Community, Association or Corporation?
Co-owners of common elements of residential property might be an autarkic group in the sense of protecting their shared property interests, but nothing else ties them together. They are not even associations: they are corporations (but without the benefits of limited liability).
‘Community relations’ amongst such exclusive groups of co-owners can exist only in a projected sense (akin to a nation state or a virtual community). Their only relevant social resource is their shared knowledge of the corporation. Relationships among their members benefit most from effective exchange of information about specific topics.
In the book ‘Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft’ (1887), German sociologist Ferdinand Tönnies compared concepts of ‘community’ and ‘association’ as different ways to think about social ties: he described personal social interactions as the core element of ‘community’; whereas ‘association’ inferred indirect interactions and impersonal roles.
An autarkic group of co-owners can only ever be a pseudo-community: personal interactions between them are limited to trying to be "nice" and presenting what they feel are their most personable and friendly characteristics. Their group necessarily excludes all non-co-owners and bears no relation to the Latin noun ‘communitas’ (an unstructured group on equal terms and with mutual understanding).
In archeology, ‘community’ can mean a place where people used to live; in ecology, it may include competition and predation as well as mutualism. Nowadays, the word ‘community’ often has a positive semantic connotation, exploited rhetorically to promote feelings of happiness and togetherness (e.g. a utopian community). By contrast, ‘community transmission’ has negative implications in the epidemiology of infectious disease and ‘bad apples in a barrel’ are a metaphor for the criminal ‘community’/underworld.
The word “Community” is often used to manipulate others; it is an inherently emotion-rich word. It involves the creation of an “in-group” (Us) and an “out-group” (Them). It allows people to say pseudo-polite things, such as, “We don’t do things like that in Our community; You must be one of Them”.
Grassroots community organizing could be excellent for promoting naturist lifestyles, but is severely impeded by ramifications of fascist ideology which appear to have dominated Costa Natura for 40 years. A variety of unorthodox methods may be tried to pressure decision-makers when good-faith negotiations have repeatedly failed: the end-goal being to distribute power equally and to achieve open governance whilst respecting individuality and differences.
The shameful statutes of a registered non-profit association describe Costa Natura as a “lifestyle on its own”, yet restrict membership to owners of real estate. Rather, Costa Natura is nothing more than a geographic place-name; it’s not a lifestyle, nor a resort, nor even a community. The only sense in which Costa Natura might become a ‘community’ is in the usage of that term by future professional archaeologists (“a place where people used to live”). In a sociological sense, any shared way of life is enough to make a ‘community’ and it isn’t dependent on any ownership of real estate.
It is interesting to observe abuses of concepts of ‘community’ and ‘association’ during the past year by individuals who simultaneously assert to be leaders of a “Costa Natura Community of Owners” and of a fictional “Costa Natura Family Naturist Resort” (sic) within it. This gang of former and aspiring puppets of the neo-Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie were quasi-elected (seized power) together with some 'Secretary-Administrator' pals in April 2022. Their patterns of behaviour are sadly-familiar: they control, operate and market a commercial ‘tourist resort’ which doesn’t exist, using the legal entity of a non-profit association “for tax reasons”. They have used homeowners’ money (intended for the maintenance of common property) to subsidise their commercial activities and for various other mysterious purposes. Some co-owners, admittedly, don’t appear to care; whilst, others passionately assert a ‘right’ to silence questions or criticism and to make false allegations to police about having been seen naked (whilst voluntarily wearing no clothes).
These oligarchs operate a regime similar to the state-controlled monopoly industries of 1930’s Nazi Germany: they control the flow of money which does not belong to them and restrict access to information, regularly abusing the rights of others. In view of these apparent behaviours, it is enormously reassuring that they describe themselves as “honest” in the subtitle of all of their “newsletters” (April 2022, May 2022, June 2022; August 2022, October 2022; January 2023; March 2023). No ‘newsletters’ by the oligarchs have been received for any intervening months and none have been received in the official language of the state of Spain or in any of the official languages of its Autonomous Communities; no submissions to that newsletter have been invited and no suggestions for it have been accepted.
