community meeting minutes

Hi All, emailed the administrators to ask how much longer we have to wait for the minutes of the meeting. See below their reply.

Hi Vanessa,
You will receive all the information about your Community in this following week.
Best regards,
Ingrid

I have asked her to email me them to speed things up.

Vanessa

Hi to All

I am Alan Cookson the Vice President of Brisas Del Mar elect from the meeting in January 2009 and voted on the June meeting of which many of you discuss and only now have I come to this forum to share my thoughts. Like many people I am unsure of the Administrator appointed by a builder. After the Jan Meeting I went to a meeting with a representative of the administrator to find that the lady could speak very little English and me with only a little spanish, I had expected the English person Ian Smith with whom I had been dealing to attend, this did not happen. I spoke as well as I could putting my concerns across to her and even give her a list of questions to pass on to Ian Smith. To date I have had no official reply only assurances that the builder had no connection with them but I asked for a copy of the Contract they insist they have. Many questions therefore remain unanswered. I rang on many occasions and called at the builders got a contact but three days later the administartor denied any call from me. I asked for minutes of the Jan meeting only to be told they would be sent presently. Some of you may have received these when some owners received correspondence calling the Jun meeting. Not one resident of any nationality received this letter, apparently they were passed to the Builder for Distribution. I rang the Administrator again many apologies and promises. IO called a meeting of the committe 5 English Speaking 2 Spanish including the President plus a lady who did her best to interpretate. The outcome after a long meeting took us no further than our (English Speaking) committee disagreeing on the administrator having sole charge of our(Committee) finances. An EGM has been called by our elected president for Monday 20th July to discuss fines, pets, pool rools and a telephone for community use to be kept for his use. I am assured that we will all get letters inviting us to this meeting but they say many of you did not give proper forwaring details although I know several people have already had previous correspondence. My letter has been sent by registered letter dated the 8th July twice but no one can get it to me, the administrator promised to hand deliver the residents tonight and that we would deliver them by hand, again this hasn´t happed.  I have no confidence that they are even attempting to represent us and personally will not pay any money unless we have joint signatures. Hopefully you all know at leat one of the committee members so I urge you to send a proxy vote to the one you feel would represent your best interests and if you feel it necessary after mondays meeting join together to get another egm to sack them. I will do my best to answer any of your queries.

Hi all, got my minutes this morning and also letter to say there is a meeting on monday. Both by registered post to day. If it was known earlier their  was going to be a meeting on monday why again are we getting such short notice to attend. the adminitrators have my email address or why not put the date down on this forum as soon as it is known. Proxy vote is a waste to time as we do not have chance to send them to someone to vote on our behalf.

Again their is a form for direct debit details and also the bank details to pay direct into the cumminity account. Do we pay what is on the list direct to the account now or wait again. 

I would also like the people running the comminity email address to contact them.

Vanessa

Alan, good for you using this forum, it keeps us all up to date.  I have given my proxy vote and hope things get a move on.  Full support from  me.  I will be out on August 10th but this is the best way for any news.

Hi, all BDM I have also recieved the minutes of the last meetign today by recorded post and in it an invitation to the meeting on Monday I will give my proxy vote to anyone attending if you give me contact details.

As Trevor and Vanessa said do we authorise the direct debits or wait as we don not want these heavy fines that are being proposed?

Hi, I have just received the minutes via recorded delivery.     I'm still not clear exactly what  I have to pay.   On the outstanding amount it shows 1st Dec to 1st Feb 2009 but list it as a full years payment.    Do I work out 2 months of this and only pay that much?    Then it shows this year Feb to July but again with a full year amount.     Are we paying half for 6 months bringing us up to date or the full year in which case it should state it is until next Feb.    I appreciate the language barrier but I dont find this very clear.     Once I confirm the full balance outstanding I am happy to pay it.      Is everyone else clear on this and is it only me getting confused?        Also getting written notice today for a meeting on Monday isn't really good enough to ensure you either have time to arrange to come over or even to contact someone to give them a proxy vote.  

Hi All BDMs

Thanks Alan for taking the time out to give us an update on whats happening.

Its all so confusing. plus I aggree,  in that the management company should be independant of the builders. It also amazes me that the properties still not sold by the builder have the lowest community charges of all !!!!!! Just look at the figures !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Also when you recieve your 2 registered letters (why the didnt just send one, I cant understand !!) beware not to call the number listed at the end of the page that goes on about disputes with neighbours etc --------- its actually the police not that its states this next to the number. I called and was so embarrassed !!¬!!!!  The bottom line is do we have to pay these charges as each page seems to be signed off by the builder and our representative (Ruben Belmonte) implying that he is in aggreement with these charges!

