Community Structure
For more than 40 years, the correct legal structure of Costa Natura as a Community of Owners has been misunderstood by many people: ‘Costa Natura’ has been marketed as if it was a tourist resort with a single owner, infringing a variety of Spanish and European legislation including Article 33 of the Constitution of Spain and Articles 101 and 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (as described in this summary). Operating the homeowner community as if it was a private business enterprise has also exposed many homeowners to recurrent episodes of corrupt leadership who have sought - and succeeded - to exploit the owners for private gain.
It would be ideal if the Community Statutes could be revised to become consistent with higher legislation, but this may be impossible until the Spanish Law of Horizontal Property relaxes its requirement for unanimous agreement amongst all the owners for changes to homeowner community statutes. In the meantime, some of the necessary practical changes could be implemented by means of Internal Regulations.
Current Leaders & Administration
Costa Natura is currenty (in December 2022) controlled by a small number of individuals from within and outside of the Community of Owners. The responsibilities and accountabilities of community representatives are poorly defined and misunderstood by themselves and others. Most of the same individuals who control the homeowner community are also Directors of a registered Non-Profit Association which operates commercial real estate agency services for private benefit.
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The Spanish Law of Horizontal Property (LHP) requires unanimous agreement amongst all the homeowners for any change to Community Statutes; notwithstanding, when original errors exist, or decrees are issued by higher legislation, inconsistencies in Community Statutes become unenforcable. Any attempt to obtain unanimous agreement amongst more than 100 homeowner entities who inhabit disparate worlds of thought is, for all practical purposes, an impossible goal. For this reason, the Law of Horizontal Property provides for homeowner communities to agree upon Internal Regulations, with lower levels of agreement required.
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The LHP is described by its legislators to combine positive law and natural law, including the idea of justice as a moral virtue. Therefore, it considers both practical realities and concepts of duty. Friendships may often conflict with legal duties; hence, it must be remembered that co-owners in a Community of Owners have no obligation to be friends with one another. As stated in LHP, “Intimately linked to the rights of enjoyment, are duties of the same nature”.
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Of relevance to Costa Natura, is Article 17.12 of LHP, enacted on 1st March 2019, by Royal Decree-Law 7/2019. Article 17.12 makes it lawful (for the first time) to impose restrictive conditions on the leasing of residential properties; those restrictive conditions make it lawful (for the first time) for a Community of Owners to mandate that no owner may lease their property to non-naturist clients (dependent upon three-fifths agreement of total owners and participation quotas). Article 17.12 also allows for community fees corresponding to properties rented on short-term leases to be increased, by up to 20%.
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Costa Natura has never been, legally, a tourist resort: although the land was originally qualified as ‘touristic’ in 1979 as per this information from Malaga Provincial Archives, it was changed to ‘residential’ when it was constituted in 1981. The place has potential for many entities to exist and operate within it, some illustrated on the diagram below.
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“People demand freedom of speech; in compensation, for freedom of thought (which they seldom use).”
~ Soren Kierkegaard
The above diagram illustrates a possible future organisational structure (not what exists in December 2022).