Notwithstanding, these newsletters are sent to homeowners from an email domain belonging to their tourist business, but described as being from another entity which doesn’t exist (“Costa Natura Owners’ Committee”). Their “owners’ committee” could refer to the Board of Owners (but does not); it could refer to the Executive Committee (but they refuse to use that term); it likely refers to the Board of Directors of Naturist Association of Costa Natura but seems purposefully vague and misleading. When I purchased property in 2020, my name and apartment number were advertised in their newsletter without my consent. For fully three years, from April 2019 until April 2022, that ‘owners’ committee’ refused to permit any kind of meeting of owners (despite that various means were possible) or any other opportunity for owners to share their concerns amongst each other. The President did claim to have held an EGM in 2021, but he prohibited any submissions to the agenda (except his own) and he prohibited any owners from attending (except himself). Three so-called ‘meetings’ of owners between April 2022 and April 2023 breached multiple basic legal precepts which included refusals of submissions to the agenda, denial of permission to speak at the meetings and falsification of written minutes.
Various email enquiries to this self-described “owners’ committee” during April-June 2022 received either no replies, nonsensical replies or concerning replies. They assured me that they intended to comply with law in future, but were unwilling to give sensible responses to any questions. Repeated complaints about the inherent conflicts of interest of their multiple simultaneous roles were stonewalled. They have consistently refused to share any information whatsoever about their own ‘committee meetings’ and regularly make consequential decisions without consulting owners.
On 4th August 2022, the dual-powered Secretary-Administrator corporation sent an email, announcing an EGM for 20th of September. It did not respond to submissions to its agenda, added new items of its own after the closing date and modified or omitted items submitted by owners. It and the so-called ‘owners’ committee’ breached data protection laws (as per routine, for every previous ‘meeting’) to provide its/their personal views on every agenda item and to solicit proxy votes from owners who could not attend. That ‘EGM’ was a farce. It was chaired by a member of the Illustrious College of Avocados of Malaga (representing the already dual-powered ‘Secretary-Administrator’ corporation), who had clearly tutored the puppet-President of the owners to obey his instructions. Another avocado (who had no right nor reason to be at the meeting) sat beside that chairperson. Neither of them displayed any sign of concern when laws were broken. I made an audio recording in evidence of their refusal to permit me to express my concerns and left the meeting.
On 13th October 2022, the email address of the tourist business sent an email titled, “Reply to email from concerned owners” [further described in the email body as “concerned (Spanish) owners”]. The email admitted obfuscation of finances between different legal entities; made a false statement that an item “was adopted unanimously”; made a false statement that “Almudena already requested twice”; claimed that illegal activities do not require “urgent answers and solutions” and falsely stated that homeowners would receive information about the use of their money if they consented to become members of an illegally-acting, unlimited-liability, non-profit association.
On 27th October 2022 the email address of the tourist business sent an email titled “Fwd: Corrección de error en el acta”; an owner had requested correction of a factual error in the minutes of the EGM. The oligarchs refused to correct that factual error and an explanation by their triple-powered, private-agent Chairperson/Administrator/Secretary (non-owner) member of Illustrious College of Avocados of Malaga was quasi-legal nonsense, designed to confuse.
On 31st Oct 2022 the email address of the tourist business sent an email stating, “Arturo Gabarrón, our ANCN accountant, has provided the attached documents. The "Certificado AEAT" is an official certificate issued by the Spanish tax authorities stating that ANCN has fulfilled all its legal obligations which allows us to close this discussion.” The certificate provided was wholly inadequate for responding to the doubts that had been raised about how ANCN and its associates handle their tax obligations.
