Thursday, 18 February 2010

Bank account




The community of Finca San Antonio has only a bank account. It is in Banco Sabadell. This bank operates with 2 names:

SABADELL-ATLANTICO. These are offices dedicated mainly to businesses and spaniards. Their main colour is blue

SOLBANK. These offices are mainly on the coast of tourist areas, dedicated to foreginers. Their main colour is pink.

We have our account in an office of SABADELL ATLANTICO, in Avenida de Mijas number 2 (29640-Fuengirola).

If you are going there to make a cash payment, or you want to make a transfer, you have to use the following information

BENEFICIARY: COM. PROP. FINCA SAN ANTONIO (no, the account is not in the name of the adminsitrator nor the president. So, any cheque or transfer has to be in favour of the community)

BANK: SABADELL ATLANTICO.
OFFICE: FUENGIROLA, MALAGA, SPAIN
ACCOUNT: 0081.0261.07.0001408443

All bank accounts in Spain have always 20 digits (never 19 nor 21).

If you are sending money from abroad, you need two codes

The first code is called IBAN. It includes a reference to the country and to the bank, and also includes the bank account. This IBAN can have up to 34 digits, but all spanish iban codes have always 24. In our case, it is ES18.0081.0261.0700.0140.8443 (in paper, it is alwasy written like this, in 6 groups of 4 digits each).

The second code is called BIC. It substituted the old SWIFT. It identifies the country, the bank and the branch, not the account. Ours is BSAB ESBB

Wednesday, 17 February 2010

More about plusvalía- reply from Town Hall

********* email from the a member of the community to Mijas town Hall ********

Dear sirs,

I have bought a property off plan, and I accepted in the title deeds to pay the plusvalía of the vendor. It has now been notified and it is a big amount. I have been told that the Town Hall can not ask me to pay this money, and can only act against the developer. I am not afraid of the developer taking me to court as they owe me some money. But I don't want to be taken to court by the Town Hall. So, my question is.. can the Town Hall request me to pay the plusvalía of the developer?

Best regards.

Robin Jackson




************* reply from the Town Hall of Mijas****************


Dear Mr Jackson,

Just talked to my colleagues from the Plusvalia Tax Dept. They told me that the town hall claims the plusvalía from the promotor only, not from each individual owner... now, you mention that you accepted in your property deeds to take over the plusvalia charge, which means that then the promotor is liable towards the town hall and yourself towards the promotor. As such, it gets a legal matter that you better check with a lawyer so that he can advise you what would be the best to do.
However, please note that the town hall is claiming the monies from the promotor...

hope this information will be of help - best regards for now, Katja.

Katja Thirion
Departamento de Extranjeros
Foreign Residents Department
Residentenbüro

Monday, 8 February 2010

Plusvalía

Some few concepts for your clarification

1º) The plusvalía is a tax payable to the Town Hall by whoever sells a property, and it has to be paid within 30 days after signing the title deeds.

2º) The amount is based ONLY on the value of the plot (according to the Town Hall, not according to the price in the deeds), and the time the vendor has been the owner.

3º) The Town Hall can ONLY claim this money to the vendor, not to the buyer.

4º) In the past, when the buyers were anxious to buy a property under construction, as the vendor could not guess how much the plusvalía would be, they usually included in the contract tht the buyer will pay the plusvalía, whatever it was.

5º) So, the Town Hall will go against San Antonio Properties, sl, but since you have accepted to pay the plusvalía in your title deeds, you could be taken to court by San Antonio Properties.

6º) Usually, the plusvalía can only be paid when the Town Hall has issued the IBI values.

7º) The administrator was not aware that some of you had made provisional or on account payemnts for the plusvalia

Mario Bravo

Thursday, 4 February 2010

With our gratitude



Dear Owners,

With the forth coming AGM in March I have decided not to stand as President of our community this year, or be involved in the committee. I have worked for the community now for 4 years and have decided to stand down. Rob & I have the oppportunity to pursue a very exciting business venture, and given the time I spend on community business, I have decided that I cannot do both. We will be spending more time in the UK.

I have enjoyed my time working for the community and I`m proud of what we have achieved, I believe now we have changed administrators the community will continue to develop and improve.

I would like to thank the committee for their support, particularly Graham who has been a totally supportive in the last year, which at times has been very difficult.


Any Owner who wishes to be nominated for the committee should let us know asap so that they can be voted for at the AGM.


best wishes
Terri Jackson

Monday, 1 February 2010

Suggestions about internal rules by Margaret Felgate

Community Rules:-

- Rules at the pools should be enforced by the person responsible for enforcement of all community rules i.e. the janitor (see his job description).

- Unless it is a requirement of the pools license, it should not be a moral or financial responsibility for Community Owners to provide a lifeguard for the safety of children. Parents must assume their moral and legal responsibility to supervise their children and to be present at all times according to the community rules (article 7). Article 2 states that persons using the pools do so at their own risk. This rule should be highlighted to show the community and its officers are not responsible for accidents to anyone using the pools/gardens/indoor facilities.

- Article 7 should be amended to increase the age of children using the pools unaccompanied by an adult (presently from age 10 years) to age 12 years.

Indoor Facilities:-

- The responsibility for ALL costs of finishing, commissioning and furnishing ALL indoor facilities including gym equipment must be the responsibility of the developer. This facility was sold as part of the development in the marketing material. Therefore the developer must be held LEGALLY responsible for the total cost of handover to the community, fully equipped and functioning.

- The indoor pool is now revealed to be ornamental rather than useful because it lacks depth. It should not be necessary to operate the indoor pool between May to November with two outside pools available May to October.

- The jacuzzi is equally ornamental and cannot be considered an asset.

- The sauna/steam facilities should only be operational between November to end April because of the cost factor.

- Door to gym/community room should be implemented as in the plans to make a separate entrance to these two facilities enabling the rest of facilities to be closed off/entry via smart card.

- The indoor facility (except community room) should be either rented out to cover operating costs or be an "opt in" option for Owners. I understand the rental idea has already been put to the committee.

- The majority of Owners I have spoken to, do not wish to use the indoor facilities because now that they have seen the facility, it cannot be justified as an asset with regard to size and quality. i.e the gym space has been reduced from two rooms to one. The pool is so shallow as to scrape your legs on the bottom while swimming. The jacuzzi is the size you would find in a private home. Most Owners do not wish to have their community fees increased to subsidise inadequate facilities they will not use.

-Those Owners (or their renters) wishing to use the indoor facilities can be provided with a "smart card" entrance card for which they pay separately to cover the operational costs. I understand the water and electricity can be metered separately so the operational costs can be separately assessed. Those people wishing to use such facilities will share the running costs rather like a "membership fee"

- The health club facility I presently use does not permit persons under 16 years to use any indoor facility i.e. gym, indoor pool, spa (steam, sauna). I believe the same rule should apply to FSA indoor facility for safety, health and abuse of use reasons.

- Obviously there will have to be extra/special rules adopted for the indoor facility.

In conclusion I wish to request that ALL submissions and suggestions given by Owners for updating community rules and for the future operation of the indoor facilities be placed on the community blog as they are received. This, in order to facilitate democracy and fairness in time for the AGM on 13 March. It would also avoid us circulating our opinions to the Community of Owners individually.

Margaret Felgate 37/2