Opposition is growing to the decree law of the Generalitat that leaves it in the hands of city councils to decide which public and private swimming pools will be able to open this summer. To the complaints of city councils and municipal entities, there are also property administrators and neighbors who live in communities with swimming pools and who also see the application of an “ambiguous” rule that generates, for now, many unfeasible more doubts than certainties.
“It doesn’t seem right to me. How do you control who enters? What capacity will the pool have if it opens to the public? Who will enforce the community rules? Will someone break into my apartment? ”, asks Laura Cañigueral, a resident of Barcelona with a second residence in Platja d’Aro. Her doubts are the reflection of a large majority of neighbors who do not welcome the fact that the community pool ends up having public use. For this to be possible, it is necessary to reach an agreement with the respective City Council. Something that, according to the opinions of the sector, is going to be highly unlikely.
The vice president of the Col·legi d’Administradors de Finques de Girona, Cristina Pardo, puts forward a string of reasons (practical, management, legal, responsibility, fiscal and coexistence) for communities of owners with swimming pools to oppose the Your pool may end up being public. “This will imply the obligation to have lifeguards, set schedules and capacity, and enforce rules that, if not met, will lead to significant coexistence problems,” she explains.
It also refers to possible entrance fees. “Any income that a community receives is an economic activity with tax repercussions for each owner.” He adds that each community has civil liability insurance depending on the number of owners and that the policies could be increased.
The manager of the Girona Urban Property Chamber, Miquel Costa, also sees “many difficulties” in its application, especially as far as civil liability is concerned. “The swimming pool is a risk element that the community has insured for its users, with its own rules for a restricted circle.”
He also anticipates problems of coexistence. “Community and garden spaces already give rise to many conflicts; There are problems combining neighborhood rest and leisure and if it is opened to third parties there will be many more,” he says.
Marta Oliva, based on her professional experience in the Figueres Urban Property Chamber, reasons that these are swimming pools with a reduced capacity and that, in general, “their owners are reluctant to receive outsiders as most of them do not have a security service.” “, it states. She says that she sees the rule as easier to comply with in campsites or hotels that do have lifeguard services.
The secretary of the Col·legi d’Administradors de Finques de Barcelona and Lleida, Alberto Izquierdo, adds that the decree law can cause a “comparative grievance between neighboring municipalities”, since it leaves the responsibility of deciding what is and which is not a climate refuge.
He considers the document as a “toast to the sun” when he understands that it is a regulation that is “unviable to enforce” in the way it is written. A document, he says, from which many questions arise. “How will the capacity be controlled? How many will be able to enter? How will the owners participate in the expense? … Every year the communities set a budget for spending on common areas, if more people come there will be more spending on conservation of the space,” he explains.
The hot potato is on the roof of the City Councils, which yesterday began to receive calls from some communities interested in knowing what it means to have a swimming pool that is a climate refuge. “But in reality we have no answer,” explains the mayor of Platja d’Aro, Maurici Jiménez, who regrets that town councils must apply a rule that generates “little clarity and legal certainty.” The consultancies are also beginning to feel the concern of owners. “It is bizarre and convoluted,” says Anna Palomares, from the Palomares consultancy in Girona.
