Legal Homeowners Issue : Please Read

I'm an owner of 3 condo's on the Northcoast. The building was once a resort and now turned into condo's. There are 60 units with about 50 to 55 owned. Parking has become a major problem because the complex was not build for this in mind. At the present time we have about 15 parking space available inside our gated and secured area. As I understand parking is common ground just like the pool area . Our President of the Homeowners just send out an e-mail on Friday. To be fair I copied and pasted the whole e-mail so I don't leave anything out.

Here are my questions and concerns.

* Can a President make a major decision like this without ever having a posted meeting with owners.

* Can a President demand to start charging for common ground of a complex with out being written in the By Laws

* He has demanded 1 year advance payment ???

* We have at leat 50 owners and only 15 will get a spot now and when , if ever the rest of the lot is finished it will only be a total of 28 spots. This hurts the property value to anyone who didn't pay for a space.

*There will never be enough room to make a space for every unit.

* I was strong armed into paying for at leat 1 space due to the fact I have a tenant arriving tomorrow and he will have a rental car.

Words can't be written of how upset I am over this. I have 2 other properties and now there value went down and trying to sell them just got harder.

This is completely unfair . What next he decideds the pool isn't big enough for all the owners, so we will have to swim on odd and even days depending on your condo number and then have to pay an extra 300 pesos a month. One year in advance.

I pay maintenance fees for the whole complex including the common ground.

I will contact my lawyer in the morning about this issue.

My question to the group is : Has anyone had these problems before and what can I do.

I did vote him in office, but never thought he would pull something like this. Just to be fair he has done a good job the last 2years. I don't agree with everything but this one is hurting my property value.

I do understand there is a serious problem with parking. I propossed that we raise the maintenance fees up only 300 pesos a month which would generate an extra 1,800,000 pesos a year to build more parking spots. And that went no where. 10 pesos a day , can you beleive that.

Here is the e-mail with one week notice of the new change.

" Dear owners

as you have noted quite often, we have a big problem with the parking lot situation here in our plant. We possess only 15 regular parking lots for 56 single apartments. We have already the situation that on daily bases approximately 5-8 parking lots are missing and owners of many years have to park their vehicles over night outside .Additionally repeatedly owners course-parked and even threatened each other and could only after hours move their vehicle . Since more apartments are sold and rented, this situation will very soon be intensified. In the New Year we expect, because of more rented and sold units of at least 8 - 10 further apartments and a corresponding increased demand at parking lots.
For fire-police reasons, as well as under the criterion of security within the plant, this condition is no longer portable in this form.

We decided therefore to tackle the development of the parking lots with priority within Tropicana Sur.

For the financing of the development of the parking lot we offer renting a firm parking lot to the owners within the plant for 1 year. The monthly amount of renting is 400,00 RD$ per parking lot and is bounded to the apartment. The rent per parking lot is to be paid for the full year in advance (4.800,00 RD$) and may be used then by the respective parking lot tenant only. The parking lot is marked with the apartment number and may be only occupied starting from 01.01.2009 by the tenant of the parking lot.

The order personnel are not allowed to permit starting from 01.01.2009 other vehicles on rented parking lots.

Since we have to assign only 15 parking lots, I would like that all owners register as soon as possible at the administration in order to rent their parking lot.

Of course maximally 1 parking lot can be rented for each apartment.

Please consider that also after the development for all apartments sufficient parking lots will be missing. If you need thus a parking lot, act rapidly, in order to secure your parking lot.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year wishes you

The executive committee

Short term rentals will have the following costs and can be taken also by tenants, if space is available:

1 day ?????????????? ?????80.00 RD$

1 week ??????????? ???400.00 RD$

1month ??????????? 1,200.00 RD$

Lambada said:

Was the issue of parking covered in your original contract of purchase? Is this place in Puerto Chiquito by any chance?

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Yes this is in Puerto Chiquito. It's my understanding the maintenance fees covered all common ground and security.This began to be a problem over a year ago , so this is their answer. Never thinking of the long term affect on owners who don't pay the ransom. My property value just went down on the other 2 units overnight. Who wants to buy a place when you can't park your car when your paying for the security and common ground. I guess the pool is next . This can't be legal ???

