My back gate blocked off by community

[walnut]

Thanks Dr Doolittle(Mike?) Yes it is the same urb you were on,the pool,was neglected from around September last year,tiles missing in dangerous places,no water in it and algae in abundance.Our rental contract states,nowhere within it,that it does or doesn't include the community fee,however,the arrangement with the agent was(verbally) 300euro a month of which 30euro was towards community fee.After finding out in February,that,the other tenants were not paying the 30euro,as the pool was in disarray,i.e.why pay when the facilities that are paid for are none xistent. I decided,with the corroboration of the agent,not to pay the community fee,as the facilities for which it was paid were not being provided.Hope this clears the matter up for those who misinterpreted the original post.
Thanks for your replies everyone.

[Tootandploot]

O gosh, the agent has done neither you or the landlord any favours. Nothing has changed to what has been said previously, especially if the pool has now been fixed irrespective of whether you use it or not. You need to pay the fees as soon as possible.

[dr.doolittle]

O gosh, the agent has done neither you or the landlord any favours. Nothing has changed to what has been said previously, especially if the pool has now been fixed irrespective of whether you use it or not. You need to pay the fees as soon as possible.

Why do you have to pay for something you don't use ?

[clivespana]

You contracted to pay it in the rent. Irrespective what others do. It makes no difference wether you use a provided facility or not.

[marcliff]

O gosh, the agent has done neither you or the landlord any favours. Nothing has changed to what has been said previously, especially if the pool has now been fixed irrespective of whether you use it or not. You need to pay the fees as soon as possible.

Why do you have to pay for something you don't use ?

The maintenance costs are worked out depending on the size of the community. Regardless of whether you use the pool or not, it still has to be maintained and it is part of your commitment as laid down by law under the Horizontal Laws pertaining to communities. Cleaning, street lighting in the community, garden maintenance, repairs to gates and so on are all paid out of the community fees. If people don't pay then bills don't get paid.
If someone doesn't like paying because they don't use it then they should move to an off community property.
I assume in this case the rent of 300 a month then the agent would have said 30 euro would be for community charges. The owner will still be paying those charges regardless if the renter is or not so it is the owner that is being robbed.
I pay taxes in Spain for schools but have no kids. Should I take the amount of tax that goes to education out of my tax bill? Of course not. Nor could you do it in UK.

[Murt]

70% of renters don't pay the community charge.

i would assume that in most cases, that this is because the landlord pays it instead.

[Jan]

70% of renters don't pay the community charge.

i would assume that in most cases, that this is because the landlord pays it instead.

Yes it is the homeowners /Landlords responsibility to pay the community charge, no one else. It is them who will feel the consequences of not paying ie legal action.

The rent the owners 'earn' should help towards their outgoings which includes community charge.

In my opinion it is not right to make this a separate payment by a renter. What they pay should be a lump sum (inclusive of everything to do with the property except utility bills.) If the Agent has separated out this payment in the contract it is wrong and unnecessary.Those I know who rent pay a certain amount each month to rent the property and that's it.

If I were renting out my property I would not trust it to an agent or renter to pay 'my' community charge as that is my responsibility. I would continue my direct debit for this and charge an acceptable lump sum rental price for the property.

Jan

[freddo]

I think you will find that it is a bank that owns this small urb as the builder went bump a long time ago