Looking for Condo Rules - Samples

Can't help with rules but I have a few questions about them too. We bought an apartment in SD awhile ago and after we moved in have heard our building president refer to a set of "rules" which we have still not seen, let alone signed any agreement to. No mention of them in the title or other documents of transfer.

The Question for any legal experts, especially our moderator is: What is the enforcability of such condo rules? In the US Coop associations are different then condo associations and generally afford much more control over tenants and the premises. Just what are the laws and regs when it comes to enforcing such rules? Are they contracts that must be signed to be enforced? A little primer on building association regs would be greatly appreciated.

PJT said:

Does anybody have a set condo rules. I'm looking for a good example of rules that "work" well. I need samples to use as a format for a condo project I will be working on. It would be nice to receive an example with most of the kinks worked out, then adjust it to the conditions and needs of the condos when they are available.

Thanks in advance
and
Regards,

PJT

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Next time you are going to be in Sosua let me know and I will see that you get a copy of our rules. But more important, you should get a copy of copy of Condominium Law #5038 of 1958 since your condo rules must be consistent with it and much of what goes in your rules will be a rewriting of what is in this law. http://www.drlawyer.com/txt/articles/condolaw.html

Ken said:

Next time you are going to be in Sosua let me know and I will see that you get a copy of our rules.

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Ken,

Are your condo rules in English? If so, may I ask for a copy too? I'll be in Sosua in 2 weeks.

Thanks,
Ben

Ben said:

Ken,

Are your condo rules in English? If so, may I ask for a copy too? I'll be in Sosua in 2 weeks.

Thanks,
Ben

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Yes, they are in both English and Spanish.

My suggestion is that the condominium be set up in such a way that you can disconnect any condominium that is delinquent from paying maintenance fees for common services -- for instance, power plant, water, propane gas. That way you can pressure for the maintenance fees to be met on time. Also, you should include a 13th month maintenance fee in order to take care of paying the staff's 13th Christmas wage. Finally, you should include that the legal fees of having to use a lawyer to collect any delinquent payments, including extraordinary payments agreed upon in condominium assembly, after default of three months of the maintenance fee be paid by the delinquent condominium, and not by the management.

These measures are important to ensure that condominium finances are in order.

newuser said:

How can a condo association add this to their existing rules?

Would this be retroactive or only apply to the debt accumulated after adding this to the condo rules?

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On Wednesday I am going to try for our condominium to approve it in an assembly. We want it to apply retroactively. We will tell you if we get away with it. Actually, it is not retroactive because the fee only applies if the case gets sent to a lawyer. We will be sending cases to a lawyer after the measure is approved (we hope).

The idea is to make the life of the manager simple, by instating measures that encourage condominium owners to keep their finances with the building up to date.

In the past the building administration did not want to send cases to legal because it cost between 10-25% of the revenues, but if the delinquent person is billed, then the load is off the building and the incentive is there to proceed legally.

All Condos in the DR are governed by:

1) Condominium Law #5038 of 1958 establishing mandatory provisions applicable to every condominium irrespective of the wishes of the condo owners.

2) Condo Regulations which are agreed upon by the condo owners and may therefore be amended by them.

A property recorded as a condo is subject both to Condo Law #5038 and the Condo Regulations. A buyer of a condo is bound by both by the simple act of purchasing the condo. Contractual acceptance is not a requirement.

To collect from delinquent owners, the first thing that needs to be done is to make sure that the condo association is up to date with the legal formalities (professional assistance by a knowledgeable attorney is essential at this stage). Once this has been done, the collection procedure is relatively easy:

(1) The condo association approves by resolution the report of the condo administrator stating which owners are in arrears and how much each of them owes.

(2) The minutes of the condo meeting, certified by the condo administrator, are sufficient to record liens vs. the owners at the Registry of Title for the amounts in arrears (Art. 33 of Condo Law #5038).

(3) The owner whose title has been liened has 15 days to contest the lien after being notified. If he doesn't do this, then the lien is irrevocable and the condo association can proceed to foreclosure.

newuser said:

We are having the same problem in our building. We have interviewed several lawyers who want to charge between 10,000RD and 80,000RD just to start the case. This is to collect a debt of around 100,000RD. And if the delinquent owners don't pay, the lawyer fees would continue to add up to continue the case. Not one of the lawyers mentioned that the legal fees could be collected from the delinquent owners. For this reason the owners are hesitant to start legal proceedings.

If you don't mind, let us know how the meeting goes.

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The meeting went very well and 19 of 33 condominium owners represented by proxies or present agreed on the resolution of having the delinquent owner pay for the legal fees. Our lawyer only charges us when the debt is paid and deducts it from what he collects. As approved in the meeting, for the owner of the condominium to get his basic services back (gas, water, power plant) he has to pay back what the lawyer deducted from the money collected from him.

Note that if the lawyer is not successful, he doesn't get paid. The lawyer the building is using is a friend of one of the owners, but from what I understood when he came to a board meeting, it is pretty standard for a lawyer to deduct his fee from what he collects. We used a lawyer in the past that charged us 30% to collect after making a few calls, and collected and deducted her fee. So it appears to be pretty standard for the lawyer only to collect if successful. The 30% was too expensive for us, so we switched to the lawyer who offered to collect for a 10% cut if it didn't go to court and 25% if it went to court.

Then we got the idea that we could get the money back from the delinquent condominium owner if it was approved by the assembly of owners.

Other motions that were presented -- such as the 13th quota, were also approved.
I am going to look into getting these included in the condominium ruling, such as Fabio Guzman suggests in his post.

Fabio J. Guzman said:

Condo Regulations which are agreed upon by the condo owners and may therefore be amended by them.

A property recorded as a condo is subject both to Condo Law #5038 and the Condo Regulations. A buyer of a condo is bound by both by the simple act of purchasing the condo. Contractual acceptance is not a requirement.

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Thank you for addressing that question that I had posed. It's clear that the remedy for non-payment of fees is swift and certain (as it should be). But I was also wondering about other rules and restrictions. What about no pet clauses, or not hanging laundry on the balcony? When we moved in we were told that the bars on our windows had to conform to the others in the building, which meant more money for fancy embellishments in the iron work. Can they impose restrictions on people playing music too loudly, above and beyond what the police will address? Can restrictions be imposed by amendment, ex post facto? We haven't had any problems, but at the tenants meetings I'm suprised at the amount of control that some tenants would wish to exert upon some others.

Naufrago, our rules prohibit pets in the common areas. Also prohibit noise and anything else that can bother others in the complex.

As far as dealing with an owner who doesn't pay his fees, it is not necessarily "swift and certain". Note that Fabio said it was if the delinquent owner didn't contest the action within 15 days. We have been through this in our condo complex and the owner contested and dragged it out for years.

If you have an owner like we did, you had better be 100% that your Rules are without errors and that the meeting at which the assembly approves taking action is handled exactly by all requirements. Our guy was able to find some discrepancies, small, but discrepancies technically, that caused our process to be long and expensive.

If you are within Fabio's service area, I would highly recommend that you consult him. He is an expert on Condo rules and has written them for many of the condos in this area. Now he has offices in many locations, so chances are you are within his service area.