BushBaby said:

I will leave the 'LEGALITIES' question to more legally minded & qualified persons to answer - I suppose it really depends on what was written into your original condo purchase contract & what was written into the home-owners association contract. However, a couple of thoughts cross my mind regarding your comments.
1. The figure quoted for a monthly rental cost of parking is only 25% higher (RD $100) than your original suggestion to the Home-Owners Association President - NOT a significantly high figure in my opinion & one which you can easily recoup from your tennants when they rent your property.
2. The notice suggests that YOU (the condo owner) are the only one allowed to use the car parking space you have paid for. I think you need to get this clarified to ensure it allows you AND/OR the condo renter to use the allocated parking space.
3. If you are not present in this condo AND you have not rented it out to someone BUT you have a renter in another of your condos, you SHOULD be able to transfer for an agreed short period, to that alternative condo.
4. You need to check that if NONE of your condos are rented AND you are not in occupancy of any of them for a month or two, that you have the right to sublet your parking space to another condo owner OR HIS GUEST/RENTER. You might want to offer this 'sublet' arrangement to the Executive committee to organise at THEIR agreed increased costing BUT THE RD $400 YOU HAVE ALREADY PAID REFUNDED OR CREDITED TO YOUR ACCOUNT!!!

Just some random thoughts that might allow some form of 'bargaining' between you & the executive committee/President. The comments/observations might also allow you to calm the fevered brow a bit! :cheeky: :ermm: When you look at the proposal in it's basic format, it is NOT that much different to the one YOU put forward ....... RD $400 per month as opposed to your RD $300 per month! irate: ~ Grahame.

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Hello Grahame,
Thanks for your commets. For me it's not the money as much as the principle. It's not fair to all the other owners who don't pay or want to and there aren't enough spots. If everyone paid a small increase for maintenance then the place would look great.30 parking spots is enough when all the units aren't full all of the time. Sure in high season you'll have more cars, then in 2 months the place is half empty.
I'm very frustrated in the way it was presented. In an e-mail with one weeks notice when the problem been brewing for well over a year. A blind monkey could of seen this problem well in advance. This is not the solution. I'm not 100% sure what is but I do know this isn't.

SosuaJoe said:

As an aside, I hope you will forgive me for bringing to your attention the fact that, while the gentleman in question may or may not have acted completely appropriately in how he handled the situation, you might also want to take a look at your own decision to make this matter public before taking it up directly with him.

I don't say this to criticize you, but rather in the hopes that you will see that there is likely enough questionable decision making in play to go around and that it is possible that you are not the only one feeling poorly treated today.

Try to see it from his perspective if you expect him to try to see it from yours.

Good luck!

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Joe, I'll like to thank you for your comments. Your 100% correct with everything you stated. I had 3 days of frustration billed up in me when I posted last night on the forum. Looking back I wish I didn't.

I want to make it clear I have no intensions of attacking the President personally . I'm disputing the authority he has. Once he's gone there will be another one. This President has done a great job the last 2 years but I'm at serious odds with him on this one. I have backed most of his decisions. My biggest dispute is the parking area is common ground and there are not enough parking spaces to offer all owners an equal spot. For that it's not an equal playing field. I agree there is a big issue that has to be addressed with the parking. This solution is only a quick fix to a long term problem. As it states on Jan 1 only 15 units will be able to park on the secured lot. Where are the other 40 units to park. They all pay the same maintenance fees for the care of the common ground.

I have asked them not to put in place the paid parking on Jan 1 so we could further look into other solutions but had negative results. I have paid for one with protest.

I have for 2 years asked the maintenance fees be raise 300 pesos a month. We only pay 3,000 pesos a month now. Just the extra 300 pesos for 50 units will bring in 1,800,000 pesos a year. The new parking area is estimated at 1,3000,000.

I heard back from my Lawyer and this is what he had to say

" If all the area where the parking lots are to be located, is common area, then the board has not right to charge for exclusive use and parking lots has to remain as first come first serve. "

I will leave it in his hands at this point.

I will finish with this thread also at this point.

I do want to make clear The President has done a great job the last 2 years and has made our place a much better place to live.

Thank you all for your comments and advise.

Happy New Year

Fabio J. Guzman said:

The issue has to be resolved by the Condo Association in accordance to its bylaws and the Condominium Statute.

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Thank you for your time with this issue. The paid parking has been put on hold. We will have a general meeting to discuss the best solution.

The link is very helpfull.

Have a Happy New Year