MikeF
9th February 2007, 06:08 PM
This is tracked off an earlier post discussion with Pepino in a different topic.
In the week before Christmas we had the annual meeting of the "comunidad de vecinos" of the building where we have bought a flat (in Barcelona) but which we haven't moved in to yet (long story). It's just round the corner from where we are renting right now.
About two weeks before the meeting we received a letter from the administration company appointed by all the "C de V" inviting us to attend and detailing the agenda for the meeting - covering accounts, who has paid, who hasn't paid (named and shamed), etc... We were a little underwhelmed that the invitation and all documents were written in catalan, because we do struggle with it a bit :rolleyes: A swift phone call to the administradores confirmed that a recently-passed law means that all vivienda documents must be written in catalan and there is no obligation (i.e. cost) to issue a castellano version as well. :(
Anyway, we saw it as a good opportunity to meet our future neighbours, although with slight trepidation, as we expected the meeting would be conducted in catalan.
The meeting invitation strangely listed two times for the meeting 7:30pm and 8:00pm at the offices of the adminstradores. We thought we'd make a good first impression and arrive in time for the first meeting time. Unfortunately noone else did, so we sat around like a pair of numpties waiting for everyone else to arrive at 8:00pm! It was interesting to meet not only the other residents of our building, but also the representative of the owners of the street-level shops who was presumably there to make sure we didn't hit the businesses with some hidden costs.
The format of the meeting was pretty much as we expected, with the representative from the administradores taking minutes, and the elected president of the building dominating the proceedings. We breathed a sigh of relief when the president started off by saying that the meeting would be conducted in castellano for the benefit of yours truly and everyone else was happy with that:thumbs-up: . I never cease to be amazed at how fluently the catalans can switch to and from castellano. I know I wish I could too!
We all sat round a big table and agreed that the accounts for the past year were correct, how money would be spent over the coming year on building reforms, maintenance, cleaning, etc. Strangely the documents suggested that votes would be taken on the issues (the strength of your vote depends on the floor area of your apartment) but no votes were actually taken. Note: this is an observation rather than a moan.
From our point of view it was more important to meet our new neighbours and put faces to flats. "Oh! So you're living directly below us!" I've bumped into most of the neighbours in the street now, and I wouldn't have know who they were before, so that's a big plus. It also gave us some ideas of people's personalities and some of the discussions revealed that certain neighbours don't get on at all.
I'd be interested to hear other views of meetings of comunidades de vecinos.
In the week before Christmas we had the annual meeting of the "comunidad de vecinos" of the building where we have bought a flat (in Barcelona) but which we haven't moved in to yet (long story). It's just round the corner from where we are renting right now.
About two weeks before the meeting we received a letter from the administration company appointed by all the "C de V" inviting us to attend and detailing the agenda for the meeting - covering accounts, who has paid, who hasn't paid (named and shamed), etc... We were a little underwhelmed that the invitation and all documents were written in catalan, because we do struggle with it a bit :rolleyes: A swift phone call to the administradores confirmed that a recently-passed law means that all vivienda documents must be written in catalan and there is no obligation (i.e. cost) to issue a castellano version as well. :(
Anyway, we saw it as a good opportunity to meet our future neighbours, although with slight trepidation, as we expected the meeting would be conducted in catalan.
The meeting invitation strangely listed two times for the meeting 7:30pm and 8:00pm at the offices of the adminstradores. We thought we'd make a good first impression and arrive in time for the first meeting time. Unfortunately noone else did, so we sat around like a pair of numpties waiting for everyone else to arrive at 8:00pm! It was interesting to meet not only the other residents of our building, but also the representative of the owners of the street-level shops who was presumably there to make sure we didn't hit the businesses with some hidden costs.
The format of the meeting was pretty much as we expected, with the representative from the administradores taking minutes, and the elected president of the building dominating the proceedings. We breathed a sigh of relief when the president started off by saying that the meeting would be conducted in castellano for the benefit of yours truly and everyone else was happy with that:thumbs-up: . I never cease to be amazed at how fluently the catalans can switch to and from castellano. I know I wish I could too!
We all sat round a big table and agreed that the accounts for the past year were correct, how money would be spent over the coming year on building reforms, maintenance, cleaning, etc. Strangely the documents suggested that votes would be taken on the issues (the strength of your vote depends on the floor area of your apartment) but no votes were actually taken. Note: this is an observation rather than a moan.
From our point of view it was more important to meet our new neighbours and put faces to flats. "Oh! So you're living directly below us!" I've bumped into most of the neighbours in the street now, and I wouldn't have know who they were before, so that's a big plus. It also gave us some ideas of people's personalities and some of the discussions revealed that certain neighbours don't get on at all.
I'd be interested to hear other views of meetings of comunidades de vecinos.