17 Nov 2007 4:24 PM:
Hi there Los Olivians
I do hope these next few coments are helpful - I am not trying to tell you how you should do stuff up there on the hill - thats up to you guys - Its your Communidad !!
However , the whole Communidad thing does take a bit of time and effort to work out ..................so a few pointers perhaps .............
This is from my own experience as I am currently the President of the Los Azahares Communidad and we've been operating for almost 4 years now, we are only 16 apartments so it's not been quite so complicated - but in the early days bno-one really knew what was what and so we had to kind of work it out from scratch - and we did make some mistakes.
#1 its your communidad - it exists to protect you all collectively - and actually the Comminidad actually owns all the public spaces , l.e., the pool and you have a % share in that Collectively owned Space.
#2 - in a large development like yours or the Jacaranda's the builder has to appoint an Administrator to get things kicked off - a President has also to be "found" from somewhere and if one of you guys did not put themselves forward - then a President will be appointed - in the case of Los Rosales for instance - this was a BMS director ( OK to get the post filled and OK for someone speaking Spansih but absolutely NOT OK to lok aftere your interests. It took Los Rosales a year to get their own President identified and elected in.
#3 - The administrators are just that administrators - they can only administer a set of rules that you the residents wish to have icreated - in the event of there not being any to kick off with - they'll create something which they think is suitable . But their main job is to adminster.
- Aminister the collection of your Community charge
- Admisnter paying the people who you ( or they) decide to contract with - and in the early stages of a Communidad most contractors just seem to be related to either the builder or the Administrators
- But in essence they have no power at all - the power lies with the Comminidad and its "Officers"
- All properties have to pay the Community charge once the Communidad is establsihed, if the apartment is still owned by the builder - the builder has to pay the charge - I understand the Community can block the sale of an apartment being finanlised if there are outstanding Community Charges.
- the Communidad approves ( or should approve ) any and all alterations - especially things like colours of awanings / pergola's and especially any alteration wich cahnges the outward appearance of a property - you will find that your "enscripturas" - your title deeds, have a clause in them about "uniformity" which really means that the apartments have to fundementally look the same .....so one person can't just decide to paint their property pink or whatever.
So in essence its down to your guys to decide how you want things to be and go about ensuring that marinsol dance to your tune and not ( as it kind of sounds at the moment) you dance to theirs.
If you havn't already you must decide amongst yourselves who is going to be the President elect and who are going to be his/her officers
- Perhaps a deputy President
- Somone to look after or watch over Finance
- A secretary/ Communicator
- Other other deputies who are going to assist the President and if necessary ensure the rules are adhered to ( I believe Los Rosales ( 70 odd apartments) actually has Residents ( Communidad Officers) who keep careul eye on Pool behaviours and noise ) I can't all be down to the President and people on site need to know what is OK / Not OK and act if necessary. You need to decide how many deputies you need but with 90 odd apartments you are going to needa few 4 or 5 perhaps
The fact is that until youu take control of your own community the administrators (Marinsol in your case ) will kinda do what they think is best for you .....................................and that may not be what the majority of you want.. Incidenatlly its up to the Communidad to decide who they have as adminstrators after the 1st year . You choose ! Your adminstrators are there as a service provider to you , if you don't like 'em , in the same way as if you don't like the gardener .....you have to decide to chage them
Its always going to be difficult with 90 odd apartments and trust me you'll never please all the people all the time - but you can decide on some fundementals or key Principles and its then up to your Pesident and his / her Officers how they proceed. the position of President is an important one and it does have legal powers - so it needs to be someone you trust and someone who is prepared to put a bit of time and effort into doing Communidad work
hope that helps a bit ...there are several other Commindads set up on Huerta Nueva - I suggest you have a chat to a President or two and get your own Communidad set up as you want it
Lastly ......................................bloomin good luck !!
Community thread:
Entitlements
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