Phase 1 AGM Agenda

I am a phase 1 owner and have never attended or voted at an AGM but feel that I should start showing a bit more interest due to some fairly annoying issues.

As I am probably not fully up to speed with things in phase 1 it would be appreciated if someone could answer my queries regarding the 'Community of Owners' letter for this months AGM that I have just recieved.

1. Are our administrators payed or voluntary?

2. Do Presidents and Vice Presidents run a campaign for election every year so the members vote on who they want?

3. Same as above for the auditor

4. Point 7 on the agenda says 'Approval of the changes to irrigation system etc' What changes? why change from a central system to a seperate property system?

5. Point 8 'Debate and possible go ahead to change the water features? I was told last time that they hadn't yet been accepted from the builder so why are we now voting to change and pay for them to be changed? in addition to this the budget has doubled for their upkeep? why?

6. Point 9 'Debate and change gardening around the pathways? Never of heard of this one - whats the matter with the gardening around the footways?

7. Will the commitee explain why they have overspent the budget by 166,000 euro or is it just one of those things that happen. I know if I overspent my budgets I'd get sacked!

Finally. The proposed budget for 2009 is 568,000 compared to last years budget of 357,000. Is there no credit crunch with our administration? Is it think of a number?

Sorry for the waffling but some answers would be appreciated as this letter looks like something that I recieve from my local BARLA rugby league club commitee.

Luv always

x

As far as I am aware, the administrators are paid very well.  The President and Vice President, again as far as I am aware are voluntary.

I know there were calls for the administrator to be sacked last year but it didn't happen, which doesn't really surprise me.  

As far as I know the water features were accepted by the community last year.  Why?? I don't know.   They were never acceptable in the 1st place.

I have queried lots of things with the administrator in the past but to no avail.  I could go on but I don't want to spoil my evening getting stressed out but as you say "Is anyone accountable?" 

kroda

Hi Big C

Might be easier said than done, but get yourself here or discus your grievances with someone who will attend, and let them talk and vote on your behalf. But as like Kroda I will try to answer some of your points:

·         Yes they get paid................Lots

·         No they do not run a campaign and as far as I know from the sound of Moira’s letters she would like to let someone else take the reins, having in my opinion worked really hard these last two years and sometimes probably feeling much unappreciated as it’s normally a case of shoot the messenger!!

·          Voted in

·         I have had a chat with the gardening company and this one is very complicated as different areas are on different timers and different plants need different amounts of water and basically I think Roda got it wrong in the first place and it all need sorting out (surprise, surprise)

·         Water features; big point of contention!!! At the last AGM we were told:

1.       That they were handed over as self maintaining water features from Roda Golf.

2.       We gave them three months to prove this.

3.       They failed miserably

4.       Now they want us to pay to change them.

5.       This is a family forum so can’t say what I truly think!!

·         They might mean the foot ways that run along the parking bays in front of the apartments. The plants here in most areas are just naf and consist of dirt and dying plants.

·         Not sure about this one

·         And finally, if you add the amount owed by none payers to your 357,000 you get nearer your 2009 budget.........just a coincidence I am sure!!

Hope to see you at the AGM

Cheers

I am on Phase 1 and have paid my community fees although the second installment was not automatically taken out by the bank but I checked it as I knew when it was due from the initial letter from the administrators. Now that the property codes are on the Agenda it will be up to other owners to make sure that they have paid. There is really no excuse for non payment as community fees are like death and taxes and a fact of life when you live on a development.

I am disgusted having seen the level of monies owed to the community and whilst we can all complain about Facilities being delayed much longer than we thought this has nothing whatsoever to do with the community fees. The community fees as we can see from the budget pay for such things as electricity, lift maintenance, water, television, street/path lighting, pool maintenance, gardening, insurance, fumigation and administration. Last year as most people know from the minutes the budget was reduced by over 200K due to a surplus from Year 1 and the fact that the General Community was not formed. I have checked with Moyra President of Phase 1, and the figure of 166K showing as an overspend this year will be funded by that 200K saving so it is not really an overspend it is just shown as such for accounting purposes so that we can see the actual spend ie cost of running our community. Owners who do not pay are doing a disservice to all of us on the resort and their neighbours in particular and I will be voting for immediate recovery of the monies owed by them through the proper legal channels.

As Mike says the posts of President and Vice President are entirely voluntary and the incumbents take a lot of time and effort working on our behalf which is totally thankless as they cannot please everyone. I would not take on their job for anything but do apreciate the work they do for us.

