English
FrançaisI own a unit in a Leaseback Residence de Tourism which is now being taken over by the present Operator who did it by buying
a majority of the units at a very cheap price. This was the result of coercion and intimidation following efforts to lower the rents
without our approval and imposing various charges. Most owners had no alternative (to avoid a long and costly litigation) but to sell
to them at about 30% of the original price. Now, they want to charge us an exhorbitant amount for the for the repairs of the building.
They are demanding payment without the charges being approved by the Syndic (in a General Assembly) or the Court. Can they sue
the minority owners to enforce their demand? How best to deal with this situation? Their dirty practices continue and nothing will stop
them until they have taken ownership of the whole Residence. You cannot imagine such Operators exist.Please help! Thank you very much.
Welcome to the club of theives and bandits commonly known as management companies - you are on a hiding to nothing without encurring exhorbitant legal costs - sorry but there is no good news where these crooks are involved
The problem has gotten worse and the management company has taken the charges and additional ones from the rental income from my unit. So now, I have NO income from my apartment and must pay the Syndic dues from my own pocket. I hired a lawyer to take the matter to Court, but he turned out to be a bummer and did not get anything done. So I am looking for another one. If any member of this community happens to know a good and reliable lawyer, please let me know. I have no choice but to fight back. Thank you very much for whatever help you can give
Hello, does the "Operator/Management Company" own the majority of apartments?
Have you been in contact with the syndic (ie the company that manages the co-owned areas and issues charges on behalf of SdC Syndic de Co-owners? Sometimes the operator and syndic mayb be same company but the co-owners in Syndicat de co-owmers SdC pass resolution to select syndic to manage SdC affairs/chages etc.
Charges can only set if a majority of co-owners in SdC AGM voted in favour to set those charges. Do you have copy of Process-Verbal (minutes) from AMG(General Assembly) where those charges were set? Normally SdC can only set charges for maintenance of "shared areas". It is possible to include apartment maintenance but again this would have had to be set by a SdC resolution at an AGM so you should look for proof of when these resolutions were passed from syndic-company.
Are you in contact with other owners? Perhaps you should be raising your own resolutions at AGM. Who are the operator? How many apartments do they own?
If problem with charges the SdC could take legal action rather thann you alone and can make a complaint to "commercial court". However if operator own the majority of apartments and thereby has the majority of votes in SdC, it may be difficult to counter what they are up to but
at a minimum you should check that resolutions were passed to
1. Allow apatments charges to be part of "shared" costs. Normally paths gardens are shared but apartments are private so up to operator to maintain and not the SdC
2. Set charges which you ar being asked to pay
Many thanks for your reply. Your comments are most helpful. The Operator NOW owns the majority share in the apartments of the Residence. They did it using dubious ways. First, they asked for a 20% reduction in rent from us because they were not making enough money and would like to upgrade the Residence to a 3-star rating. We agreed. After another 2 years or so, they came back to us owners and asked for another 20% reduction on rent. We refused. They then reduced the rents unilaterally (without our agreement) and told us that that was all they could afford to pay. They then started charging us for "co-proprietary" expenses without justification. They started subtracting those from the rentals due on our unit. They offered to buy our units at less than 40% of our purchase price, as an alternative to the reduction and in rent. Some owners sold out so now they own majority of the units. They now want to charge us for maintenance and repair of the building , amounting to about 15,000 Euros per unit. (This, despite the fact that the Residence just got it's 3-star rating.) All these without putting the proposal to a vote in a General Assembly Meeting. Their greed will not stop there so we have no recourse but to go to Court. We have formed a small Collectif to do that but it is very hard to get things done when many people are involved. Also, our Collectif's approach is all along self defense and not taking the initiative to go offensive. I would like to hire another lawyer to do the latter. In case you have more ideas and advice to give, I would be most grateful if you let me know. Thank you so much again.
God help you all - this is possibly the worst case of theiving managemnet companies that I have heard of - being 17 years on this forum.
They are French crooks, plain and simple. The only way we got out of our predicament was to force them into liquidation after which our leases were cancelled. We were in the process of examining self-managemnt when a foreign investor came in with an offer to buy the whole building...we accepted and it was the best thing we ever did. You have to organise yourselves as a group and be brave to take them to court. We were willing to do it and it worked out. Rollong over just suits these crooks. They are all crooks notaires, estate agents, developers, syndics and banks.
Hi. I think you should split the issues and using lawyer should be a last resort due to expense.
1. Your lease and unagreed 20% rent reduction could be countered by issuing Cdp which can be done on this website cheaply.
2. The Syndicat de co-prop is seperate even though I'm guessing your syndic-company may be you management company/operator and they seem to be throwing apartment maintenance costs into Syndicat de co-prop mix. There are rules re how SdC are run so before paying charges ask for process-verbal minutes re when charges were passed by vote at AG. If syndic can't prove that majority voted in favour of charges and not recorded in process-verbal, then they cant impose charge.
a. Are there AG meetings held in resort each year? It is possible they are being held but no invite sent to owners? All owners need to receive a convocation and invite before meeting and minutes detailing votes and charges et afterwards.
b. Have you or other owners ever put up your own resolution for vote?
c. How about a resolution to change syndic-company?
d. Have you ever attended AG or used pouvoirs(proxy votes) from other owners to vote against resolutions such as resolutions to set charges each year?
e. Are there any local owners in resort who purchased apartment but who do not have leases with management company/operator? If they exist, have you ever met them as they could not be happy re paying charges to maintain other owners apartments?
Even if you and others vote and loose a resolution you will begin to see the power you have at an AG. That should be initial battleground before going to courts. There are some processes where co-owners can bring complaints re AG malpractices to commercial court but best to get as many co-owners as possible on-board first. Do management company/operator actually own 50%+ of all apartments? If it is on;ly 30% or so then other 70% should organise yourselves and ensure proxies in use at next AG
===================================================================