Community fees

[Salsywalsy]

Is it spanish law that community fees are apportioned by the square metres of the apartment or bedrooms or what

[pwwm]

Do you mean the yearly rates or literally community fees for communal pool etc. If you mean the rates I do believe it is sq mtr total plot.

pwwm

[John M]

Salsywalsy, Community Fees ARE based on the square metres of your property, known as the Quota. Voting on Community issues, at the AGM for example, are also based on this. The details are laid down in the Law of Horizontal Property, try Googling or buy 'You and the Law in Spain' which has an English translation of the law.

The annual town hall fees (IBI) are based in the value of your house.

Hope this helps,

John M

[Mariamartinez]

good answer...
but still for example I pay 107€ as community fee for only 60 meters house! so I think thats quite expensive!

[John M]

Hi Mariamartinez, that does sound a bit high. I pay 105 Euros for 180 sq mtrs 4 storie town house, but neighbouring Urbs pay twice that. Most of our fees are staff costs, but we have 5 pool complexes between 123 properties.

Having said that, my partener as President last year, tried to put the fees up 10% but was out-voted at the AGM..............by the equivalent of 1 house's quota!

Many of the owners are absent in Madrid, and thus reluctant to pay for any extras. At the end of the day you get what the majority want

[bunty]

It is up to each individual community to decide on how fees are set.
For example I have two flats.
In one we pay according to square meters so some flats pay more than others.This way was decided in the community meeting when first set up.

In the other flat although flats are of different size it was agreed that we all pay the same fees.

[Bongtrees]

I pay 105 Euros for 180 sq mtrs 4 storie town house.

Most of our fees are staff costs, but we have 5 pool complexes between 123 properties.

Seems incredible that everything can be paid out from only 12, 915 euros.

I own a property on a rural urb and the insurance premium for public liabilty for the one faded tennis court is 1,500 euros p.a.

Mike

[John M]

Hi Bongtrees, we cover everything required for the Urb and 3 staff inc. public liability etc, but only just . We are about 55% Spanish, 45% others, ranging from Iceland to Japan. The Resident owners, Spanish and others, would like a little more hence the attempt to raise the fees by 10%, but this was out voted, mainly by the non residents. We have just settled on a pool accident some 8 years ago but that was, as always, fought out among the insurance companies and the Urb was not liable in the end.

We had to abandon plans to resurface the roads a couple of years ago as the money saved had to be used to upgrade the pools to the latest safety standards (non skid path surround, 2 showers etc.) At least it keeps the traffic speed down . Every Community requirement is heavily scrutinised and tenders sought by the (non paid) Management Board, this helps but needs Community support from the owners.

Any Community is a democratic organisation and gets what the majority want. However we have a few new owners join us from adjacent Urbs in the last few years who are fed up with high Community fees and lax security - we are a gated Community with secure parking

It's not so much incredible, just a lot of hard work by a few volunteers inc. me and my partner.

[pigs-might-fly]

good answer...
but still for example I pay 107€ as community fee for only 60 meters house! so I think thats quite expensive!

Is that for a month or a year?
If the latter it's incredibly cheap!
We paid 670 Euros for last year for a two bed. flat (our cuota is "1") and next year, because of non-payers we are likely to see it go up by about 150 euros.
Mixed communities are always a problem as the (mainly) Spanish holiday owners only care that the place is there and running for the month they come down for annual holidays. The rest of you can go hang!

[Mariamartinez]

Well me and my syster pay 107-117/month for an appartment in Madrid including caretaker, central coal heating and hot water. But still, it is expensive. Apparently the building is ok. The mortage is 520 euros so the community raises the cost of the house so much, but now we rent it out so it is self-paid! that´s my only consolation...