11- In Spain you are not the master of your own house
Learning that my apartment will not be possible to live in for many years to come
(It may be a good idea to read the blog posts in correct order. Hence start with the oldest one) |
| The apartment before the renovation |
- The sect leader of the community, señor Alamo, claims it is "forbidden by the community" to have a air conditioning machines installed in the patios
- Water is pouring in and the same person, in his role as president of the works committee, claims only a few tiles needs to be repaired
- "My" roof is to be properly repaired in the future. Only god knows when.
- If I would do my house renovation before the big renovation, I would, with high probability, get parts of the apartment destroyed again. By water entering the apartment or by the workers while doing the total renovation of the roofs.
- The community leaders say everything will become clearer in December when the project for the enforced renovation will be decided
Now, about the "air conditioning ban", could I trust señor Alamo? Well, I felt in my bones that I could not. Or at least, that I should not take his words for granted. So I head home to write an email to the office of the Administrator to try try to find out.
In the email I explain that I would like to see the community statutes, where such a ban should be written. If there was, I would be in trouble and I would have to rethink the whole heating and cooling problem. It is now that the communication with the Administrator office totally and immediately breaks down.
From this point and onward I simply do not get any answers from the Administrator. About anything!
The person, appointed by a community I pay a "membership fee" to. Hence a person indirectly employed by me, ignores all, all, communication. Of course I did not know this at this point, but after a few days waiting and sending reminders without getting any answer I walk over to the office and ask the secretary girl to get me the statutes.- Oh yes, I have seen you messages. But Jorge (the administrator) is not in, she says
- Has he not been in the office for two weeks? I ask. Because that is when I sent the first message...
The poor, retarded thing stares at me blankly. She had probably not been prepared for that question.
- Anyway, I say. I like to see the statutes and you do not need to ask him for permission. I have the right to see them.
- I don't know where they are, she then tells me. But Jorge will be back this afternoon. I will make sure to tell him
The day after I actually do get an email, stating that there are no statutes. This in practice means that the community in my building has no own rules and that the national and local laws apply. This also means that the self acclaimed sect leader, señor Alamo, lied.
We are now in the end of October and all work with the apartment is at a stand-still since the beginning of September. And I who actually had hoped I would have had my new home finished by end of November.
Of I go again to the lawyer.
I need to find out the following:
- What can and cannot a Neighbor Community actually decide when it comes to your apartment?
- If it turns out that can decide over the home you are the owner of, what kind of voting system is used? 50/50? Two thirds majority?
- An last but not least, what aces do I have up my sleeve to make the Community actually get going with the roofs above my apartment.
I find out the following, and some of this are actually, for me, quite amazing facts:
- Even if the local authorities gives you permission to, lets say, open a window or make an existing one bigger. 100% of the neighbors must agree to it. This goes for everything that is considered "structural changes" and can even be valid for non bearing walls. Hence a construction expert may say; Yes, no problem this wall can be taken down, but a neighbor who want to make your life miserable can stop this by simply refusing it. Better invite them all for drinks from time to time to keep everyone on your good side.
- Until recently, an installation of an air conditioning machine required 100% of "yes" votes as well. This has changes to 51% of the votes a few years back. Note that this is even if the authorities gives permission
- But also; If the community of neighbors gives permission to set up an air conditioning, the authorities can still say no. Imagine the bureaucratic nightmares you may end up in.
- I also learn that if an apartment is inhabitable due to structural damages or likewise, the Community of Neighbors must make the necessary reparations, and do them good and correctly (hence not just changing a few tiles, in my case).
So, what to do? Shall I demand that the community takes its responsibility or shall I wait for December to come?
I do not want to make them unnecessary angry, so I decide to wait.
December comes and goes. I try to get some answers from the Administrator who, surprise, surprise, does not answer my emails. He also manages to never be in the office when I pass by.
Now they claim that the enforced renovation will start with the facades. The facades! When there is an apartment that is inhabitable and by rights should be first priority!
