Community Management
If you have bought a property in an urbanisation, an apartment complex or by a golf course you have also certainly joined a community. This community is responsible for its own administration and for its shared common areas. Even if that is just a hallway. In the UK some mystical person seems to deal with these common areas but now in Spain it is you. And, you have to pay for the privilege. Community Fees have to be paid annually. A well managed community (Comunidad de Propietarios) can add value to your property whereas a badly organised one will certainly reduce property values, and even make them unsellable.
A community has a democratically elected president whose normally voluntary unpaid job is to organise the efficient day to day operation of whatever exists in the common areas. From lifts to pools and from grass cutting to light bulb changing. Now if you can imagine a scenario where all your neighbours in your nice British Street have to club together to take over from the council the management of your street and all the problems that that would entail. Who would volunteer to be the president? How would the constitution be formed? Who would define the necessary management tasks, who would find providers of the relevant services, how much would people pay, how would you collect their money, what happens when they don't pay on time. What happens when half of you disagree on a crucial matter like what colour shall the front gates be. What happens if the community is in debt. What are the voting procedures. Is there an independent book keeper to provide accounts to all the neighbours???????????? It would be awful wouldn't it.
Now move 1500 miles south, turn on the weather and complicate matters further by applying the Spanish laws and language and the fact that most of your neighbours rent out their properties to complete strangers and most of your neighbours don't even speak Spanish let alone English and you start to get the idea of the potential for a bit of fun and a lot of agony.
Surprisingly enough it does all seem to work. Probably because it has to and there is no other choice. But beware of the illegal community. Over the last 30 years many urbanisations or apartment blocks have been thrown up illegally. i.e. with no proper planning permission. In some cases properties have had the land sold out from under them as an unscrupulous character took out a mortgage on the land he used to own by using the old escritura (deeds) stopped paying the mortgage and had the land repossessed by the bank. But the Bank could only repossess the land not the house that is built on it. So what happens in these circumstances, usually nothing. It's stale mate no one is going anywhere unless the community agrees en masse to spend some money to get it sorted.
An illegal urbanisation can legalise itself by appointing an architect to do what should have been done in the first place. Design a proper scheme that is legally approved and adopted by the local Town Hall and relevant planning bodies. This may mean digging up the roads and installing sanitation or electrical equipment that meets the current regulations. Otherwise the council will not adopt it and won't pay for street lighting, verge maintenance and rubbish collection etc. But try and get all the owners to agree to spending what could be several thousands of Euros to do this. Especially as it probably won't save them any money. It will certainly improve property valuations and sellability however.
This is where the constitution of the community is so important. To allow what is an interested minority to impose their will over a apathetic majority. Owners that refuse to pay can have a charge levied against their property so that the debt is at least cleared when the house is sold. Ask to see the community statutes before buying a property in it. Check out its legality. Ask how much the community fees are and are they up to date. Ask what the maintenance plans are and when are there likely to be extra amounts spent on new lifts, pool liners etc. Old Urbanisations have a habit of needing major refurbishment just after you have bought your nice townhouse.
If a new urbanisation is under construction it has not yet formed a proper urbanisation. Ask what are the procedures for forming one, when and who is responsible and carrying out and paying for maintenance until it is finished.(Normally it will be the builder, but ask)
Obligations and Rights
A comunidad de propietarios is managed under the legislation passed in 1960 with subsequent amendments in 1999 called la ley de propiedad horizontal. (Horizontal Law) It gives rights to members of communities as follows;
You may attend the AGM and any other meetings and have the right to be informed as to when these are taking place. Failure to inform members can mean an annulment of all that was agreed at the meeting. You may vote and present motions. You may serve as an officer and see all documents. Each community must appoint an independent fiscal representative to keep all records, minutes of meetings, orders, payments etc and prepare an audited set of accounts for all members to see. This representative is called an Administrador de Fincas. But be careful about who you appoint. Is he there just to make sure that his cousin gets the garden contract or his brother maintains the lift. Make sure that you keep copies of all the papers and the check book in case you might want to fire him. He is there to represent your interests and not to line his own pockets and those of his relations.
Depending on the size of the Community the President, who may be paid for his work if everyone agrees, may also need the help of a book keeper and a secretary. There may be a need for an office. Officers should be democratically elected and rotate annually. But if you find a willing president that does good work hang on to them and keep encouraging them to carry on with their good work as frankly it is a thankless task.
There is an enormous urbanisation of some 6.000 properties called "Sitio de Calahonda" it is near Fuengirola on the Costa del Sol. It is full of foreigners. A typical joke about committee meetings is when a French resident comes along to the meeting and insists on talking in fluent Spanish with the Spanish President. Only to hear bitter complaints from the predominantly English members that the frenchman has lived here for 11 years he should know now how to speak a bit of English. Another one is when a Calahonda member meets new friend from another urbanisation and is asked if there are many foreigners up there only to reply that he thinks there are a few Spaniards. Oh Eldorado, you missed a golden opportunity to make a classic soap comedy/tragedy out of all this. Especially when you throw in a few elderly Nazis, a few decrepit Poles, a couple of tightfisted Jews and some wealthy Arabs.
Bearing in mind that most members are absent for most of the time, it is very difficult for most Presidents to do their job democratically. As decisions often need to be made that should be put to a vote but need more urgent action. Such as replacing a lift. Or introducing new rules about lifeguards around swimming pools. All pools over 1.45M deep must have a lifeguard. There can be no swimming while the lifeguard is absent and lifeguards do not come cheap even if you can find one.