The OTHER major vote in France

Hi everyone !

Ok, so unless you've been living in a cave these past weeks, you probably know that France is having Presidential elections this Sunday... and yes, it's the ultimate celebrity death match between on one side the right wing party led by Nicolas Sarkozy and on the other the left (so called socialist) party which is represented by madame Ségolène Royal...

What-ever... who cares.

The MAIN election this year that is totally capturing our attention is our building's Annual General Meeting vote. Each year, everyone who owns an apartment in our building is summoned to the AGM which takes place in the Mairie of the 19th district in Paris to decide on practical matters such as how much we should raise the concierge's pay or should we or not allow the Electricity Company to come do a general check up of the building, boring stuff like that ... But this year promises to be quite different.

A little history on our building first. It was built sometime in the 1960's by an apparently prominent Parisian architect (I should look him up one of these days) and takes up an entire block having main entrance on the Mathurin Moreau's avenue in the 19th district in Paris.

It is composed of 160 apartments (two and three bedrooms) which for the most have what is commonly called a balcony. It turns out that over the years our building has gone through several changes without any being approved during an AGM. Basically this means that in the past 40 years there has been total anarchy; owners have randomly changed their windows, repainted their window frames, closed up their balconies to turn them into loggias (inner balconies), replaced shutters, etc. without anyone stopping to make sure that an overall harmony of the building's facade is kept.

So that brings us to today. The City Landscape Committee of Paris have informed us that our building must soon undergo a facade renovation as it has gotten pretty dirty over the years (basically a nice paintjob will do). The catch is that no renovation company agrees to do this BEFORE we harmonize the entire building as ordered by Batiments de France (France's Building "police"). So where does that leave us ???

Basically, during the next AGM we will have to vote for either harmonizing or not the building. This means that 160 owners will have to decide to AND agree on :

1. Changing ALL the windows and if so to which kind :
- Aluminum ? -> Expensive but long lasting
- PVC ? -> Cheap but ugly
- Steel ? -> Expensive AND ugly but the original model dating back to the 60's and thus keeping the architect's legacy intact (!)

2. Deciding on model of windows :
- Two window panes ? Three ?
- Color ?
- Window shutters ? Electric ? Sliding ? None ?

3. Closing or re-opening ALL the balconies, and here is the fun part :
- 80% of balconies have been illegally closed (ours included by our predecessors), BUT
- If we "legally" close all balconies in the name of harmony, we will in one move create over 400 sq meters of living space in the city of Paris (and thus start paying tax on them!) BUT
- If re-open all the balconies it means loosing a great chunk of OUR living space (in our case, 1/3 of our bedroom)

4. Agree to pick up the tab for all of this, which comes out to be right around the price of a small car... per apartment.

So here's where the REAL campaign begins...

On the one side there are those who push for voting the entire renovation, negotiating a super global credit with a bank that each will proerpty owner will pay back on a monthly basis with a low interest rate... Basically, all these changes will make property value go up in the coming years and when sold, the selling price will more than compensate the money invested now... Plus, it will save from paying a possibly high fine when the City Landscape Committee of Paris looses its patience. Not to mention a considerable income tax relief that such renovation implicates.

On the other side those who do not agree at all at harmonizing the building. It will be very expensive, too much trouble, and plus most have recently changed their windows or repainted their shutters and refuse to let that money go to waste. Besides, in over 40 years there has never been any trouble from the City Landscape Committee of Paris, so why should that change now ? It is also fair to say that this side is mainly composed of people who have been living in the building for over 30 years and have no intention of selling or moving in the future and because most are retired, have no interest in tax reliefs of any kind.

So the face off will be on May 31st... ladies and gents.. make your bets !

Nicolas Sarkozy or Ségolène Royal ? WHO CARES ???