Protecting the Value of our 'Investment' in Roda - Please use this 'Thread' for responses Thread

Since my submission "Protecting the Value of our 'Investment' in Roda" was so long please use this 'Thread' for your responses. Thanks

i am a buyer on roda phase 4 and as i have posted before am quite frankly discusted with there attitude towards there clients , not individuals in customer service as they are merly fending us off on behalf of calidona .

i bought into the entire lifestyle that was offered by the development , this lifestyle will simply not be available when i am expected to complete ( two years late ) .

what incentive is there to complete with phase 5 mothballed ( no buyers) , no indication of when and if it will go ahead , no hotel/ spa / gym etc all part of the promotional material at point of sale .

i am a lifestyle buyer and all i want is what i was told there would be at point of sale ( inc promotional material )  is this to much to ask ??

i appreciate there will be owners on earlier phases who will have different views as they have already completed and as such have no option but to stick with it or try and sell ( difficult  at the moment) .

i agree with the original posters thoughts roda could be a world class resort , it is however in my opinion in danger of becoming a standing joke due to calidona and the way it is handaling the development .

Great idea tjinla,

I am all for it and have said in the past there is strength in numbers. My only concern would be the fact that there might be more costs involved, we already pay over inflated community charges and struggling more and more to get rentals under the current economic climate but obviously the more people involved then the lower the cost. Maybe if everyone agreed a % of the community budget could go towards this????

No disrespect Searay but I think this thread is to show your support and to state whether you would be prepared to be involved or not which, you havent said, we all have our stories of being mistreated but we may as well now concentrate on getting something like this in place rather than turning this thread into just another slanging match towards the resort.

Rory.

rd

yes i would be in support as there is strength in numbers , however the agenda from current owners may be different from those people on later phases , an agenda on what we are trying to achieve may be a good idea . 

Great idea Tjinla,

I am all for doing something positive rather than just moaning and slagging of Calidona on a public forum. The idea of one large and respected voice of c 1500 for Calidona to respond to rather than to divide & conquer which is what smaller communities lead to is a good idea.

Practicaly it might be difficult to get the funding from a large number, and it would be unfair for the majority to beneifit from the good work and funding of a few, so would be intersted to hear your suggestions on this one.

I agree 'one voice' can only improve on what we have now. I also agree though that this must not turn into a slanging match between Roda Golf owners and Calidona. We need to go about it in a professional manner. I have learnt from previous experiences that being rude and angry to the Spanish doesnt get you anywhere ! Im not saying we have to pussyfoot about but Im sure that the more of us there are can only help the situation. We also need to be careful what is said openly on this website. We could be putting potential buyers off if they read some of these threads and this would affect everyone in the long term - especially Calidona ! I confirm I would be interested in joining this committee.  Cathy.

Again I am not an owner, I do not sell properties, but through my business, I deal wit a large number of developments troughout Spain and again for the record have to state that RODA is one of the best developments in the area and is an excellent area for facilities

I do not live in the area but reguarly visit the are for the excellent beaches and restaurants including a TAPAS lunch yesterday

All you reallty need to do is look at the other threads for Polaris World HR. Polaris La Loma or La Tercia Real or San Jose  to see how other devlopers treat people, stopping developments, and failing to deliver the most basic facilities leaving people to have to fight through the Courts

What seems to be happening on RODA is a split between owners, people waiting for property and Corvera buyers when surely the focus for RODA owners and mangement is the marketing of the properties and golf course to get people in through the gates and to build the reputation of the resort rather than ongoing negativity which will be seen in the public domain

The normal system in Spain is that yes local communities are created and then you can create what is known as a MAM community, which sits over and co-ordinates the joint approach to the developers and cost optomisation

There are a couple of things that may help renters on phases 3 and villas on 4, a local bar in the area open during peak season plus some form of transport, a minibus service form the area to the clubhouse and commercial centres

Certainly RODA could be doing more to market the development throughout Europe, especially the golf, but it seems that the successfull renters do their own marketing highlighting the area and that it offer much more than bars and beaches

I am an owner in Roda and bought on Phase 1. I really like my property and my family and friends have been using it too with very positive views on everything that Roy says ie location, value for money in the area, great golf course, proximity of shops, closeness to Murcia and Cartagena etc etc. We have been holidaying in this area of Spain for over twenty years and had a really good look around before deciding on Roda and the finish in the apartments here is one of the best I have seen. Notwithstanding all of this something needs to be done about communication of what is happening with the development.

I think that the real problem with Roda is the severe lack of communication from Calidona. It is ridiculous that we have to rely on hearsay and gossip for news of what is happening and it would take a very short time for the Calidona Press Office (assuming that they have one) to write a monthly newsletter which could be downloaded by all of us from their website and which could also be sent by email to all owners. This would allay fears, give us accurate and timely information on what is happening and if there are delays perhaps we would understand why. It is not brain surgery here and if in my retirement I can embrace the internet and texting surely a strong company such as Calidona can keep us informed by this relatively cheap method of communication.

As we have seven or eight formed communities on Roda at this stage surely we should use the Administrators, which I think are the same for all communities so far, to get answers for us. We are paying substantial fees to the administrators and they work for us so we should all be contacting them as we are already paying for their services and asking them to work on our behalf with regard to communication and to keep us informed. I know from past experience of being on a committee here at home that it is a thankless job being president or vice president and it is voluntary but the administrators are being paid so we can use them to lobby and get answers for all of us.

