pablovicente

Hi everyone,

I am Pablo Vicente, a Spanish attorney and economist and a partner in Vicente & Matanza Asesores y Consultores, a law firm based in Valladolid (Spain). Although I am not British (pardon the intrusion), I also have a lot of interests in Costa Esuri since my family is the owner of an apartment there. I write this post in order to let you know of our intention to begin a class action against the EUC Costa Esuri and the Ayamonte Council

A few neighbors asked me some months ago about whether it is legal or not the EUC Costa Esuri and the extra tax (“the maintenance fee”) we are paying. My firm’s partners and I have been studying the issue for some time and we have come to the conclusion that it is not. There are so many arguments that support this conclusion, and not only because of the formalities that made the EUC illegal since the very beginning, but also because of the many underlying reasons. The law in Spain is on our side, and above all, and more important, the case-law and the decisions of the Spanish Supreme Court. As you may know, Spain is a civil law country (not a common law one), but stare decisis is being increasingly important and no Court would rule against it.

Therefore, we have the determination to initiate legal actions against the EUC and the Ayamonte Council. We have been working on this case for some time already, and we strongly believe we can win. We got a YES from some of the neighbors, but we need to involve a lot of people, since otherwise it would be impossible because of the high cost of such a proceeding. We can all benefit from this, the more we are, the less expensive would be for any and all of us.

I know you may have some doubts. At this point we just want that people know about this potential class action in case you want to join it. We will go to Costa Esuri by the end of June to have some contacts with the different communities and intercommunities. We will also hold a meeting that we will announce promptly to give all the information and to resolve the doubts of those who want to attend.

Thank you for your consideration.

Kind regards,
Pablo Vicente.

Kay O ness

Brilliant news ,I have not paid this tax since I found out how corrupt it was. No accounts , no representation, no infrastructure improvements etc.
Good luck, you have my support .
Kay O ness

Kath Las Colinas

I would be very interested in knowing more and hope that any meeting is arranged at a time when I can attend. I have paid all the money requested (more fool me, you might say) but can't see anything in return.

Kath

Brads

We too have always paid our dues and seen nothing in return so you can count us in too. Look forward to hearing what you can do for us all- great news

Jon-Bxl

Hi Pablo

You don't have to be British to post here... in fact the Spanish viewpoint is always welcomed.

What you plan to do is very interesting - and I understand that you are also asking for us to share the cost for any action. I have been extremely unhappy with the EUC; the town hall involvement; the lack of any professional reporting and communication ... and concerned about the actual interests of the board members.

Experience at CE, for me and other people I know, makes us wary of spending further in an environment where many are concerned about the 'system' in Ayamonte with the EUC and the town hall (and many other things). Now you as a professional lawyer are saying that you are sure that the system is 'not legal'. AND you say that it has been going on with impunity for years, since the start.

Property prices are down around 60-70% from pre-crisis; There are concerns about a lot of things including the illegality you feel exists at the highest levels; Even (as some may suspect) fears of some possible corruption makes people very concerned about spending more money (in this 'messy environment'). Also I personally feel the 'system' in Spain seems to take forever to get anything done, especially when it involves legal action.

I would be very interested in attending a meeting or having a discussion about your plans before I commit anything. I would also want to be sure that I am not entering years of legal manoeuvrings and expense... and that means even more frustration. For me the frustration is more important than the cost.

I fear the EUC rely on the fact that people would rather just accept it and enjoy their homes. As bad as it might sound 'sticking your head in the sand' is not always the worst course of action for many people and I don't criticise them for that.

But....

I think the best course of action for you would be to meet with the CERA board. (As residents you will know all about this)

The new board includes Brits and Spanish and even has legal experts on it. It is also a legally authorised body to represent CE citizens.

If you can convince them of your credentials and plans, AND you have some sort of jointly-agreed-plan, then you will certainly get my support, and those of many others, IMO.

Without their support, I personally would not get involved. IMO this is my 'success criteria' for your very interesting project.

Thanks for the initiative and I wish you every success

Jon

EsuriJohn

I would be very careful about not paying EUC charges. The way the have set up the payment regime is through the Gestion Tributaria which means for now they treat it as a property charge. If these are not paid they attract interest which compounds and rises each half year.. If you still do not pay they become a charge on the property which is set against any sale proceeds if you sell.

With the disastrous fall in prices these could be more than the value after a number of years.

I paid as I should for the first 4 years and in a mild protest I stopped since in our crescent we get very little for our outlay, the trees are all dying, most shrub areas have died and are now full of weeds and the watering is so wasteful as to be criminal in a country short of water.

Then the dreaded signed for envelope arrived. The six monthly charge had been increased by 10% and this compounded and doubled if you did not clear the debt.

I did pay and am up to date again but it was frightening how quickly the sum mounted up.

I know others who have not paid since day one and have received no notice but a house is fixed and imoveable so when you or your heirs come to sell there is a whacking great charge to pay.

PS. Due to the way the payments are set up there is no obligation in Spanish law to send out bills or to inform you of any accumulating debt. Many will not even be aware of the charge particularly if they live in UK and bought the property from Fadesa. Their data collection and keeping was awful. We got our first notice almost a year late because it had my name part of my post code and the rest belonged to someone else. I think the post office only got it to us because of my unusual surname. Of course if you now live here as we do now then all the other charges you pay to the Ayuntamiento give a strong clue where to send the registered letter so they may get something to you!

