Monthly maintanace in Edificios & Torres

PlantaFULL

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Oct 21, 2004
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This is directed at people who live in apartments in SD or Santiago... I couldn't get a straight answer from any dominican friends on this, so here goes.

Are there any guidelines, possibly even laws about how splitting the maintance cost should be handled in the DR?

In our building in SD as well as others in my neighborhood the monthly cost is split equaly to all apartments regardles of their size. So for example a family of 6 living in a 200 m2 penthouse pay the same amount as a 2 people living in a 100 m2 apartment.

I find this strange/wrong since even in Brazil and other latin countries the monthly maintance is calculated based on the apartment's square meters. What are your experiences with this?
 

Celt202

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May 22, 2004
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This is directed at people who live in apartments in SD or Santiago... I couldn't get a straight answer from any dominican friends on this, so here goes.

Are there any guidelines, possibly even laws about how splitting the maintance cost should be handled in the DR?

In our building in SD as well as others in my neighborhood the monthly cost is split equaly to all apartments regardles of their size. So for example a family of 6 living in a 200 m2 penthouse pay the same amount as a 2 people living in a 100 m2 apartment.

I find this strange/wrong since even in Brazil and other latin countries the monthly maintance is calculated based on the apartment's square meters. What are your experiences with this?
In my building it is based on the size of the unit.
 

PlantaFULL

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Oct 21, 2004
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Thank you for the replies so far.

I had a feeling this was too much nonsense even for DR standards :)

It won't come as a surprise that in my building, as well as the 2 other buildings I asked the persons in charge of managing the maintance happen to live either in the penthouse or other large units themselves. A fine example of dominicans screwing dominicans since I'm the only gringo living in these buildings.
 

Dolores1

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May 3, 2000
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You are not the gringo being screwed. That is not standard. A condominium can apply any standard they want. For simplicity purposes, I would speculate that more condominiums than not just pay a fixed fee, and are not based on square meters.
 

MrMike

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Mar 2, 2003
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Often these people are elected by the various owners of the condos and can dispose of any excess maintenance money at their descretion (probably not legally, but the accounting they keep is invariably sloppy)

They can be replaced by popular vote but if you try to innitiate one you will get a good chance to see Dominican politics in action on a microcosmic scale, and you will have the unenviable position of being the leader of the losing party.

I speak from experience. If you bought the place you might fight the good fight but if you are renting consider moving to a more professionally managed complex, or else if the perceived injustice is minor just let it go. As long as you are living in the DR you will have plenty of opportunity to get ripped off in more meaningful and creative ways.
 

Dolores1

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May 3, 2000
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More often, the people who take over the management of a building are unsung heroes. Those who enjoy the fruits of their labor, which is that of running an operation, many times do not realize that it takes many hours of work.

I live in a condominium and participate in the building's board. We are five board members. Of the five only one is paid for carrying the title of administrador. His pay is the discounting of his maintenance fee. The board members put in many hours of volunteer work -- accounting, project planning and implementation, meetings, etc.

In our building, there is a large apartment fee and a small apartment fee. There is a penthouse, but the penthouse has not been charged more as is responsible for carrying for the maintenance of the roof.

There are commercial offices on the first floor that have not been charged more because they have covered the watchmen services and paving of the front parking lot.

Maybe you should get more involved and contribute to the building's well being. Offer to become the manager.
 

PlantaFULL

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Oct 21, 2004
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You are not the gringo being screwed. That is not standard. A condominium can apply any standard they want. For simplicity purposes, I would speculate that more condominiums than not just pay a fixed fee, and are not based on square meters.

Correct, in many cases this is also OK.. but as soon as you have something like a common "planta full" that is not wired to any individual counters/meters it is pretty safe to say that during a power outage a family of 6 in a 2 story penthouse is consuming at least double the power of the single retired lady in a smaller unit.

I am the only gringo in this building and I certainly won't make a stench out of it... I just find it amazing that the other dominicans living here (the ones in the small units are not super rich) seem ambivalent & uninformed about the fact they are paying way more then they should.
 

Pib

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Jan 1, 2002
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More often, the people who take over the management of a building are unsung heroes. Those who enjoy the fruits of their labor, which is that of running an operation, many times do not realize that it takes many hours of work.
Preach it sister! It is easier to complain about the administration than getting involved in it. I have been on both sides of the line and I tell you, I have great appreciation for that job, and volunteer to help as much as my time permits.

And yes, it is standard to be charged a flat fee, regardless of size of the family or size of the apartment. I don't see a problem with that. In our case for example we own a small apartment half the size the next bigger one, which is empty many weeks in a year, and is rarely ever occupied by more than one person, and yet we pay as much as the rest.

Where we live now our apartment is the biggest, but we have the smallest family, half the year it's only the baby and I, and still we pay the same. Gas is a flat rate despite the fact that I cook only once a day. No complains here either. The day we fill up the house and cook for three days uninterrupted I won't hear my neighbors complain. If they care they should just pay to install gas meters (I suggested it).

We are EXTREMELLY lucky in that we have a building where a)everybody pays, on time; b)Regular, professional maintenance is given to the building; c) everything works, and d) my neighbors are great. That alone is worth half the cost of the apartment. ;)
 

PlantaFULL

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Oct 21, 2004
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No worries girls :)

I didn't want to come over as a gringo seeking justice who is about to start a condo-war. I asked the question out of curiosity because I have been in this building from the very beginning and noticed that in the owner meeting everyone except the large unit owners keep complaining about high fees but none of them ever put this $/unit-size idea in the air. I wouldn't dare to open my mouth and interfere with the dominican ways, I consider myself a lucky guest/observer of this community and country as a whole.