I am not a fan of re-inventing the wheel and as we already have a mechanism in place ie the administrators, who have legal expertise at their disposal, why don't we use them? If we individually email them to lobby for information and completion of facilities on our behalf then we may get somewhere and get value for money for the considerable fees being paid to them. I think that this is reasonable and will not require the formation of a new committee which will be problematic given the spread of nationalities etc and we will have more leverage with the use of administrators who already represent everyone here. The administrators will also be in a position to communicate with the spanish and other nationalities who do not speak english on behalf of all of us.  

great point fair_dues.  Some positive action rather than just complaining.

I will be writing to Marisol tonight to ask that she gets Calidona to provide a monthly status update on the plans wrt Phase 4/5 and the Clubhouse/Commercial centre.  At least then we will have some clarity as to where we are, and can decide, as owners, what further lobbying we want to do.

I am just fed up with watching people moan and take no affirmative action.

Anyone else want to joint my petition?  As secretary of administratos, marisol can be found at msb dot es (It seems I'm not yet allowed to post an eMail address).... though I'm sure other eMail addresses will find her too.

John

Hi John

I take on board your comments, however most of us do have Marisol's email address.  This doesn't seem to make any difference, we are still having the same problems on Phase 1 which we had from the beginning and it has got to the point I can't be bothered anymore.  It is just added stress and  I am certainly not being paid to address these issues (thats what we pay our exorbitant community fees for!)  Time for a career change, maybe community adminstration???

kroda

Kroda

It may be that I wasn't entirely clear.  My worry is that Marisol is doubtless bombarded with various requests that conflict with each other, and no clear view of residents' priorities (because we're not clear as a group ourselves).  Couple that with the fact that there are clearly some complex issues (the water features being a good example) that in Spanish culture will simply take forever to fix, and we have a perfect recipe for frustration.  This forum is full of topics where people clearly have different views, and it's a perfect illustration of the impossibility of keeping all of the people happy all of the time.

I used to be a community administrator in the UK, and it is incredibly frustrating to just have loads of people moaning, without a consistent voice or views of priorities.  It strikes me that there is a relatively large and vocal community here, but it is (IMHO) poorly harnessed, and we do ourselves a disservice as a result.  We need better co-ordination and a single voice so that Marisol can represent us with Calidona.  

My suggestion is that we therefore start by requesting a monthly status update from her.  Not too much to ask, and very easy to deliver.  If she can't/won't do that, then we have the option to find a company that will.  But more to the point, it would be a simple test of whether we can speak with a single voice on the most trivial of issues (I'm sure we all agree that such a request would be unanimously supported?).  From there, we can build the mechanisms to agree and prioritise the issues and our preferred resolutions.  If we can't even manage that, but prefer to bicker on a public website, then we only have ourselves to blame when nothing happens.

John

As a number of posters have already suggested, these forums are not really the place to get anything positive done about the various complaints owners have against Roda. With the greatest respect to the team at EOS, they are intended to offer help and advice or perhaps act as a springboard to help form various alternate action groups, as Lisa has done on the Corvera forum.

Corvera owners have I believe formed a group which can share ideas, resources, costs and legal advice, but they do face rather different issues to Roda. Roda owners seem to have a number of complaints from Phase 1 with their water features, Phase 2 with leaking pools and dead trees, and so on and Phase 4 who as yet do not have a property to complete on. Though it is fairly unanimous that most are unhappy with lack of promised facilities.

Phase 4 buyers could certainly benefit from combining legal opinion as it is unclear as yet whether promised facilities forms part of our contracts, something which I have my doubts on, they could perhaps enlist support from others who feel the same.

Phase 1 thro to 3 owners do have other choices in that all AGMs are coming up shortly and has already been mentioned can use that option especially as there will be a 50/50 split of Spanish and Others.If you are not already aware of how communities work, do some research.

To start all owners interested in what is happening and " Protecting the value of their Investment" should do their utmost to try and attend their AGM or a least offer someone they trust their proxy.

1.They can then put themselves forward as President or Vice President and work tirelessly for no reward and little thanks alongside the administrator and other communities to change things for the better,

2. They can find some other sucker to do the job.

3. Tney can offer their support and if possible any expertise to the encumbents, if willing to re stand or new appointees. Remembering that small personal issues can be very time consuming to those holding the posts and should be avoided.

Once there is a sufficient number of interested owners, voting on various issues becomes a lot easier.

As the Entidad ( Whole community ) has not yet been formed and Roda still pay for many services on the resort you can ask your Presidents to get together with the Administrator on resort issues.

It is not however the responsibilty of the administrator to fight on our behalf for completion of all facilities but they can fight for issues that concern each community.

One way forward may be for all communities to ask the Administrator to set up or allow the setting up of a community/communities website or Forum so that owners can be advised of its existence and be invited to join via the minutes.

This could be utilised by the Administrator and hopefully Roda to post news, information and bulletins, whilst also allowing owners a more exclusive medium to exchange views and ideas. As all owners would be advised of its existence there would be a much greater input than EOS.

If necessary anyone wishing to set up any action either with or against Roda would have better access to likeminded owners.

To a smaller extent this has been done by Golf Rights Owners who have formed a legal Association in order to work with Roda over all issues relating to golf and the protection of their rights. Shortly ALL rights Holders will be invited to join.

I do agree that Calidona/Roda's public relations is probably almost as bad as SKY TV, they are not really aware of the impact that Forums like EOS may have on their marketing and perhaps need to be persuaded of the benefits/downfalls of word of mouth and certainly if all communities could find a way of working together the power of persuasion is greatly enhanced.