The cost of the administrators is just over 10% of the budget and I think that the formula which they gave at the AGM is 10 euro per month per property and 5 euro per annum per garage but I am open to correction on this. It may be unpopular but I think that around 10% of budget is reasonable for the amount of work involved in the administration and I would not consider undertaking a job of this magnitude for anything less understanding that the expenses involved eg maintaining an office, staffing and equiping an office are considerable and they are at the beck and call of 378 owners. Whilst they have support from voluntary officers such as President and Vice President they have to do the actual work so just over 50Keuro is good value especially when you consider that we do not have any legal fees for advice having a solicitor at our disposal. On a point of clarification I have checked the minutes of the 2008 AGM and there were no calls for sacking the administrators noted nor was it discussed at the AGM. Possibly owners discussed this on their own but unless they formalised it or attended the AGM to voice their concerns then most of us would be totally unaware of it. 

As Mike B rightly says if you want to express an opinion to the community get yourself along to the AGM or appoint someone to speak for you or better still stand for election as President or Vice President and make the changes you feel are needed from the inside. 

Lorraine 

Well said Mike and Lorraine, as I have stated before, we cannot simply keep complaining unless we are all prepared to get involved ourselves. The President and VP's jobs are thankless tasks and I think you will find it is a case of finding someone suitable to stand rather than have elections. I am sure they would all be grateful for any advice in particular areas of expertise than owners can offer.

I am on Phase 2, our AGM 27th March and we also have changes to irrigation system on our agenda. I do know that there have been many watering problems and that the contracted gardeners do not have control over the systems, these for some reason are controlled by Calidona Green who lost both Phase 1 and Phase 2 gardening contracts.

It is possible that this item is to do with this so that systems can be used more efficiently but nio doubt all will be revealed at the AGM.

Lorraine is quite right community fees pay for the upkeep of our own areas and are nothing to do with Roda. Roda have built a development albeit with a number of problems but it has now been handed over to the community/owners and they must ensure we can all adequately budget for the work that needs doing. If you are not happy with facilities provided by Roda, take them to court but do NOT withold community fees.

Bring on legal action against persistent non payers I say.

Has anybody any further information on changes that are being discussed for spiral staircases

Thanks

Dolly

Lorraine

It is not always practical for residents to attend the AGM, due to work committments, family etc.

Does it really matter if you attend.  Please forgive me if I am wrong but were the water features not on the agenda last year.  Who accepted ownership of these and what improvement have we seen?  I am sorry but I am not one of those people who are looking for a hotel and shops, I just want to see some improvement on the community side of things.  When that is all sorted, then I would like to see hotel and shops but I am aware that this has nothing to do with the community.

I would like to see improvements for the people who do pay their fees.  I however do not agree with you with regards to the cost of the administrator, I think its nice work if you can get it and a job they chose to do.  Does the same administrator deal with the other Phases?  If that is the case its just extra clients with a lot of extra money.  I am sorry to be so pessimistic but this is an open forum and I will be passing my proxy to someone who has the same thoughts as me. 

Hi Kim,

As far as I am concerned the problems with the water features have never been resolved and will not be until they look like they are supposed to and stay looking good. They told us last year they were self maintaining w/f and we gave them three months to prove this. Come the Summer I started writing to Marisol complaining about the w/f & pools looking disgusting and all I got was one excuse after another. The only solution was that they would clean them and then they only stayed clean until the next heavy rain fall. This I will be discussing in great detail at the AGM as they have let us down so badly with these light blue monstrosities that only make our garden areas look terrible.   

Take care

Mike

Thanks for the responses and don't want it to come across as another moaning thread but I just wanted a bit of background information.

So it seems that the community has a voluntary president & vice president who do a sterling job and process the complaints from 350 odd members.

The complaints get put on the agenda for debate and discussion and a vote at the annual AGM and they then tell the administrator to do whatever we have voted to do. Is that about right?

I also assume that majority vote rules between the community members which must mean that last year there was a vote with a winning majority to pay for altering the irrigation system, to accept  and pay for a solution to the water features?

My issue is that I assume there are aload of people at an AGM (100+) and I don't see how items can be reasonably debated, problems solved, finance agreed etc

Have I got this all wrong?

