 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|||||
-Issue Number 200 |
Thursday, December 1, 2005 | Page
11 |
|||
Page [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24]
[25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48]
YOUR LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Let and let live for apartment renters
THAT
was a very impressive picture in your last Readers’ Letters showing
“42 owners standing firm against letting” as a response to Alan
Fairless’s determination to continue private letting at Graciosa III,
Los Cristianos.Only trouble is, they roped in the gardener, three of the complex cleaners and numerous other workmen, along with owners who regularly let family and friends use their apartments. That left not many owners “standing firm” in the photograph to count.
THE EDITOR welcomes letters from any reader
on any subject but reserves the right to edit them as appropriate.
Only letters accompanied by full name and address will be published,
though not necessarily including all those details. The Tenerife
Sun cannot be held responsible for statements or opinions expressed
in readers’ letters. Please address your letters to The Editor, The Western Sun, Calle Mondiola 15, Alcala, Guia de Isora, Tenerife, fax us on 922 832033 or email info@thetenerifesun.com – remembering to include your home address.Or use the on line form CLICK HERE |
Your correspondent, Mr Harrison, described himself as president of the community, but only took over the role without any vote or mandate when the elected president quit halfway through his term of office. His reference to five Chinese men taking over an apartment – unknown to the renter – with only one key between them was just plain wrong.
The truth is that two restaurateurs from Britain brought two of their staff with them for a well-earned holiday. They were man and wife and not Chinese but originally from Thailand, two very nice naturalised Britons holidaying there with the apartment owner’s knowledge and consent. Unfortunately, these guests were made to feel very unwelcome.
Mr Fairless, in his earlier letter, was quite right to accuse apartment owners who are against private letting of bullying.
How else would you describe this stand-in ‘president’ and certain committee members who knocked on apartment doors asking to see holidaymakers’ paperwork for their stay?
They also handed out notes to these people, some of them elderly, saying they would be evicted by the police and warning them that they were not allowed to use the pool or sunbeds by the pool. Certain owners have sold their apartments because they could not
take the treatment being meted out by past presidents and committee members.
Let us make this quite clear … we won’t be selling our apartments. We are behind Alan Fairless all the way because he is only protecting his rights as a property owner to rent his apartment out to holidaymakers.
We have been instructed by our solicitor that presidents or committee members interfering with the rights of property owners are breaking the law and could be liable to a claim through the courts. Make no mistake, if this nonsense does not cease we have enough evidence to pursue such a claim. And we will. For the moment we prefer not to publish or names but would prefer to be known as:
DISGUSTED APARTMENT
OWNERS
Playa Graciosa 3,
Los Cristianos
Pointers for presidents
... IT IS high time
communities understood the legal rights and roles of their presidents
and committee members.
Ciudadanos Europeos in the Canary Islands, which tries to promote integration
and help resolve common problems, has gathered information and legal opinion
on the dreaded Clause 38 of Law 7/1995 (and its subsequent amendments)
over the last 10 years.
Nationwide, Ciudadanos Europeos has offered guidance (in English) on the
Law of Horizontal Division for more than 20 years. These two laws are
completely different entities but are regularly mixed up and misinterpreted
by
many in the Canary Islands. The president of Graciosa III (and all other
presidents) are elected under the provisions of the Law of Horizontal
Division. They have no powers to take decisions under Law 7/1995.
Unfortunately, communities regularly take decisions on whether to permit
or deny their owner members the right to let their apartments to tourists.
These decisions are, in our view, unlawful and may risk a claim for damages
or harassment from owners.
The president of Graciosa III may want to consider the following:
1. Presidents are elected to represent ALL owners and not as an enforcer
of tourism and other Spanish laws against some owners. Of course, as a
private citizen, he may denounce any alleged infringement of any Spanish
national or regional law to the appropriate authority.
2. The president is normally responsible for the actions taken by the
community (not the committee, nor any group – large or small –
of owners.) He should seek expert legal advice before accepting a divisive
proposal for a general meeting from any owner or group of owners –
unless he is absolutely sure of its legality. Any group of owners taking
illegal action independently may be answerable for costs and damages.
3. A community may pass whatever rules it likes – but if they conflict
with superior Spanish law, they are unenforceable and therefore meaningless.
4. The principal duties of the unpaid community president should be
to ensure that the common areas are kept clean and safe. Experience in
many other communities across Spain has indicated that other, more contentious,
areas are best avoided – unless there are compelling reasons for
action. In the event of a dispute, some
better informed owners make an effort to obtain independent Spanish legal
advice (sometimes with guidance on where, from ourselves); others, including
some presidents, rely on a vague knowledge of British law. This can be
misleading. In our experience, unless the community administrator is a
lawyer qualified in Spanish law, expert on the subject concerned, it is
not always safe to follow his or her advice (this, unfortunately, is sometimes
slanted towards what the president and current electing majority want
to hear).
Attempting to interfere in an owner’s use of his property is a minefield
- even if the president considers himself
an expert on Spanish national and regional law. There is almost no private
owner case law on the subject of letting under Regional Law 7/1995- 5/1999
& Decree 93/1998. A president would be wise to get explicit legal
instruction from a community general meeting before proceeding against
any owner. Without this committed financial support, the personal financial
negative consequences for the president could be severe.
5. ‘Swallows’ (pictured in Issue 199) are probably not all
registered in Arona as resident. As owners, they would not take kindly
to a literal interpretation of what the pool notice – ‘For
Residents Only’ – seems to say. Amending the notice to ‘Apartment
OCCUPIERS AND OCCUPIER’S GUESTS ONLY’ may help but this obviously
has to include those occupying with the consent of an apartment owner.
6. Mr. Harrison relies on some selected parts of regional laws regarding
letting to tourists -except that his brief definition of “commercial
letting” seems, in our advised view, incorrect. Spanish law gives
consent to all letting to those considered to be resident. Regional Decree
No 93/1998 (not mentioned by Mr.Harrison), seems to indicate that, in
certain defined circumstances, owners can legally let to tourists. Whereas
public advertising an apartment for rent or other public marketing or
letting through a third party seems not to be permitted, financial interests
do
not seem to be a constraint on letting by a private owner.
7. We do not recognise the legality of the expression ‘constructed
and sold as a purely residential complex’. The developer may have
used this description as a selling ploy but we are very doubtful that
this has any legally
enforceable meaning. 8. There is no natural law indicating that all owners
are good neighbours and that tourists are bad. In our 20 or so years experience
living here and in dealing with problems in a wide range of communities,
the residential neighbour from hell is many times worse than an antisocial
tourist (at least they are usually gone in a couple of weeks).
9. In our admittedly limited experience, residents and owners burn at
the same rate as tourists. It should therefore
occur to most presidents and owners that if enhanced fire and safety conditions
are considered by experts to be necessary for tourists they are equally
necessary for residents and owners. Community efforts to achieve this
enhanced safety may be much more rewarding than interfering in the activity
of owners in their own property.
We would advise the owners in Graciosa III – including Alan Fairless
– to resolve their problems within the
law and around a table. While understanding his wish for exclusivity,
Mr. Harrison should be aware that these islands depend on tourists and
that the infrastructure that he enjoys would not exist without them. We
urge him and some of his fellow owners not to try to lift the drawbridge
on those who may not be able to afford to buy an apartment in this Canarian
Eden – and to extend a warm welcome to these vital honoured guests.
HUBERT BURRIDGE
President, Ciudadanos Europeos Canary Islands
Playa de la Americas