Request for extraordinary meeting

3. We have problems with water, and sometimes cut What does the Board? nothing

4. The mail does not arrive, there are neighbors who have had to hire a post What does the Board? Nothing

5. We have a serious security problem, we have no security and last year there were several robberies. What does the Board? Nothing. Ah sorry, it does something, says the watchdog of the other stage monitors also ours. Jejeje a person to whom we have contracted to be monitored, and is also inside a car. We will be facing someone who is stealing from our community, jejeje, perhaps arrobitage complaint we use it.

In summary, these six months the Board has done nothing, sent mails, has posters, letters, etc. in the last month (coincidentally when asked a meeting) of its management, but what about results?. Have focused (singular or plural) in their efforts to terminate the cleaning contract, with all the problems we have, because it focuses on this secondary matter.

Well neighbors, from what I read, we expect a lawsuit, what is "Who will pay? Residents pay the defendant, by the negligence of the Board to talk with neighbors and then with the company. We all pay for the mismanagement of this Board, not to mention, not to listen, to impose their decision.

And this morning it will be?
I insist on asking a reunion, because I think they have to explain many issues.
But I say a warning, I would clear the accounts and whether to pay for this neglect, which has all chances of losing myself with my boyfriend make a complaint to every member of the board for negligence and harmful to community. I will not pay for their decisions they do not have the backing of local residents, not even HAVE HEARD.

Hi all

This Board was elected the 8th of November. It is only 4 months ago. They need to be given a bit of time to be briefed about all the ongoing issues to be taken care of. In theese 4 months christmas has passed(I do not expect anyone to work with community issues in Christmas)This only leaves 31/2 month for work.

I do not want to comment on the quality of cleaning as I have not been in Spain enough to see for myself. But several complains have been posted here. I see the reasons given by the Board as valid. At the 8th of November the budget was agreed without a fee raise, and the Board should reduce expenses to stay solvent - at least until an EGM in summer. They have reduced costs of insurance, cleaning and security. Our administrator has not always performed the way we would like them to, but I do think they improved a lot. We had a wellperformed AGM, they answar mails and they are present at the DJ area several times per month to clear out issues.

Carol12 - you are saying we have a case with the developer but the Board is doing nothing - what can they do? Isn´t it a courtcase?

The acces to our homes is a pain to everybody. The Board previous had meetings with Renfe. Both REnfe and developer refused to help us. This Board has several times called for a meeting with the Townhall.  The 4th of Mars they had the meeting and the Townhall hopes the road problem will be solved before the end of this year. They will not give further details to the Board. What are they supposed to do?

Regarding the waterproblems. I do not know why the water is cut. But if the watercompany cuts off the water because of an unpaid bill- from the time before we contracted - a bill that was supposed to be paid by developer. I cannot blame the Board for this matter. We still have no mailservice - but do we have the money to install the boxes?

I am not afraid of an EGM. But I do not find the reasons to call it for valid, unless we are prepared to pay for the services we demand. I would prefer to have an EGM in the summer as agreed the 8th of November. This would give the Board time to suggest solutions for us to vote on. Hopefully more debtors have paid at that time, and we are able to vote on how to spend the money. I am 100% behind this Board and will support their desiccions.

Grethe

If you can do better i will vote for you irene

This message was last edited by irenemontague on 3/12/2009.

 @Carol Although I agree with some of your points, YOU DON'T HAVE TO SHOUT to make yourself heard.

I have been reading the post of the last few weeks with amusement and can't believe all the fuss going on at the moment. Carol many of the issues you have raised e.g. access road, mail boxes, water etc. have been in place since the first committee took charge of the running in DJ and they did not  manage to solve these issue so did you go challenging the first committee to answer to these questions?  Actually the water situation should be now sorted as we all have individual contracts with Gestagua. 

With regards to the mail boxes, DJ is not the only complex with this problem there are many complexes on the costa which are in the same situation I personally know people that own in two or three different complexes where the Correos are not delivering mail and they have been waiting more then 3 years now. The matter of the access road is really down to the railway company although we can put pressure on them ultimately it is down to them and in any case we have an access road to the back the basis of which the 1st occupation license was granted and the basis of which we have all completed the purchase of our homes.

As for security I have been here for some time now and have yet to see or have a first hand account of any serious security issues and certainly no where near the level of incidences we had back in the UK yet there we had no security guards only our sense of being streetwise. So if it means no security to keep the level of the community fees as they are then so be it. Incidentally I do believe we are paying over the top for the community fees in comparison to the level and quality of services provided. 

