Association - English

[Joe Hummer]

Hello again

I apologizes in the beginning for the length of this note and that I do not sugar coat my comments when it comes to the obvious facts surrounding this gated community. I have lived here in beautiful Altos de Cerro Azul now for about 2 years. I have discussed my personal views, questioned everything, and listened to lots of conversations from a wide group of people about the administration of this gated community. Many of the people I have talked with have lived here for many years, some have been very involved with this community, and others want things to go on as they are and not to be bothered. Some do not like each other based on their personal and political views and are suspicious of anything, even if it makes complete sense. This mistrust among the owners will certainly cause issues and disagreements in an association. This is a fact stated by many owners that have been in associations or on the board but is certainly not a reason for not forming one which is required by LAW if we want a GATED community. Associations are not fun and will require some of your time if you want to make them to function for the well-being of your community. There is a big uninformed dividing wall between this organizing group and owners which was made quite evident in the last annual meeting. This uninformed nature of most owners was the downfall of the attempt to seek funding from the TSM payments to help pay for the formation of a legal association with approved by-laws. I voted “NO” also because I saw no controls or written logical step on this formation of an association. I was totally uniformed by any valid facts, just talk.

So what did I do? I joined the Association Organizing Committee for Altos De Cerro Azul that has been trying for years to form an association. I got involved because I saw a big division between the organizing committee and owners. I feared that this place (my place) would become another ungated community like El Pinar and Las Nubes. I love this peaceful, clean, safe place because it is gated. I wanted to protect the value of my investment, and become more informed from various sources. I took the time and read all the proposed by-laws and forming documents. I made suggestions for changes that I wanted and changes that other people gave me from my conversations with them. Surprise! Almost ALL of these suggested changes were added to the proposed by-laws. Ones that we did not like were removed. I found this committee to be very open to all logical suggestions from anybody. They welcome any help they can get. I also got more valid information for owners to see since most information I knew was personal opinions. A complete study of the current TSM report was obtained and a complete lot survey was done on every lot. This information was entered into Excel for reports to better inform all owners. If you want these reports, send me a request email to jehflu@gmail.com .

The two major problems facing this community as with most others in Panama is the collection of monthly maintenance fee (TSM or QUOTA) and the number of owners required to have valid assemble meetings (QUORUM). Some owners pay no TSM , some have very low TSM that cannot be adjusted to what the current established TSM has been set to, some owners that are required by law (TSM agreement in their escritura) and do not pay because they are "unhappy with current administrator", and some owners who have figured out there are no major consequences for not paying the QUOTA. What a huge legal mistake on the promotors’ part (MELO) which is basically doing very little to rectify these problems. Modifications to the Panamanian gated community laws are currently being done under the new law 562. This law will modify maintenance fee (QUOTA) laws and also the quorum required to vote in legal assembly meetings. The amount of owners required in an assemble meeting is being lowered for a valid QUORUM to be meet. To me this is GOOD. It might motivate owners to participate in the well-being of their own properties. Many gated communities have problems getting owners to participate due to the laziness and unconcerned nature of most owners. Owners that do not want changes that are for the better of the community have figured out, don’t go the assemble meetings so there will be no QUORUM and thus no changes. The bad consequence of giving associations a lower QUORUM is that less people can legally control your gated community. This is especially true if you as owners do not join, participate, and vote. Once law 562 is approved, ALL owners must pay monthly TSM QUOTA regardless of TSM agreement in their escritura or if they do not join the association. If you buy in a gated community you must support it by law. This will fix a major problem with the TSM payments in all gated community and can lead to actually enforced consequences when owner do not pay their TSM. If you want a copy of the purposed law 562 changes, send me a request email to jehflu@gmail.com.


You as an owner need to take the small amount of time to become involved and informed of the situations that this community will be facing. If you don’t, then you get what you get, and do not have any right to complain after this community is no longer gated or is controlled by a small group of owners that are motivated and concerned enough to participate. We need to get involved enough to join the association, be informed on all situations, and control rational decision making by majority vote in assemble meetings. This can be done by proxies so you do not have to go to assemble meetings to vote. You have two choices, support the organizing of a valid association and by-laws and join it or don’t support an association. If you do not want a gated community or you want someone else running it without your input, don’t support and join the association. If you fear an uncontrolled radical association that does what it wants, it’s real simple, JOIN IT to control it, it doesn’t cost anything. Our biggest battle now is to convince all owners to come together for this project, forget their unrelated differences to forming an association, and get enough funding to complete the forming of a legal association and by-laws. Many owners think that the organizing committee members are going to be automatically in charge, so wrong. An owners’ general assemble meeting will be held to vote the initial board members and approve the proposed by-laws before they go to be approved and registered by the Government. All association decisions are made by a majority vote of owners who join the association that are paid up with their QUOTA fees. This includes nominating and voting on competent people for all board members, executive director, administrator, legal consul, etc. I volunteered to be treasurer of funds collected and used for organizing the association. I hope that owners will see a completely unbiased owner who wants everything above the table with donation deposits and payment expenses in a report available to any owner at any time. Iris Simmons and I have started the account off with a $1,000, $500 each. We need everybody’s small help to collect funds of around $10,000 which we have determined should be sufficient based on legal fees. All unused funds that are collected will go back into the valid associations’ account when it has been established.

Join the Altos De Cerro Azul Residencial Owners web site (https://forum.altosdecerroazulresidencial.org ) so you can see what's going and post your comments. There are over 1200 users on this site. If you have not joined yet, select “REGISTARSE” on the site or send a request to join to admin@altosdecerroazulresidencial.org. Send your name, lot # and area, telephone number, and your email address.

If you have trouble with Spanish or English, try using Google Translate. Very easy to use and from my basic understanding of Spanish, it produces a very good translation where you can figure out what is being said. Do be aware that it is not 100% but does a good job.

Hopes this helps inform you all. Any question please feel free to email or call me anytime.

Joe Hummer
Casa 158C Fortaleza
jehflu@gmail.com
6675-1193
Whats APP – 507-6675-1193
Majic Jack USA 321-352-4841