MikeCol

We have always paid ours and as we are foreigners in this country I would be worried if I didn't. Regards Bryony

AliceB

A breath of fresh air…….thank you Pablo Vicente.
As you and your partners have now concluded, there are many other owners in CE who have known since before the EUC was constituted that it was and is illegal.
As such, there are very many owners who will be more than interested to sign into a class action to once and for all deal with this corruption which has been forced on the urbanization.
Assuming you are serious about this action, you will have a great uptake.

A recommendation is, to regard this action on an individual or by property basis rather than associating it with communities and or intercommunities. You may or may not be aware of the political minefield in Costa Esuri regarding communities, administrators and the like.
Equally, with regard to the residency association, there are very many owners who are not interested in being associated with the residency association but would be interested in being involved in the class action as you stipulate.

Hence a plea to consider all welcome, regardless of communities, intercommunities, associations and so on.

And to advise others regarding payments, which hopefully the illegality of which would also be dealt with in the class action; to those who may have ‘not paid’ for protest or whatever reason,, assuming you have a Spanish bank account, it is highly unlikely it will become a charge on your property; payable when you sell; because the EUC have used some (undoubtedly illegal) loophole whereby they have accessed individual’s personal bank accounts to take the money they feel is owed to them. This has happened to several property owners in Costa Esuri in the past twelve months; and to accounts where it is impossible to determine where the EUC got the bank details from.

Pablo, thank you for taking your time to consider this matter; we await your next correspondence.
Regards Al.

pablovicente

Thanks you all for the welcome and your support. I appreciate your contributions and thoughts and I will take all of them into account.

From now on, we are at your disposal. Feel free to contact us in either the email or telephone that appear in my forum signature to ask for information or should you have any question or doubt regarding this process I will be glad to talk to you and answer them. I am looking forward to meeting you all when we go to Costa Esuri by the end of this month. I will keep you posted.

pablovicente

As for Jon worries and doubts, I perfectly understand. The idea of sharing the cost is first to guarantee that this way would be much much less expensive to any and all of us. Our intention is to ask a very low amount of money (less than a year of “maintenance fee”) and in this fee it would be everything included (lawyer, procurador, judicial taxes, appeal if necessary…) In exchange, and furthermore, we are going to ask not only to stop payments of the “fee”, but also to have back all the money already paid plus interests (or the cancellation of any debt incurred) for all of you.

But it is not only this what we are trying to do with this initiative. As you said, the EUC rely on the fact that people would rather just accept it and enjoy their homes. Well, we have to be able to show them a great sense of community and a strong one. We want to let them know that we know they did things wrong, that they are still doing and that we know our rights and we will go for it in a class action in which there will be involved not only a very few neighbours but many of us. May CERA be a good platform to discuss this, we will contact them and we will expose our plan and arguments to them so as everyone involve in the Association can get all the information and decide to join the lawsuit.

It could take some time, true, but with your support I honestly and strongly believe we will win. When you do so many things bad (and the EUC and the Ayamonte Council did it) you cannot hide them.

Teed Up

Either way,if you think its Illegal,or its being overcharged,won't make much difference,there will still be an EUC charge, on all the properties,that will have to be paid by each owner/owners?,so paying nothing won't make it go away,you are just accumulating a bill for another day, it's like our Council tax at home,set by the local council each year,you have to pay it,no choice?.

Ken.

AliceB

That’s where you are wrong Ken; each owner in Costa Esuri already pays IBI, which is, as you say, “like ‘your’ council tax at home”.
IBI is charged from the local Tributaria office and is the local “council tax” which is set by the local council with no option, but to pay.
The EUC on the other hand is a “community charge” which, when done legally and correctly would be an “optional community” established by all the owners to cover areas which are not officially covered by the local council.
In Costa Esuri the maintenance that is currently being carried out under the umbrella of the EUC should be covered by the Town Hall and should be paid for from home owner’s IBI fees; after all what else is the council tax for.
The EUC in CE was set up, in a hurry and incorrectly, jointly by Fadesa and the Town Hall in order to pass the costs for maintenance onto home owners instead of the Town Hall, who should have taken it over.
Equally the EUC was set up early, in order to allow Fadesa off the hook of having to finish the place off and or to maintain the urbanization until such time as it was finished.
The Costa Esuri EUC is and always was illegal; the charge is an additional tax on cash strapped home owners who already pay the legitimate local taxes to the Town Hall.
If you prefer to pay the illegal charge, so be it. But when the EUC is annulled and refunds are being offered out, bets are that you will take your money back!
Al

AndyS

lusitano

CAROL TAFF

It seems to me that the Alice's definition of what the EUC should be is correct. However Martinsa Fadesa (MF) went into Administration (ie semi bankruptcy) and therefore was not willing/unable to meet the cost of maintaining those elements of the urbanization which are outside the areas covered by the various Communities and Intercommunities. As Alice says, the Town Hall and MF set up the EUC to cover this cost. Whether or not this was legal is beyond my legal expertize. What I would say, however, is that the manner in which the EUC has been run seems to me to be highly suspect.

It then boils down to whether of not the costs involved in maintaining the urbanisation should have been provided by the Town Hall. If there were services provided which are above those that should reasonably have been provided from our local taxes, then somebody else has to pay for these. What concerns me is that if there is now a legal battle over this issue, there is a danger that no maintenance will be provided at all, and that those areas of the urbanisation that are outside those covered by the Communities/Intercommunities will in time deteriorate very badly. I don't want that to happen and if the only way of stopping is to continue to pay my EUC subs, then that's the option I want, regardless of legality of the EUC.