On 27th January 2023, the dual-powered/triple-powered ‘Secretary-Administrator’ corporation sent an email containing a letter announcing a deadline for submitting agenda items to an AGM on 4th April (which date - previously announced as 3rd April - had been changed, without any explanation). The letter stated, “we will send you the official notice with the agenda of the day to be discussed and the list of debtors with due time in advance, as well as complementary documentation so that you can understand the issues to be discussed”. The letter provided an informal deadline of “15 days” for submissions to the agenda and for applications to be a candidate for any representative position.
On Saturday, 28th January 2023 at 9:46 hrs, I submitted an item to the agenda in the manner requested and also by registered burofax. I additionally copied my submission by email to all existing representatives and numerous other email addresses connected to Costa Natura. No acknowledgment or response to my submission to the agenda has ever been received and it was omitted from the agenda.
On 7th February, I sent a letter by registered burofax to the dual-powered/triple-powered ‘Secretary-Administrator’ corporation in response to a threat of legal action against me in regards to ‘non-payment of fees’. The threat against me had been delivered to an address in Spain to which I had requested that corporation to not send any correspondence (having provided them with my preferred contact details by email, by WhatsApp and my home address in Portugal). The dual-powered/triple-powered ‘Secretary-Administrator’ corporation made no attempt to contact me by any of my stated, preferred contact methods. Even then, when I became aware that it wished to communicate with me, it refused (by email) to share whatever information it wished to communicate to me.
On 25th February I sent another letter to the dual-powered/triple-powered ‘Secretary-Administrator’ corporation by registered burofax, reminding them of my submission to the agenda and asking (again) for specific explanations for 2 specific expenses. No acknowledgment or response has ever been received and no explanation has ever been provided for multiple suspicious expenses. More than ten other registered burofax letters to the administration and ‘leaders’ have received no response. Upon attending the main office of the dual-powered/triple-powered ‘Secretary-Administrator’ corporation in person, the receptionist refused to permit me to speak with anyone responsible but promised I would be contacted to arrange an appointment; predictably, I was not contacted.
On 3rd March 2023 at 15:36 an email was received from the dual-powered/triple-powered ‘Secretary-Administrator’ corporation titled “MEETING-CALL AGM 2023”. The email contained two attachments: an agenda and a list of debtors. It was obviously not a “call” to a meeting (which had already been done twice, with different dates), since it already included an agenda. No details were provided about any of the items listed on the agenda and the item I had submitted was not included.
On 6th March 2023 at 23:16 an email was received from the tourist business, titled “ANCN CALL FOR THE AGM 2023” (‘ANCN’ refers to a registered non-profit association, operated - by the same oligarchs who control the homeowners’ money - as a >1 million € per year, profit-making, business enterprise). A finalised agenda was attached to the email and no submissions to its agenda were permitted from associates.
On 29th March 2023 at 13:02, the dual-powered/triple-powered ‘Secretary-Administrator’ corporation sent an email titled, “Documents of interest for the AGM 04.04.2023”. No explanation was provided for many oddities for which explanations had been requested, for example: what is the purpose of any deadline for submissions to any agenda, if not to provide all information to all parties on that date?; why were only a selected range of supporting documents provided (6 weeks after the deadline had expired, 6 days prior to the date of the meeting)?; why had my one submission to the agenda been omitted and no attempt been made to communicate with me about it?
On 30th March 2023 an email was received from the dual-powered/triple-powered ‘Secretary-Administrator’ corporation including the text, “Please find enclosed the curricula vitae of the candidates for the Board of Directors of the Community of Owners, to be voted on item 3 of the agenda of the AGM of 04.04.203.” No information was received about any candidates for Directors of the non-profit association. For context, the ‘Board of Directors’/‘Junta Directiva’ of a ‘Community of Owners’ in the Spanish Law of Horizontal Property is the same as the ‘Board of Owners’ which comprises of all co-owners. The Community Statutes define an ‘Executive Committee’/‘Junta de Administración’ but the oligarchs refuse to use correct terminology: instead, they call themselves “Directors” interchangeably with “Owners’ Committee”.
