Life here in Spain is excellent but for the stress of a Committee aiming to build an English Community. There belief is ” We are English and are the majority, so we shall rule”. Use of Proxy votes to keep hold of power. They can break the Law but others must suffer the threats of eviction, simply because we have put a Gazebo on our roof terrace with the permission of our Landlord. According to the Statutes, these are not mentioned so are not illegal. No planning permission is required but we have been to the Ayuntamiento and requested this, no problem. They know the problem we are having and have laughed about this after coming to see why there is a problem. They have granted planning permission. 2 more illegal buldings have been passed by the Committee which need planning permission and should be voted on in the AGM, but none of these legal requirements have been adopted as they seem to think they are the Law to say what can be built. We continually tell them this is against the Horizontal Law but they just ignore us. We are now gathering troops with other residents ( German and Spanish) who are very unhappy about the state of affairs but are out voted. We have a Lawyer who has written to the Administrater who simply ignored our requests.After a meeting with her it was obvious she works for the Committee and not the Community. The AGM is in September and we have noticed irregularities within the Agenda. We have knowledge of the President not standing for the position for the next year and the Vice President is going to take over, this has not been mentioned within the Agenda so People who will not be here give there votes to the President who uses them to keep them in office. Surely if this is a known action, should not people be told and to be allowed to have the right to use their vote properly and not allow these people to use proxy votes illegally. One thing that suprises me is , the amount of people who buy on a Community do not know or are just too lazy to take the time to know the legal rights they are entitled too. After all this does effect the whole community and spoils the pleasure of life for a lot of other persons. We are all Imigrants living in Spain and live under the same Umbrella of the Law.Surely this is wrong. I could mention more laws they are breaking but I would be here all day and probably boring you all. I would just like to mention, this has caused us and others great stress, our lives are a living hell at the moment. Please what can one do legally.

Hi
I can sympathize with your situation. It is not uncommon. What can you do?
1. As you are doing now, report all building irregularities to the council. They are slow, but they can cause real problems for the law breakers in the end.
2. As you are doing now, try to get the apathetic ones to sit up and take notice.
3. Try to get a vote to change the administrator at the OGM. For this you will need to present a couple of alternative admins along with costs etc, and try to muster the rest of the community to support your action.
4. If you believe the current admin. is acting incorrectly, denounce them to the Colegio de Administradores de Fincas Rusticas y Urbanas. The present admin. must be a member of this Colegio and can be sanctioned by them.
5. Stand for president yourself, and try to get enough supporting votes to force the issue.

That’s for starters. I’ll try to come back with more info soon.

Algrif

Thank you for your reply, I am doing all these things but I cannot be President as I am only a tenant. We have had another meeting at the office of our Administrator but spoke to her Boss who seemed to agree that our Administrater is correct. Talk about closing ranks!. She did not seem to be surprised at many of the things we told her but she also gave us no advice. At last we managed to get copies of the official minutes book ( all in Spanish). We asked for these before and she gave us about ten pages, we now have at least 40 pages, so, I ask myself why did she not do this in the first place and what is written within them. We are digging our way through and have a friend as an Interpreter. Just one question , we have heard that the Auditors wife is now going for President, I thought this was not possible as they are married and two people related cannot serve on a Committee. I wondered if you may know this, please.
I really appreciate your advice, thank you once again. J.

Hi,
The President is a special position and is governed by special rules.
1) Normally the President MUST be rotated around all the community, unless your constitution limits this in some way. But even so, residents can insist that a person who has been President once, cannot stand again while there are others who would like to occupy that post. Speak to your legal contact about this aspect.
2) When we talk about a “person” we actually mean a “household” This means that if the husband has already been President, the wife is considered to have also held that position.
3) The President and Vice President cannot at the same time be in the pay of the community. For instance, a “portero” cannot be at the same time President nor Vice President, because he holds a position where he receives a wage from the Community.
4) Taking points 2 and 3 together, we see that the wife of someone in the pay of the Community is FORBIDDEN BY LAW to hold the post of President or Vice President. That means you should speak to your legal contact about the fact that the Auditors wife is NOT ELIGIBLE BY LAW. Ask him how you can enforce this legally.
5) Talk to your landlord. If he gives you written permission, you can stand as President.
6) Have you been to the “Colegio de Administradores” yet? I strongly recommend this.
By the way, If you believe the new buildings break the Horizontal Law, is this because they ocupy commonly owned land? If so, your legal contact would be quite happy to take them to court once the buildings have been started, because he knows for a fact that he will win and will claim some nice costs from the purpetrators.
Best of luck. You’ll need it by the looks of things.
Algrif

Thank you once again for your response. Am I reading your response correctly as to the point of the Auditors wife being unable to take up the appointment of President because they are married and within the same household?
The illegal buildings are on the Presidents property and many others, for example building in of terraces with only the Presidents permission, also B.B.Q’s on roof tops, store rooms brick and wooden. One bungalow is completely different. So many I could go on all day. Our Gazebo is only screwed to the roof and is movable and needs no planning permission.
The Community has a Legal Reserve Fund and a Voluntary Reserve Fund what can these be used for?
To take us to court do they need a Majority Vote or Unanimous Vote, but as I have said before Gazebo’s are not mentioned in the Constitution or Statutes, they have just taken it upon themselves to say they do not wish these to be on the roof and had no voting from the community at the last AGM.
Sorry to be a pain but as I read more on the Horizontal Law, the more questions I find need answering.
This Law is very interesting to me and although this problem is upsetting our lives, I am finding that I am intrigued and wish to know more, the maybe I can educate a few more people within communities and offer some kind of support and guidance to point them into the right direction. I wonder if I should have taken up LAW! Hmm! maybe not but I will not waste all that I am learning. Thank you.  J.

