03 Dec 2015 5:50 PM:

Well done hugh-man, after a quick look at several different translations of the HPA, it looks as if you are right.

Your other advice also seems to be very sound.

It would appear that a Community can do pretty much what it wants to within the terms of the HPA provided what they decide to do is allowed by the Statutes of the Community.

Looking back at our own Community, the Statutes, such as they were, were drafted by the first Administrator who was appointed by the developer who still owned many properties within the Community.

Since then we have changed Administrator twice but in spite of that things still don't seem to run entirley as one would think they should.

So much hinges on the integrity of the President. We are lucky that we have had some good ones.

The problem of having an autocratic President who is also Administrator is that things are somewhat circular.

It will be necessary to grin and bear it unless you can be sure of proposing and winning a motion at a General Meeting.

It is also extremely important to make absolutely certain that the resolutions of the Community at a General Meeting are actually recorded in the Official Minutes which must be in Spanish, signed by the President of the Meeting and lodged at the Land Registry.

Inclusion in the Community's Official Minute Book which has numbered pages if it is kept by a Member of the Local College of Administrators seems to be sufficient to equate to lodging minutes at the Land Registry.
This may not be the case if an Owner is performing the Office of Administrator - worth looking into.
It may be necessary to number and sign each page manually to make sure that none go absent over time.

I mention this because some of our owners made relatively costly additions and alterations to their properties, believing that the works had been approved at an AGM.
None of those resolutions had been included in the Official Minutes.

The only solution was to propose that all alterations and adaptations in place on the day of our 2012 AGM would be deemed to have the approval of the Community, which should not be confused with approval of the local planning authority.

Keep safe and well,

Best wishes,

Dai.

Thread: Presidency or Dictatorship!

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01 Dec 2015 9:27 PM:

1st December 2015

Dear Davidg

It is worth checking out the current Law of Horizontal Property to see if the clause which disallows employees of a community from being officers.

Clearly an Administrator is employed by the Community.

Also an Administrator is required to carry out any legal instructions of the Presdient.

Although the Law is often considered as a perfect nuisance in many ways, it may be your best ally in tour case.

Keep safe and well,

Best wishes.

Dai.

Thread: Presidency or Dictatorship!

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14 Sep 2015 8:13 PM:

Thank you very much for your pointers too Leo.

The subject of the accuracy of minutes of general meetings was raised.

On inspection of our Community's Minute Book, it became clear that there was no record of any resolutions which had been adopted at general meetings.

Some owners had acted in accordance with what was approved at AGMs only to discover that the decisions had not been recorded and therefore did not stand.
In one instance, one owner threatened to take legal action against another for what was described as 'illegal' additions.

As the actions involved alterations and additions to owners' properties - creation of sun-rooms etc, it was necessary to propose that all adaptations, additions and alterations up to and including the date of that particular AGM would be deemed as approved.
This proposal was adopted unanimously and minuted fully and correctly.

I understand that there have been instances where a President has insisted that work should be 'undone'.
It may be worth checking your own Community's Minute Book to make sure you don't find yourself on the wrong end of an inefficiency stick.

Dai.

 

 

Thread: Presidency or Dictatorship!

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14 Sep 2015 4:21 PM:

If you don't attend the AGM, you may not have an option to influence a decision taken about a subject which is raised at the meeting but not on the agenda.

I think the Law of Horizontal Property allows an owner 30 natural days after receipt of details to 'vote' on a resolution.
Also I think it is permissible for an owner to withold payments for a particular expenditure with which they are not in favour.
The owner runs the risk of being excluded from the benefit of the expenditure they do not wish to contribute to though.

I would suggest that you make sure that any action you decide on is within the law before taking the action.

I remember being rather surprised to find out that a candidate for President need not announce an intention to stand before the Meeting.
That makes it difficult to tell your Proxy how you wish your vote to be cast.

In the past we have been very specific about how we wished our Proxy to vote on all items on the agenda.
We ask the Proxy to vote against any resolution not on the agenda.
This may seem silly, but by doing this, we hope to encourage more openness and forward thinking.

The real shame of AGMs in Spain is that far too many of those who attend them wish to use them as a platform for a slanging and finger pointing oportunity.

Openness and clarity in all Community things would seem the best way, but it is amazing how many owners are frightened of hearing things as there are really are rather than as they look.

With ownership comes responsibility.
All members of a Community share ownership of a very valuable capital asset.
I am often surprised that some owners do not seem to recognise this.
 

Thread: Presidency or Dictatorship!

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13 Sep 2015 12:00 PM:

It looks very much as if we have all forgotten the first three rules of property.

I imagine that you will be thinking 'Location, Location, Location', but in our opinion that is well down the list.

We think they are:

NO NEIGHBOURS, NO NEIGHBOURS, NO NEIGHBOURS

As the Captain of your own ship, you can be the author of your own fate.

If you fail to maintain your own property, you have the luxury of the reduction in its capital value.
Those in a Community who are conscientious and look after their own parts will always feel disgruntled by those who expect the Community to look after their interests for them and thereby preserve the value of their capital investment.

It would seem that some Presidents spend lots of Community money because the more they spend the greater the oportunity for kick-backs.
For the same reason, there is no insentive to get the best deal for the Community.

One simple example is that some owners replace the light bulbs in their own areas at their own expense.
Others simply complain to the administrator who arranges for the bulbs to be replaced at an overall cost of several hundred euros a year.

The insurance of the building and other communal aspects may well be worthy of close examination.
I was able to make a saving of more than 30% by changing to a local broker.
The administrator was not a happy bunny because the move cost her her commission. ( a perfectly normal and reasonable aspect but one which can be avoided.)
In the process it transpired that the building would not have been covered in the event of a fire because the fire detection and warning system and the fire extinguishers had not been maintained since the building was occupied (7 years!!!).
I wondered why the administrator had not seen to this perfectly normal aspect of property management.

The answer was, as in so many cases, the people with the responsibilty for so many Community things have no experience or knowledge of property or estate management.
That also seems to apply to many of those who are acting as administrators.
Qualifications and or membership of the Regional Association of Administrators does not appear to afford any meaningful protection for Communities.
 

Thread: Presidency or Dictatorship!

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