Cross-Sharing Agreement At Las Mañanitas
Ever since Phase III was completed -- almost 15 years ago now -- residents of all three Phases have used the common areas, entrances and amenities of all three Phases AS IF they were one, big "Master" condominium. Legally, though, all 3 Las Mañanitas Phases are independent condominium regimes not subject to a master property condominium regime.
That is, we are using all the common areas in fact ("de facto") but don't have any actual legal rights ("de jure") as such. Earlier Owners intended to remedy this by a "Cross-Sharing Agreement" signed by all three Phases.
In 2015, the November Assemblies authorized the Vigilance Committees of all three Phases to enter into a Cross-Sharing Agreement to be drafted and approved by 51% of the Owners of each Phase.
Counsel started to draft the document but the "life intruded." There was the change of Community Manager from Associa to someone we hired directly (now, David Alanis) and some loose ends like recovering some overpayments to Associa and installing a system to charge penthouse Owners in Phase II and III for propane they used from the HOA tanks. The main slowdown, though, came from the few parts of the Las Mañanitas Complex still owned by the developer, Amarado.
In 2017, the HOA bought the remaining assets from Amarado, but it took until 2021 to get final legal deeds and tax (catastral) documentation done. Until the HOA owned all those properties, completing the Cross-Sharing Agreement would be complicated. So, it got deferred.
Needless to say, because everyone was already cross-sharing the common areas from all three Phases ("de facto use"), getting the Cross-Sharing Agreement signed ("de jure") was not a priority!
We should not ignore getting the legal agreement done and signed, though. Technically speaking, Owners in some Phases don't have legal rights to use some parts of other phases in Las Mañanitas. That is silly and frankly is a complexity that makes ownership at Las Mañanitas less desirable to new buyers.
One of the HOA's goals for this year was to get the legal documentation for Las Mañanitas up to the standards required by BCS law and sound business practices, with copies for you in Spanish and English. The good news is that scans of the originals exist. The bad news is that they are not yet translated nor easily accessible. We aim to fix that this year. And getting the Cross-Sharing Agreement presented in final form for ratification in November is part of that process.
The contents of the Cross-Sharing Agreement are not controversial. They merely codify long-standing practice. The Vigilance Committee from each of the Phases will review the final version prior to November Assembly. But the Owners will need to vote in November to ratify.