Regarding the court case against the developer for 1.8m as stated already by others it is court case and court cases in spain happen very very slowly if my information is correct. Personally I don't agree with this court case as I believe the chances of winning are very slim and even if we did win the chances of actually getting Arrohabitatge to do anything is also very slim. On top of that it is going to be a very very long process which will end up costing the community more money. Many of the items in the architect report can be fixed using alternative cheaper methods and some are simply stated as 'there may be a problem in the future' but are not actually a problem at the moment. 

With regards to termination of Hervas cleaning company again I can't see what the fuss is about. Even if it is the case that their contract was improperly terminated i.e terminated mid way during the 3 month contract period and surely if Hervas were to go to court and if the community were found liable it would only be for the remainder of the unexpired 3 months. Shouldn't we be the ones taking them to court for when they are were not providing satisfactory services  but still charging the community?

Finally if anyone has any question queries or even objections then the committee are available to speak to as I believe there are contact numbers available for them and the administrators are available on site 2 to 3 times a week, therefore I do not see the point of having an EGM for these mainly trivial issues and wasting everyone's time and money. 

I have given up on  my will to refrain from joining in the 'spat'. Firefighter made a  valid point and I share his sentiments. The committee, as far as I know having not attended the last agm, was properly elected and should therefore be allowed to get on with the job of running the community.

I am bemused as to how and why Max and Sasia, neither of whom is on the committee, are seemingly privy to so many issues pertaining to what I consider to be committee matters. They appear to be involving themselves unnecessarily , particularly with the cleaning contract. They appear to have managed to force the committee to back pedal on the decision about the cleaning contract but are still advocating an egm. What exactly is your purpose in adopting this diversionary tactic, which I hope you can see will only work to destroy a community we are trying to build up. 

Max, you had your day on the committee. Now please allow the current committee to get on wih their work without any distractions and diversions. It is a difficult enough job without the added  'ingredients' . Yes, it is impossible to please everyone and it is equally impossible to agree with everyone in the community  but that's life as we say.  I have no doubt that the committee is doing its best and its members are giving freely of their time, so lets show some gratitude towards them.

 In Max's last post he mentions expenses 'not asked for' such as new door locks / frames / doors (added security at garage level) and extra lights 'not being an effective deterrent against crime. 

I would argue against that. Firstly I would think that the door lock / frames etc do add hugely to effective security and suspect that it probably costs far less then having a security guard the same applies with the extra lights. I know this from experience having seen two robber / criminals wearing balaclavas going up my driveway in our house in the UK and when the security lights came on they legged it!! In case you are wondering I witnessed this as I was approaching the house in my car, I wasn't inside! 

Secondly what about some of the added expenses for items 'not asked for' by the previous committee of which Max was a member such as the €5000 spent on rubbish bins which are littered all over the complex which serve nothing but a dumping ground for household waste for those that are too lazy to take their rubbish to the main bins or the silly green paint applied to some areas of concrete which is already peeling off and in a short while will look a total mess! Maybe we should have called for an EGM last year fior that. Would Max and the last committee have welcomed an EGM then?

 In short I would have welcomed an EGM. Actually we called one ourselves when we wanted to make sure all neighbours backed us in the decision to set a penalty on late payers and to go to court with serious debtors. (the bins by the way were not that expensive :)) Security lights at the perimeter could make sense with a motion detector, but at the moment they are just burning money as they are always on.

Max states 'the bins were not that expensive' well Iooking at the statements provided by GICS this is what the last committee (of which Max was a member) spent our money 'for things we have not asked for':

Publicity Basket €723.26 (that is the little metal bin just outside each block's entrance gate were junk mail is left. At one per block it works out at €72.33 each what it is made of gold? Astrays inside the blocks again one per block at €1309.06 that works out €130.91 per unit again must be made of platinum.

Slate of announcements €1210  and finally garden wastebaskets at €2709.00. That little lots adds up to €5951.32 for things we have not asked for and some items not even essential including most of the waste baskets. Remember this is all our money spent by the last committee of which Max was a part off. Yet he moans about extra security locks and lights fitted by the current committee which actually really help and are probably far more essential then any of the above.

What is it, does Max / Saskia feel the need to have the last say every time on this forum so he comes up with silly things like 'well actually the bins were not that expensive' and why does he think that only he and Saskia are an important part of the community and others like Jenx are not. A bit like Barrack Obama saying he is the only important person in the US and sod everyone else. Sounds like an ego trip to me. He should remember that he is only 1 person out of some 200 owners here at DJ 1 .

Hi RG,

I totally agree with you on everything you said in your last post. I think its a shame that David has stopped writing on this form. He gave us all great information and answered to all our questions, please come back to the eye on Spain and keep us really informed With real issues Not the crap that is going on at the moment.