Cheers in advance

No Big C

I don't think you have got it all wrong.  You have probably got the measure correct.  The water features ( as far as I can recall) were to be reviewed after 3 months last year.  I don't know why they were accepted into the community ( I could class them as faulty goods) and in this country there are laws for replacements or at least to be fixed.  I am sure you have realised that this subject is very emotive to me and others.  I do think we need a new administrator.  There are a lot of strange things going one.  I won't be at the meeting but I have left my proxy vote with a very reliable person who I know will fight the residents cause.

kroda 

I fully understand that not everyone can get along to the AGM and I am glad that KRoda is giving her vote to someone who will represent her and I will be doing the same this year as we cannot attend the meeting due to family committments. I was simply making the point that as Hugh Man and others have said before we can rant and rave all we like on this forum but as it is not read by a lot of owners and cannot be taken as any sort of proportionate representation of the depth of feeling or level of interest on any issue, we must use the only avenue open to us to express our views and that, whether we like it or not, is the AGM.

The issue of the water features is certainly an emotive subject and it appears that there is no one capable of maintaining them as they were not built correctly as self maintaining water features (this is my understanding from many communications with the administrators). The difficulty of the water features seems to stem from the fact that the community expected to have self sustaining and easily maintained water features but the builder who was contracted to build them built them as cheaply as possible and as we have all seen they are not fit for purpose.

I think that we need to look at our options to have the areas where they are made into feature gardens with rockeries and maybe fountains etc which would look attractive but which would still provide the level of private gardens which the residents who purchased properties fronting on to them expected. I think that it would be a waste of another year to suggest that we try to have them operated as they are at present as they are not clean most of the time, particularly when it rains. I also think that Roda should be at least partially responsible for the cost of these as the fault has always been theirs (and their sub contractor) but I am not sure how realistic this is. However, the issue will, I am sure, be fully thrashed out at the AGM and I hope that this year it will be resolved for all of us on Phase 1.

The attendance at the AGM, which last year was in excess of 100 ( some individuals had more than 50 proxy votes, when there was a vote) has to be seen as representative of the community. To stay away and not give your proxy to someone who can represent you means that your silence is taken as assent, ie that you agree with the majority feeling at the meeting.  

Lorraine

Feelings are running high on the forum as the date of the AGM is very close.  Most of us have tried to air our grievances to the administrator but to no avail.  Do you honestly think that the adminstrator doesn't read this forum.

I have a feeling that things will not go as smoothly at the AGM this year.  People are fed up with the lack of communication by the administrator when questioned on certain topics. 

As for the water features, I for one,  am not happy to even pay another extra euro to correct something that should not have been accepted by the adminstrator.  It had been decided to give a limit of time to see how the features were but I don't understand and have never been contacted to say that we now have ownership.  I think I,  and a lot of other residents would have kicked up a fuss.  Its like giving someone a licence to print money - good money after bad!  I am certainly not paying any more money to change these features.  Do you think that a resident by the poolside  would allow for a swimming pool to be closed  without a fuss, I think not!

What is the point of us paying large community fees when we don't have a say in the matter.  I am sure the non-payers are having a great laugh at the rest of us who do pay!!  

Hi All

I agree with all - perhaps we should discuss this privately - please contact me for more details of possible formation of Roda Golf Owners Association and location where we can discuss sensitive matters and how to handle them a little more privately than here?

I will be attending AGM - note to  Mike and all the other foot soldiers from the first AGM - let's sort out a strategy to deal with these huge issues.

Also very willing to act as proxy and use your vote wisely!

Sandra

Hi,

I can't make the AGM and would like someone to act as my proxy.

I think that the issue of the water features has been handled very badly by the administrator. They should not have accepted responsibility for the upkeep of them from Roda following the 3 month trial. This trial proved that the only way to keep the algae down is to use huge doses of chemicals (I witnessed their use) which I am sure are harmful. In addition, every time it rains they are flooded with dirty water. The water features were either badly designed and/or badly constructed. Neither of which are the responsibility of the owners. However, I now fear that it is too late to take action against Roda. This would however be my prefered option. I would like properly functioning water features which are easily and cheaply maintained. However if it is not possible to achieve this through Roda then I feel the best way forward is to fill them in and have some plants and possibly a fountain and sitting area with for example a pergola.

Similarly I have paid my fees since I purchased the poperty and believe that decisive and firm action needs to be taken against non payers.

If anyone out there would be prepared to act as my proxy and vote in line with my thoughts above please send me a private message.

Thanks,

Steven

Any news on the phase 1 AGM?

Cheers