Not even after the facades "my" roofs were going to be repaired. No it would be two patios and some other roofs first, even though they were not nearly as bad as the ones above my apartment. Mine would be the very last ones. And when? Well... when there was enough money. Hence years and years from now.
I try to contact the Administrator various times. Now with increased intensity but of course I get no answer at all. Finally I see my self forced to den a Burofax (a kind of officially registered means of written communication) to tell the Community about what the law actually said in this matter.
Two weeks later I get a response, basically saying that they had never said they were not going not repair the roofs and that I should not waste my money on lawyers. Still no promises of when they will repair the roofs though.
Chapter 12 will be about how I found out how to get things moving, even though it moves at a snails pace
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I do not want to make them unnecessary angry, so I decide to wait.
December comes and goes. I try to get some answers from the Administrator who, surprise, surprise, does not answer my emails. He also manages to never be in the office when I pass by.
Finally the renovation will start
In February I finally get word from the community troika.Now they claim that the enforced renovation will start with the facades. The facades! When there is an apartment that is inhabitable and by rights should be first priority!
Not even after the facades "my" roofs were going to be repaired. No it would be two patios and some other roofs first, even though they were not nearly as bad as the ones above my apartment. Mine would be the very last ones. And when? Well... when there was enough money. Hence years and years from now.
I try to contact the Administrator various times. Now with increased intensity but of course I get no answer at all. Finally I see my self forced to den a Burofax (a kind of officially registered means of written communication) to tell the Community about what the law actually said in this matter.
Two weeks later I get a response, basically saying that they had never said they were not going not repair the roofs and that I should not waste my money on lawyers. Still no promises of when they will repair the roofs though.
Chapter 12 will be about how I found out how to get things moving, even though it moves at a snails pace
If you like the blog please share it bu using the buttons below
2 comments
Hi Claes,
ReplyDeleteI have been reading your blog with great interest. As a Swede with a summerhouse in Greece I really sympathize with your struggles against the bureaucracy. My girlfriend is from Greece and comparing Swedish bureaucracy with communistic regimes. However, it works compared to the recalcitrance in entering the world of digitalization, as you mentioned in post 5. When we built our house outside Athens it really came clear to me that the laws are in favor for the building contractor and not in favor the ordinary persons, who maybe just build or buy a house once in a lifetime. This allows the building contractor to milk you of money once the deal is on its way.
As an example, a couple of weeks ago I was in Brussel in my profession as an expert in environmental chemistry to discuss the sewage status in Europe with the European commission. The politicians told me that it is stated within the agglomerations of the member states that 95% of the household should be connected to the municipality sewage system. However, the reporting from the member state to the European commission regarding their status is built on self-declaration, meaning that the European commission does not have any authority to investigate and force the member state to report truthfully. One of the politicians laughed and said that some cities in the south European countries report to the European commission that 100% of their habitants are connected to the municipality sewage. “But if you just do a street view in Google you will see that the city totally lack drain covers in the streets, meaning that an extensive sewage system does not exist”. His saying, reminded me about when we built our house in Greece and was forced to pay for the connection to the city sewage system a system that didn’t exist in our neighborhood. In addition, to get an approval form the state for our sewage we had to pay the building contractor some extra money under the table to get him to write a statement saying that we had a certified sewage system, a system that in fact consisted of a latrine pit, i.e. a hole in the ground for the sewage to diffuse into the surrounding soil without any hygienization to prevent spread of bacteria and eventually diseases. However, the city council is happy because they collected the money to the state and all the paperwork is in order to be reported back to the European commission.
So what I would like to say to you Claes is, keep up the struggles for all the little people out there that do not have the courage and persistence as you. We will keep on following your blog.
Best wishes...
My god! You could write a whole blog about your own experiences in this area it seems and the information about the sewage systems is most enlightening. It shows both the wide-spread corruption among minor (well, an grander) politicians, how the European union is very weak and just shuffles papers around, and how the struggling tax payers are left to sort it all out by themselves.
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