We are all very happy with the committee we have and none of us want an AGM. Max you retired from the committee yourself last year so leave it at that, let the brilliant committee get on with there work and stop all this nonsense.

Max

It may be true that you have contact with a lot of people in the community - hardly surprising as you run a business which requires contacts.

However, it would not be too much to ask that use your contacts wisely and constructively - all you have done recently can only be considered as destructive and paying lip service to the support the current committee needs.  Go away and reflect on all you have posted on this forum as RG has already suggested.

No one panics - I am not going to start another round of 'hostility'.

Jenx, do you order Max to go away from the forum or from Don Juan altogether? Maybe we can call an EGM to vote if he may still live here? Or is he just not allowed to give his opinion because he's not in the comittee? In that case the forum will become a pretty lonely place for David and René.

Without kidding, we already knew a lot of people from Don Juan even before we started the company -as Max mentioned because we already lived in Fuengirola long before the completion of Don Juan. We always shared the information we had here on eye on spain and with everybody who asked for it. You yourself were quite happy to share in our knowledge, and call on us for help or information on any day of the week. Just like a lot of other people.

From all the families we know here, not even half of them are clients from WeTakeCare. Most of the Spanish don't need our services, neither do the permanent residents. Believe it or not, we happen to be quite sociable and like to know our neighbours and be friendly with them, even when there's no financial gain. I am getting a bit sick and tired of being accused of only doing things with a financial motive. When one of the neighbours last year had a horrible accident we took care of his family for months, brought his children to school, spoke with the doctors and hospitals to get him better treatment because his wife didn't speak spanish, provided a second home for the children while their mother was away for work or hospitalvisits, etc. That never brought us a dime (nor would i have expected it to), and the only motive I had for doing is that I like the idea to live in a world where people help each other out when needed. Why is the concept of altruïsm and doing things just because you are concerned and without any other financial motive so alien to some of you? 

What Max meant (I think, because we usually don't discuss our posts) is that most contributors on Eye On Spain are completely oblivious to the fact that there's already a whole community in Don Juan, the basis of which are the permanent residents. There is a big social network running through the development and that network is much bigger than the few writers here on Eye On Spain who are hardly ever in Don Juan (some exceptions of course).

To me this discussion seems quite fruitless. You either want an EGM or you don't. You either sign for it or you don't. If more than 25% of the owners signs for the request, the president has the legal obligation to call the EGM. In the end, the desicion is up to the neighbours together and nobody can singelhandedly force or block such a request. Let the votes decide whether the EGM will be called or not, that's after all how democracy works.

 As expected another sob story. Half of which has nothing do with what's going on here. What is Max & Saskia trying to say here, that nobody else at DJ is altruistic as that concept is alien to us. Do they think they are the only ones prepared to help a neighbour in need? I would like to think that anyone of us would be prepared to help a neighbour if needed and none of us would ever dream of capitalising on someone else's misfortune.

As I said in my earlier posting why is it they feel the need to have the final say in all topics in this forum?. But I have to agree with them on the fact that this is getting a bit fruitless. So if they want an EGM let them have it (providing they can get enough votes) let them waste their time behind it. 

 Back to the core of this topic. We are facing a costly lawsuit which could easily have been avoided by a different approach. All the people who call the request for an EGM to avoid this 'nonsense' etc. are apparently willing to pay their part of these completely unnecessary costs. It seems legitimate to me that the people who did everything to avoid this won't have to participate in that extra community fee. Seems fair as these costs were never approved by an AGM or EGM.

Who of those who write here really know the problems of Don Juan?

Those who live here do.

Many of us do not agree with the Board, but do not write here, because here it seems that only the same type with different nicks.

This Board member only one live in the settlement, the rest no.

Come to the community and see the degree of dissatisfaction with it.
This board is going to lead to ruin for certain reasons, and that is known throughout the urbanization.
We call an EGM to clarify matters, we are not asking for anything more, and it is regrettable to have to go through 25% of legal residents for it, when the president can convene without  need to divide the most community.

Before these things not passed, the Board listened to the neighbors.

Hi all at Don Juan,

First post just wondering is this guy for real

he had his chance on the committee

going to cost us plenty in the future with this mad law case about some bank that might fall down

some time in the future most learned opnion thinks its a lost cause

let the present committee get on with the work

Welcome at the Don Juan forum dema :)

The courtcase you refer to was approved by the community in an EGM that was especially called by the Junta Directiva for that goal. The claim is based on the report of a technical architect, whose professional opinion indeed is that -among a lot of other problems- the garden walls have to be rebuild or they will collapse. I don't know if he is right, but you can already see in some places the oxidation of the metal grid that is holding this walls together. Anyway, that's a different subject altogether.