Myths about 2009 APC Dues

[

[erased

[

out of here

[

erased

erased

erased

Hang on ...........

I've just taken the 7.5 million quoted by Aida & divided it by 4,000 units - 2 per resident in high season - & come up with 1,875 per unit.

If that is a true figure & it assumes EVERYBODY pays no wonder Costambar is a mess.

Over to you APC - what does it cost to run Costambar & how many units - business & residential are there?

I sincerely hope I'm wrong!

Thanks Aida.

What we're still missing is the number of units. Then we can get an average cost per unit.

I know there's about 2,000 residents in high season, but that doesn't include the businesses & empty units which should obviously be counted too

erased

I agree, there needs to be some justification for the numbers, not just some arbitrary number that someone comes up with, Like I said a 60% increase for homeowners is luducris, definitely need some facts to go with the figures if they want a co operative community

As a bar owner I personally think 1,000 a month is too MUCH for the service we receive. All they do is empty the garbage - well suposedly ... when the truck's fixed .....

I provide my own street lights, my own security - the only time we see security is when they are "collecting" for the police each month - & Calle Cadiz is a bomb site, the road hasn't seen any repairs for years that haven't been paid for privately.

Personally I am curious as to how much money APC need annualy to do the job properly - there must be a number somewhere that somebody has calculated. Divide that by the number of units - houses, apartments, condos, businesses. Then we would have a true figure for the dues per unit.

I will definitely talk to my other half about paying the 1200.... that is a good point also. I agree with paying but we also need to make the so called leaders accountable for where the money goes and I know of no other way to get their attention.

thanks for your input,

Too bad! I wish you would pay, why don't you pay the 1200.-with a protest each month. I pay 1900 also and I am not even there a great part of the year, but we have always paid our dues, if we want Costambar to be a valuable community we MUST pay maintenance.
Yash maybe you could tell us why the Bars and certain businesses pay less than we do? Sylindr has a good point. I'm sure you must have had a reason.

I think my concern is quite valid actually, they raised the rates on a home from 1200 to 1950???? How and where is the justification for that??? That is an insane increase to ANY utility!!

Secondly, a bar, with a ton of garbage, noice traffice etc is deems 1/2 of a home, in my case with two people??? Again, this Board needs to justify where these numbers come from.

As mentioned when the fees were 1200 it seemed fair for what we receive and I paid, but 60% increase on top of all the people raising money to improve the road etc (which should be APC) was too much for us.

In the paperwork issued by APC relating to the dues it clearly states that businesses are "by negotiation".

Upon requesting a negotiation with APC regarding the dues for our bar I was informed that the dues were RD1,000 NON-NEGOTIABLE. ...

We are now paying the dues for the bar & hope that EVERY other business on Calle Cadiz will follow suit & do the same so the garbage problem near our bar is never repeated.

For the information of those who are absentee owners there are at present 2 bars, a salon, a gymnasium an apartment building & a clothes shop on Calle Cadiz.

Some of the business owners above don't live in Costambar, but that doesn't mean they do not have to pay APC fees, or their electricity come to think of it, but that's a whole new can or worms ....

I'll be inspecting the list of non-payers monthly to check. And, yes Bethania does know of ALL the businesses.

erased

I think the reason no one is responding to Sylindr's post is that we get very tired of people who find all sorts of reasons not to pay their dues, and have those of us who do carry them by having to pay more and more dues.
I personaly do not think that our dues are too high. My answer to Sylindr is that if you object to the amount you are being charged, discuss it with the responsible person at APC and/or bring it up at the next meeting, but do NOT not pay dues that is not an answer.
Consider it.

erased

As a relatively new home owner, I arrived fully prepared to begin paying my fees of 1200 pesos per month. I made a couple of installments and then received notice that they were being raised more that 60% to 1950 per month. this for a small property with two people living there!! Ridiculous and we have since stopped.

Now I see that a Bar Owner pays 1000 pesos a month???? How is that justified??? Much more traffic, garbage, noise, problems etc??? And my quiet household pays double?

With these crazy differences it is no wonder the percentage of payers is down.

erased

Dear Residents of Costambar:

I just want to clarify certain misinformation being spread by some residents of Costambar. It is simply not true that the 2009 dues for all houses are the same. In constructing the dues assessment for various properties the APC Board struggled to find an underlying rationale for disparate assessment. For, example, a house can be assessed based on its market value, assessed tax value, square footage, or the number of families living in the house.

It is evident that APC does not have the capacity to assess houses based on their market value, nor on the square footage, or on the assessed tax value of a house. Clearly, APC functions with a shoe string budget with two employees on the administrative pay roll and an all volunteer Board, and does not have the capacity to gather and compile such data. Assessing houses on a subjective criteria such as small, medium, or large is prone to errors and unending arguments. In fact, when asked of Liana, the ex-president, the rationale as to why a house should be assessed as large, medium, or small, and whether a large house consumes more services than a small one, she was not able to provide a convincing argument or rationale, except that a "large" house is worth more than a "small" house. It is evident that a "large" house is not necessarily worth more than a "small" house; nor is it evident as to what constitutes a small, medium, or large house in the absence of a quantitative measure such as square footage.

Faced with this dilemma, we came with the idea of assessing houses on the basis of the number units or families residing in a house or a building, and as to whether the dues were being paid by one single owner of the entire building or house or by several owners such as in a condominium complex. This rationale, in the absence of a more objectively quantifiable criteria that could be easily applied to Costambar, makes sense if one considers the services provided by APC. Clearly, the amount of garbage produced, the degradation of the roads, the number of security personnel needed (to name the most important services provided by APC), is more a function of the number of families (or people) residing in Costambar than the size of the house.

Taking this into consideration, the Board decided to assess single or two family houses at one rate (RD$1950). Houses larger than two families are required to pay an additional amount. For example, a house with 3 families or apartment is assessed at RD$2,550 and a 4 family house is assessed at RD$3,400. Individual condominiums are assessed at RD$850 each, and a building with 5 or more apartments owned by a single payer/owner are assessed at RD$700 per apartment. similarly, hotels, that contain rooms and/or apartments are assessed on the basis or the number of rooms and apartments in an hotel unit. Also, only those empty solars that do not require maintenance by APC and are tended (e.g. cutting of grass) to by their owners are exempted. All other solars that require APC maintenance are assessed RD$300 per month.

I hope the above explanation/information helps dispel some of the myths being propagated by a few disgruntled property owners who have time on their hand to waste it in pursuit of stirring unnecessary controversies, instead of helping to make this community of ours a more livable place - which it could be if the nay-sayers stopped complaining, paid their dues, and worked with APC to solve our mutual problems.

Yash Aggarwal
APC Board Member