Within the solicitations received, a member of the Illustrious College of Avocados of Malaga wrote she was “RUNNING FOR COMMITTEE AND ASSOCIATION MEMBER”; without specifying which committee and seemingly-oblivious to the fact that membership of the non-profit association is not the same as being a member of its Board of Directors. Most solicitations also canvassed co-owners to donate their proxy votes to them, in violation of data protection laws. The incumbent President/Puppet/Director/CEO/etc.etc. wrote “No conflicts of interest identified”, despite that a >1 million € per year monopoly tourist business is operated in an illegal manner in his name. He also declared himself to be “happily retired” (>5 years before his state pension age) despite having received a minimum 5-figure sum of personal income from that business activity in two recent years.
On 4th April 2023 at 09:02 an email was received from the dual-powered/triple-powered ‘Secretary-Administrator’ corporation including the text “Please find enclosed a report on the financial statements of the community for the year 2022, commissioned to the auditor. The auditor will attend tomorrow's general meeting to attend the owners.” This email was sent on the morning of the day of the meeting, less than 30 minutes before it was scheduled to begin (it was not sent on the day before, as implied in the email). During that hour before the meeting began, I observed the President gleefully counting between 15 and 17 proxy votes which he had solicited from absent owners by breaching his privileged access to their contact details. At least half of attendees at the meeting were individuals whom I suspect to have participated in abuses of power and/or may have received bribes to influence decisions. I attempted several times to raise a Point of Order to highlight multiple procedural irregularities, but I was not permitted to speak. I left the meeting with an audio recording in evidence of their refusal to permit me to speak.
At 18:02hrs on 4th April, an email was received from the tourist business titled “ANCN package AGM 05.04.2023” containing financial statements of this registered non-profit association. This was the evening prior to the meeting to which it referred, less than 16 hours before it was scheduled to begin. On 5th Apr 2023 at 09:14 an email was received from the tourist business titled “Re: AGM 2023 / PRESIDENT´S REPORT - INFORME DEL PRESIDENTE”. This “report” was sent on the day of the meeting, 16 minutes before it was scheduled to begin. For context, the statutes of that registered non-profit association do not define any role of “President” (rather, it has a Board of Directors). The terms “President”, “Director”, “Board of Directors”, “owners’ committee” and others appear to be used incorrectly on purpose by the same [mostly-anonymous] individuals.
The documents distributed (all very late and some referenced in the agendas were never distributed at all) by the dual-powered/triple-powered ‘Secretary-Administrator’ corporation and the tourist business entity (which uses the legal status of a non-profit association) are mostly incomprehensible. They lack vital details and include copious ambiguity and nonsense.
Interestingly, the dual-powered/triple-powered ‘Secretary-Administrator’ corporation records more than 100.000€ in non-quota income for the ‘community of owners’ in 2022, which should be more than enough money to pay for 100% of maintenance costs of all property in co-ownership at market rates, without needing to invoice co-owners for any fees at all. Co-owners are, of course, still individually liable for paying personal income tax to the Spanish treasury for their share of any such income (if it exists). Several requests to be provided with information about the mandatory submission of AEAT Form 184 (during the month of January each year) have been refused by the responsible individuals. It has therefore been impossible for me to submit a personal income tax declaration to the Spanish authorities in regards to this Spanish property income.
The concept of a ‘Community of Owners’ in Spain is a misnomer; just as the concept of a ‘Home Owners’ Association (HOA)’ in North America is also a misnomer: co-owners of residential real estate comprise neither a ‘community’ nor an ‘association’; rather, they comprise a corporation which unfortunately lacks any protections of limited liability. Handing all control of that corporation to an external, profit-making ‘Secretary-Administrator’ corporation which also chairs meetings of owners and conceals information from them does not make sense. Costa Natura is, nevertheless, a beautiful aesthetic creation which might outlive its human inhabitants.
