Cyprus-Forum.com

[Tricky]

I have one bedroom apartment in Peyia the only facilities are a communal pool and a small garden area (approx 2m x 20m). The developer is charging 900 euros pa for the maintainance. At the moment I am refusing to pay due to (a) I think it is to much, and (b) they will not issue a bill or receipt.
How does this compare to others ?
Ps, there are 40, 1 and 2 bed apartments, I think the 2 beds are being charged 1200 euros pa.

[Z4]

Hi Tricky

Couple of questions:

1) Is this a new build?
2) What are you being charged for? (i.e. communal services - such as pool, gardens/ lighting/ cleaning etc) If you could detail this I will give you my opinion.

[baby-come-fly-with-me]

I have one bedroom apartment in Peyia the only facilities are a communal pool and a small garden area (approx 2m x 20m). The developer is charging 900 euros pa for the maintainance. At the moment I am refusing to pay due to (a) I think it is to much, and (b) they will not issue a bill or receipt.
How does this compare to others ?
Ps, there are 40, 1 and 2 bed apartments, I think the 2 beds are being charged 1200 euros pa.

seems you are contributing towards his mortgage more like.
if you are english, what the hell can you do about it?!
makes you angry eh to think if it was a cypriot living there they wouldnt pay that much
DONT PAY IT but be carefulhe will have you in court where the solicitor, developer and whoever else is involved will share a whopping 10,000 euros or something ridiculous like that....(yawn) ive heard and seen it all before.
good luck

[Hazza]

2 bed appartment, almost 3 years old....

Ground floor, pays nothing as he doesn't share anything else from the appartment bloc.
3 appartments on first floor and 3 on second floor, we pay 20Euros per month each. This covers the lighting, water and cleaning lady.

Also a penthouse appartment which is empty.


My old appartment where I rented, it was around 20 years old with around 20 appartments. We all paid £10 (cyp) a month each.... thats around 17Euros.

An appartment I looked at had a communal swimming pool and the common expenses for that was 30Euros a month.

All appartments I mentioned are in Larnaca.

Hope this helps. Good luck!!!

[Z4]

It also depends how many apartments on the block don't forget

[Tim Drayton]

I am puzzled as to why the developer and not an independent residents' committee is collecting these charges anyway. Was there some kind of provision in the sales contract that the developer would continue to be responsible for maintenance after the properties were delivered and would levy a charge for this?

[Paphitis]

I have one bedroom apartment in Peyia the only facilities are a communal pool and a small garden area (approx 2m x 20m). The developer is charging 900 euros pa for the maintainance. At the moment I am refusing to pay due to (a) I think it is to much, and (b) they will not issue a bill or receipt.
How does this compare to others ?
Ps, there are 40, 1 and 2 bed apartments, I think the 2 beds are being charged 1200 euros pa.

This is quite reasonable and cheap.

In Sydney, a 2 bedroom apartment in the Eastern Suburbs will cost you around 600,000 Euros, with an indoor pool, gym, lift and secure car parking. The strata fees (you call them communal fees) are around 8,000 Euros pa.

A 2 bedroom apartment in Bondi, Manly, North Shore, Darling Harbor or anywhere in the CBD will cost around 1 million Euros with strata fees in excess of 15,000 Euros.

Strata fees are payable for building maintenance, security and maintenance of facilities. So the more facilities you have in your building, the higher the strata charges.

Prices are only slightly cheaper (10%) in Melbourne.

So Cyprus is a very cheap place in comparison.

[Oracle]

I have one bedroom apartment in Peyia the only facilities are a communal pool and a small garden area (approx 2m x 20m). The developer is charging 900 euros pa for the maintainance. At the moment I am refusing to pay due to (a) I think it is to much, and (b) they will not issue a bill or receipt.
How does this compare to others ?
Ps, there are 40, 1 and 2 bed apartments, I think the 2 beds are being charged 1200 euros pa.

It's always wrong to withhold payment on a contracted obligation. Surely they are still fulfilling their part by maintaining communal areas?

Also, if you knew how much it cost before moving in, why did you not query it at the outset? Now you are breaking contractual rules.

As a comparison I pay £700 sterling on a small studio in the UK (without a pool). I also do not receive a receipt as I pay by cheque and it is part of the ongoing contracted services. For example, people are also not issued with receipts when paying even Council Tax payments by direct debit.

So, as for a receipt, why don't you set up a standing order/direct debit with your bank, or simply pay by cheque ... then you need no further proof of payment such as a receipt.

[CBBB]

Refuse to pay unless they give you a receipt. They are obviously on the fiddle and avoiding tax on what you pay!

[Tricky]

When I bought the apartment in 2006 the charges were £250 cyp, in the contract the maintainance company was named, we later found that the developer had formed this company just to carry out the maintainance of the 40 apartments. On completion we were asked to sign an aggreement that allowed the maintainance 'company' to maintain the complex for 5 years. We were told "sign or no keys", our solicitor told us to sign otherwise it could be 'messy', being British, we signed.
In the beginning there was a full time maintainance man and 2 full time cleaners, within 6 months this went down to 1 cleaner, a few hours a week, the complex now looks 30 years old, not 3.
With no itemised bill we don't know exactley what maintainance should be carried out, in other words, just what is being done for our 900 euros.