Community president role

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Rosaline
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Community president role

Postby Rosaline » Sun Sep 17, 2017 6:25 pm

Please could anyone advise on this. 2 owners from 52 have complained to the president about the cleaning of the pool. No one else has complained and we are very happy with his work. In fact since he was appointed 2 years ago the pool has been the best it has ever been. Without asking other owners or addressing the aledged problem with the pool man, the president has got rid of him and appointed another pool man. His first attempt at caring for the pool was not good. To dismiss the pool man and appoint another outside of the AGM appears to us to be against the horizontal property act- article 17, that is if have interpreted it right. Decisions about changing pool, cleaners services have always been discussed and voted on at the AGM and a democratic decision made. Worst of it is, the 2 people complaining said the pool has not been good for over 2 years. But they have never raised this at an AGM. This has caused a lot of ill feeling in the community. Any advice or comments would be appreciated. Thank you

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fyfin
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Re: Community president role

Postby fyfin » Sun Sep 17, 2017 6:55 pm

A tricky one. I am President of a community and happily not in that position. I work with the Administrator and if someone complained to me that they were not happy with the pool cleaning I would first of all check it out myself. If I felt that it was justified I think I would have the right to change the supplier via the administrator without consultation as the President does have a certain degree of authority to decide which suppliers to use.

In fact working with the Administrator we have recently changed the lift maintenance and fire alarm company and didn't consult ith the rest of the owners. In both cases it was to save a considerable amount of money. It was mentioned though at the previous AGM that we would be undertaking this exercise.

However, if by doing this the service provided by the new supplier was not satisfactory then I would think this would be raised at the next AGM and the President should certainly be informed.

In your case it looks like he/she acted rather hastily and I certainly wouldn't have done it that way, but we don't vote at an AGM on supplier changes. The owners trust me to make changes if I feel that it is justified.
A man likes his wife to be just clever enough to appreciate his cleverness, and just stupid enough to admire it

wollie
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Re: Community president role

Postby wollie » Sun Sep 17, 2017 8:52 pm

It sounds to me not to be a serious issue but i am not there.
From my experience AGM for the most part about funding
and agreement of same.
However an emergency general meet EGM can be called at
any time depending on the issue and the amount of people
unhappy, how this works for you be written into your original
community contract...

Lyric
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Re: Community president role

Postby Lyric » Sun Sep 17, 2017 10:55 pm

In my small community the President makes these decisions and explains himself at the AGM. This even if the President was a holiday dweller only, which he was.

Rosaline
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Re: Community president role

Postby Rosaline » Mon Sep 18, 2017 7:28 pm

Thank you all for your comments. What confuses some of us is firstly the horizontal property act; which is vague about presidents role and more specific about the administrators role. In article 17 it states that the establishment or elimination of lift, janitor etc services and other common services ( which we understand can mean pool or cleaning services) need a certain amount of votes. It does not say that the establishment of a brand new service or an existing one after it is eliminated if you see what I mean. So we feel it can be interpreted both ways. We do not have a seperate community board, so again confusingly it says in our internal rules that owners will expose their complaints, suggestions, observations to the president or administrator. They will send them to the community board (we don't have one) to take appropriate decisions. The nearest to a community board is the owners at the AGM. The president has listened to 2 serial complainers and then acted without asking for anyone's else's view. At an AGM over 2 years ago a decision was taken to change the cleaners. It was agreed by all present that if the cleaning wasn't of the standard expected then the president could change the cleaner. It was also agreed for the administrator to get quotes for insurance, electricity supplier and lift maintenance. If cheaper quotes were found then the president was authorised to change these. So we do run the community democratically.....well up to now. It just doesn't make sense to us, only to say that the good Spanish pool man has gone to be replaced by an English one.

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fyfin
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Re: Community president role

Postby fyfin » Tue Sep 19, 2017 10:58 am

There may well be something else going on, of course, but it will be difficult to prove. I personally prefer Spanish suppliers but I think if there are a lot of British owners, as in our case, then some are more comfortable with suppliers who are British. I see it more of an aid to learning a bit more Spanish and can manage to communicate reasonably well.
We have no community board either and the term is a bit confusing as a board in a company would be made up of directors so a board in a community could be the President and any officers elected e.g. vice president and secretary (administrator).

Your best option is to raise it at the AGM as I don't think it's worth trying to get an EGM organised for something that others might see as trivial.
A man likes his wife to be just clever enough to appreciate his cleverness, and just stupid enough to admire it


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