Horizontal Law (debtors)

I remember last July time a new Boletin was issued regarding being able to deny Community debtors use of the pool and Community facilities and areas. I have done a search on here but cannot find the information. I remember there was a link to it.
Marcliff also mentioned it last August.
Can anyone post the link again as our administrators doesn't know anything about it.

Unpaid Community Fees
Sat Oct 08, 2022 9:43 pm
The bane of many a president and administrator life. Our community is suffering from these people who won't or can't pay and means a drain on those of us who actually do pay them. I'm talking of 38 people on our community who owe over a thousand euro and actually a couple who owe up to 10 thousand euro. They bought a property, or in one case, four properties to rent and make an income some 10 or more years ago.

Then the market crashed, properties worth less than they paid for them, a pandemic which cut down on rentals or travel and they simply stopped paying their fees.

Now, if they wish to sell they can't do so until the community fees are up to date or, failing that, the buyer takes on the debt which they probably won't do. Can't pay, can't sell and bills keep going up.

I am not the president of our community nor even the vice pres. I have a disabled wife and I'm getting on a bit in years so couldn't give those jobs my full attention. However, I do help out where I can.

I went to a meeting with our lawyers (or the administrator's lawyers I should say) and there have been a few changes.

You could only claim back up to 3 or 4 years of the amount they owed. Now, the lawyers have taken out injunctions at the courts and the debts are now forever. That means you can claim every year where it has not been paid but this only happens if the court rulings says that. It means that if the debtors say they'll pay, they can't just pay the last few years and get away with it, they will be liable for every year they owe for. All well and good but getting the money through foreign courts (and we're talking about UK, Iceland, other European countries and even Iran in on case. But at least the debt can be reclaimed if they try and offload it.

The other thing that was mentioned is that the law has recently changed on debtors. Previously, you could not deny an owner, guest etc in the property access to facilities just because they weren't up to date with community fees. Now you can deny them use so they can't use the pools and, as we are a gated community, you can even deny them use of a key to enter the property. If you have a key or numbered access to lifts you can deny them that as well.

We can also report those who do not have a tourist licence and deny access to the property. Now, according to the local press, approximately 1 in 3 of properties rented out in the Alicante province are illegal with no licence. I would challenge that as I believe it would be closer to 2 in 3 on our community.

So things have changed in favour of the community. Whether it will get us some of the money owed back is another thing. The amount we are owed would pay for all the exterior walls, gates, railings etc to be painted without us having to put extra in, it would pay our community electricity bill for the next 3 years and allow the community to cut the fees.

The above was Marcliffes reply

Thanks Chrissdee both the above I found in the search but there was definitely a link to the Boletin ( which I need).
I would like to show my administrators as they say we cannot stop debtors from using the pool
( as used to be the case)

This is the newsletter sent out by our administrators and clearly states:
Communities of owners will be able to prohibit those in arrears from using communal areas that are not considered essential, such as the swimming pool, sports courts, or gyms. This is the result of the latest amendments to the Horizontal Property Law approved on 16 June.
That's 2022, by the way.

This is a link to the newsletter Mediterraneo

It gives several references to the new Horizontal Law agreed in June last year.
Best of luck reading.

Thank you Marcliff. This was exactly the type of thing I was looking for to present to our Administrators.
I knew I was correct and had seen it last year.

Might be worth changing administrators to ones who keep up to date with the law. They are supposed to be the professionals who advise you.

You can prevent Debtor/owners from using the pool but you can not stop their guests or Tenants

jpeg wrote:You can prevent Debtor/owners from using the pool but you can not stop their guests or Tenants

So if the owner has a 6k community debt , and lets it out on Booking.Com for 800 euros per week , the renters are allowed to use the pool and facilities?
How can that be right? It’s stopping the renters from using the pool that might actually make him pay up.!