of money!  Alot of people are up in arms as they have rented their apartments advertising 2 swimming pools,one child friendly.

It has been suggested that the people currently paying their community fees every month should pay together the extra money for the life guard.(they already paid more for the gates to be put on).

I have told my parents to tell them they are pensioners and have no more money to give but they are worried they will be taken to court. I am sure they cannot be taken to court if they have paid over and above the stated community fees for years? Of course not. Those charges need to be paid by all owners according to theis shares and no specific owners can be forced to get overvcharged.

This administrator is completely corrupt and refuses to reveal the proxy votes and no one is standing up to him. There is no doubt he will mirraculously be voted in again. Everyone we know has wanted him out for the last 2 years but he somehow keeps winning even though there is no money left?

The developers always make him administrator in their developements and then don't pay community charges and he does nothing about it. Old people like my parent who have moved here to retire in a lovely urbanisation are being screwed over by these people and we have no idea how to stop it??

Start organising the extraordinary community meeting for new appointment of Administrator and sorting of recent problems. In the meantime, of course you are not obligued  to pay any extras.

There was a really good thread on here from someone who was having trouble on her community.  Mainly because the President and the administrator were related and dubious things were happening with the communial funds.

She dealt with it by involving all the owners and set up a method where questions could be raised.  They succeeded in calling an AGM and sacking the administrator.  After stalling tactics they received the accounts and set about restoring order to the community.  Haven't heard anything for sometime but it seems like the same thing should happen here.

Is the president in cahoots with the administrator?

As you have someone who could devise a letter in Spanish and English? then perhaps the best way to start is by writing to all residents who are paying fees and have voting rights.  The president should have this information.  You need to get everyone to work together and the fact that this is going to cost everyone money in the long run should get people united.

If someone's not doing their job then they should be sacked, nationality doesn't matter.  No one can afford to keep paying these extra expenses.  From reading other threads it would seem that most developers don't pay the fees for their empty properties so I don't know how you'll get on with that but if they can't legally vote is a great piece of advice.

If you do have the president on your side then do your own count before the EGM so you'll know beforehand how many votes you have.

Good Luck

As a community, try speaking to the town hall as all community administrators need to be approved and licensed locally. I feel that your president needs to start taking a bit more control also.

Also bear in mind that non paying owners should not get a vote so that should solve the developer/administrator issue and if all else fails then simply stop paying him as he will soon walk away when the money dries up, and like he says 'the legal process in Spain is very slow' so I would doubt he would pursue you all and he will just move on whilst you appoint another administrator.

However, beware that your 'local old lady' would require a license to act as administrator!

Hi

This 9000€ is a lot of money to pay for a life guard, the community should obtain there own quotes.

It is the community that pays the administrator sack them. And if your president does not agree put a vote of no confidence in them.  call a meeting now. the builder cant vote if he owes money.

Hi

You can overcome the problem of a paying a lifeguard  by altering the pool size  (I don't know what the size must be for this) so we opted to make the pools smaller, at a cost of course, but it eliminates for good the lifeguard payment.   And going off the subject my husband and I are pensioners who live within a community and I often feel that the permanent residents and the holiday rentals have a different priority, the first just want a nice home and surroundings to live in and the latter how much money they can make.  Indeed when we first bought we didn't  relise this was how it was going to be.

Kathy