Community Administrations

Communities and Administrations

Legal Basis.
Apartments and villas that form part of a building complex will generally be subject to the 'Laws of Horizontal Division'. These laws regulate and protect the interests of the various owners of property, ie; 'the community', on that complex. It requires that a 'Community of Owners' be formed to manage the running of the complex. Initially, this Community is usually formed by the builder when the construction is first completed. The total costs of running the complex are shared between the owners, usually based on their individual 'area of ownership' as a fraction of the total area of the properties. This fraction of the total ownership is the owners 'quota' (very often works out to be betwen 1-4%) and is used as a basis for calculating the owners share of the community fees and for assigning 'voting power' at AGM's.

The purpose of Community
Is to provide and maintain the various services required by any community. The supply of water, electricity, cable TV, refuse collection, swimming pool maintenance, communal lighting and cleaning services, etc, all need to be implemented, scheduled and paid for. Although these tasks can be met by individuals within the community, most complexes appoint a professional 'Administrator' to take care of this. The President and Committee members should hold regular meetings to consider the needs and requests of other owners, and then direct the Adminstrator accordingly.

AGM's - Exercise your rights - Spot manipulations for the meeting
The rules governing AGM's are numerous and can be obscure. Unfortunately, this leaves the system wide open to abuse by those with sufficient power and a little knowledge. When you feel something is fundamentally wrong with the operation of your community, it is not always an easy task to rectify then.

Things that will frustrate your efforts are -

1. You need to get your point of view presented to ALL of the other owners on the complex.
2. You can only realistically do this by mailing them, which can be a time consuming and expensive exercise.
3. Contact names and addresses of the other owners will be very difficult to obtain.
4. If your views are contrary to the Admin, they are unlikely to assist you in contacting other owners.
5. You cannot raise your issues at an AGM unless the are on the published agenda.
6. Many owners, particularly non-resident owners, don't bother, or are unable to attend AGM's.
7. Many are unaware of what is really happening on their complex, don't want any problems and are apathetic to change.
8. Minutes of AGM's sent to owners, never faithfuly record anything that reflected badly on the Admin.
9. Admins, or other individual opposed to your views often hold large number of proxy votes, and will outvote you.
10. If the Law has been broken, nobody is going to do anything - its up to you instigate a legal action.

Ploys generally used by others to manipulate communities and retain control.

1. Sending letters to owners, playing down problems and designed to reinforce the 'everything is Ok' syndrome.
2. Sending 'Minutes' of AGM's that don't convey the serious concerns and issues raised by other owners
3. Not sending letters to ALL owners in writing, as required by law, advising them of the AGM.
4. Not sending letters to owners o advise them of potentially disastrous problems, before the disaster arrives.
5. Changing the date, time or venue of the AGM at the last moment, before people can change their schedules.
6. Choosing dates that minimise the number of owners likely to attend, large 'proxy' holders will of course be there.
7. Misleading, un-audited or unnecessarily complicated presentation of accounts and budgets at AGM's
8. Ignoring repeated requests from owners for accounts and other information, until they simply 'go away'.
9. Using the language barrier to imply that things are 'too complicated for you understand'.

1. The 'Committee' are obligated to respond to any owners points. They must ensure the owners points received proper attention and response. Make sure you put you point/s in writing, on a clearly dated document, and retain a copy of this and any responses.
2. By law, the 'President' is the 'responsible' individual for everything. I bet many 'Presidents' don't realise this. In the event of a major problem, it is the President, not the Admin or someone else, who will be sued, eg, by creditors, authorities, etc)
3. Following an AGM, ANY owner who feels that the meeting was illegally conducted (for instance, knowing that not everyone was notified), can issue an 'Impugnacion' (legal objection) via a lawyer, to declare the meeting null and void. Although few meetings are 'completely legal', the burden of proof will be on the owner, so documented evidence of the infringement/s probably mandatory.
5. To discuss something at the AGM, instruct Admin in writing, about 8 weeks before the AGM, to place it on the agenda.
6. ALL owners must be notified of AGM's, by registered mail to their 'domicile' address - this is the law.
7. Each owner has 1 vote for each of his properties. The power of the vote is usually proportional to his 'quota'.
8. Each owner can designate his vote to a representative, who may act on the owner's behalf. This is a 'proxy' vote.
9. The 'representative' does not have to be anyone connected to the property, it can be any relative or aquaintance.

Community Rules (Statutes)
Most communities have a comprehensive set of rules governing the the general rights and standards of behaviour expected fom persons residing temporarily or permanently on the complex. In almost every case, these rules are sensible and have evolved over a long period of time and experience. If you feel a particular statute is totally inappropriate for your particular complex, or only exists for the benefit of an individual or small number of people - then you can get it changed (if a sufficient number of owners agree with you, of course). You need the agreement of 25% (the minimum) of the quota of the complex to make your proposed changes. Then inform the Administrator of your intentions and ask them to call an EGM. (Extra-ordinary General Meeting). An invitation will be sent to all owners, to attend. At the EGM you can discuss and then vote on the changes you propose. The vote is counted to decide if the new rule is adopted or not. If adopted the new or changed rules must be registered with the official Registrar for it to be legal and binding. All owners should then be informed of the new statute.

Community Fees
Community fees are usually set in accordance with a budget that has been presented and agreed to at the AGM. It is important to ensure that your administrator is getting services at the best rates possible. Your fees are needed to cover the cost of essential services needed by the community. The combined total of these fees is usually an extremely large sum of money and therefore open to some abuse. Typical examples of items that should receive consideration, before simply accepting 'next years budget' are -

• Water charges - In 1997 water was around 1.5 Euros per cubic metre, and free of other charges.
• Insurance - Are you paying for full public liability Insurance - The exploiter should pay, they need it fo their clients.
• Television - Many complexes pay large sums for Sky TV (amazing, since its actually illegal to receive it in Tenerife)
• Bad Debts - What action is being taken against owners who refuse to pay or are well behind with community fees.
• Legal Fees - Are you paying more for legal fees than the amounts actually being recovered (very common).
• Improvements - Are you actually paying for improvements required the exploiter?
• Poor Maintenance - Very large charges are often made for very low standard repairs.

Administration and/or Committee. How do owners change them?
Using the previous year's Accounts and current Budget's as a basis, get alternative quotes from other Administration companies. You then need to have a minimum of 25% of the quota's of the complex in agreement to call an EGM at which you can present your proposals and quotations, and discuss the matter with the owners that are present. A vote can then be taken to accept or reject the proposals. If you are voting out the administrator or a member of the committee, those persons cannot use block votes to manipulate the vote in their favour. (Clause 14 of the Horizontal Laws was specifically ammended to prevent this). You must give at least 2 months notice to the out going person/people/company.