Hi.
Yes. In a nutshell. The law refers to “households”. That is why it is only one vote per household at meetings. That is why your landlord can name you as the representative of his household, even though you only rent. It is why a husband and wife cannot both be on the same committee at the same time. So if a member of a household is in the pay of the community, then no-one in his household can be in a position with the capacity to change the amount of that payment, i.e. neither President nor Vice-Pres.
So far, they are only threatening. On the next threat, remind whoever it is menacing you that, to present the case, they will be obliged to allow you to have copies of all relevant committee or AGM decisions (along with vote counts) demonstrating the “illegality” of your gazebo. This is Spanish law. As in most developed countries, they are obliged by law to do this or the case is thrown out in the first 5 minutes with costs awarded in your favour. Remind said menace that this same decision, if it exists, will allow you to take everyone else to court, and win. As I say, your legal representative will probably buy you a Christmas prezzy on the basis of the income he would get from all these 100% certain win cases!!! Let them know you are on top of the situation, and laugh openly at them. Go round taking photos of their “illegal” structures. If anyone asks, tell them openly that you are planning to take them to court if it is not removed, and they can expect to hear from your lawyer shortly about this.
An individual can take cases to court. Normally, if on behalf of the community, the President is the legal representative, and is aided by the Administrator. He does not need anything more than a committee OK.
But you, as an individual, can take the community to court, or individual members of the community separately, or the President (interesting one because of the “legal representative” position that he holds!!) .
The Legal Reserve Fund and a Voluntary Reserve Fund. One is for use in payment of legal matters and the other is to have something in the bank for emergency repairs and other contingencies. The committee can authorise use of these funds, but they must justify the use at the next GM, and preferably in a written comuniqu? at the time the decision is taken. Don’t let the fund keep you awake at night. Money doesn’t win cases. This is not the USA, thank God. Find yourself a good legal rep who can deal with this kind of stuff. One with experience.
Algrif

Hi! you are truly a blessing for me, do you work as a lawyer or is this from experience?
I have met some people having similar problems and I have given them some info on what they can do, they live on another community. I am going through all the old Legal Minutes of previous meetings and have found a wealth of info to help me, it has also helped me with my Spanish Language . This info concerns the Vice President and President breaking the law. I will keep you informed of any outcomes, thank you once again.
J.J.

Hi! Hope you are well and enjoying life. Well! the big day has come and gone for our AGM and I was shouted down and not allowed to say anything. I had all the paperwork and was ready to answer but instead I was totally ignored. They are taking us to court even with the knowledge that I have a case. The meeting lasted for nearly 4 hours and it was cat and dog on some small issues. Tha Administrater did not even finish the meeting as on the end of the agenda was other business and she said she had no time for this and left. So! I had no time to bring up the 2 illegal buildings even though we had told the President of this and nothing has been said or done. The Auditers wife is now Vice President which you told me , no 2 persons within the same household can be in the Pay of the Community. She has said that now she has authority she is going to Denounce all people who rent out there homes, and she is putting pressure on the Lady who owns the house where we live. I do believe she has placed it into her son’s name but I cannot remember the spanish word for this. So it looks as though we go to our Lawyer and then to the Ayuntamiento to Denouce one of the illegal buildings. Can you please answer me one question. Our German neighbour had proxy votes from three of our friends and he was told to vote against taking us to court and they also had no objection to our Gazebo but at the meeting he used them wrongly, what can we do about this. We have informed our friends and they are very angry. Can they reverse this decision within the limited 30 days of receiving the minutes, and they will be here in person next month. Just one more question, within the meeting they gave us copies of the rules of the community concerning pool, lawns, noise etc. Listed 1 to 20. Then at the bottom they quote The Horizontal Law Article 7. Property Owners requiring consent to carry out alterations or additions to their properties. They have now mentioned pergolas where they have not been mentioned in any of the minutes I have looked through. It finishes by saying that these rules duly agreed by the AGM have the force of the Law behind them. I have read the Law and it says that any internal rules made at the AGM form the statutes and they require Unanimous vote they are saying these are not statutes but just internal rules which only require majority vote. I really thought any construction would be under the Statutes Law., please what is the difference if they are correct. The actual statutes do not mention pergolas but only say to ask and make sure the size and color is correct. I am totally confused and sick with worry. Thanking you in anticipation. J.J.