Ps Alan I sent you a PM

Hi all BDM  thanks Alan thanks for the info As you all know l was against  any involment of the builder from the start.  l think no one should pay any funds into that account. The community fees should only be payable from when the community is set up and running. e g  Alan as President and a properly chosen Administrator by tjhe community not the builder, also set down rules that no funds can be paid out with out 2 signitures Admin and final say Alan the Adminstrator works for the community and has to follow what Alan says through our agreements.. The notice for the meeting is way to short, a ploy by them to stay in power, as Alan says we may need to call a further meeting later with a lot more notice ( at least a month) and sack the administrators. ( you can call an egm at any time without going through the administrator  ) also the administrator can not have a contract yet if it was not approved by the majority of the community and signed By Alan as our rep.9 ( the first meeting was a sham set by the builder to get there own way and they did not have enough % of the community votes to set things up) Keep up the good work Alan do not worry about the time scale as it is better to get everything set up right first.. lf anyone is attending Monday let me know so they can have my proxy vote. Thanks.( although l think it should be called for a later date as by law you should have at least 10 days notice) regards Pat.

Hi All

I will be at the meeting on Monday as most of the Residents were also sent two registered letters, the only letters we have received since January. One was the Agenda for this meeting and the other for the 3rd set of minutes, not sure what happened to the other two. did any of you get these. There is a chance that some of the Spanish will be there hopefully they will think like us and unlike us they seem to know more on the law of Horizontal living. I will check to see if the Builders plots are cheaper than ours and ask why. To the members sening personal messages for some reason I am told the PM is not active any ideas. I tried to give my eMail address on the forum but I have to send at least ten messages.

Alan

Hi All, I have sent a pm to Alan but again i have no reply so i can assume he never got it. I have sent my proxy vote to dave and margo via email but had ne reply. If anyone is reading this at Bras del mar can they tell him to read his email. I also would like it clarifying again what, when and to whom we pay our fees?  Again do we wait till Alan comes back on the forum and gives us advice.  What I can gather from the minutes the late payment fees dont start till 210.  I am glad we now have Alan on board to let us know whats going on. Thanks Alan!

Vanessa

hello i am mark pennington and unable to attend i would like to give my proxy vote to anyone who will use it to achieve what i think we all want which is to get someone with a bit of common sense in charge of community funds with no hidden agenda

Hi , Anyone who attended  the meeting yesterday we  would like to know what went on. Are we still paying a fees direct to the community bank. I got an email from administrators and she said she will email me the minutes this week. I cant see that happening. She also said the 20% is payable after the payment date has passed. We are soposed to pay by end of July.

Vanessa

Hi All

I attended the meeting on Monday which started with the usual shambles, the first concern was the lateness of the communication for the ones who got it and for some no letter at all. It turns out on this occasion the president had called the meeting urgently to which the Administrator believed he had complied with Spanish Law but the slowness of the Spanish Post Office had compounded the problem by taking several days for the mail to be delivered.. Payment is due the correct figure is the one with the latter date and can be paid by Direct Debit or Bank Transfer, due to reservations I am doing the latter, easy as I´m a resident. The President is happy with the Administrator as he has started legal proceedings against the builder for the outstanding snags in community areas, unfortunately th Spanish Legal System can take a couple of years. The Builder has paid his January fees. The Agenda was followed and for anyone who hasn´t had letters please send addresses so I can pass them to the administrator. They are looking at satellites systems for the ex pats and high digital for the spanish dishes on Balcony not permitted full stop, will follow up when I´ve met the engineer but check before spending any money. The President brought up the state of Air Con on the Solarium and suggested only preinstalled ones should be permitted so again check if you are thinking of having three the argument has been presented for those who have spent the money already. Noise levels, be careful Formentara allows only a certain level and Denucias after 10pm not sure what the levels are. Pool rules to now be displayed because of the increasing numbers of holidaymakers and the uncertainty of the rules,  problems are smoking, drinking and eating in pool areas, some people don´t want others to enjoy thereselves, common sense should prevail. Pets clean up after them and don´t get caught on the Solarium having Sex. I´ll answer any other queries if I can

On a not so good note, we have had our second Robbery this week, thieves both in broad daylight one probably accessed off the stairwell via an open balcony and the second off a corridor whilst the occupants were round the pool, their only crime was they didn´t double lock the door. So please if you or your friends are coming over this summer explain that locking up is advised as the things that are going are personal ones, Hi Pods, Video Cameras, Jewellery and of course money. The other issue is car parking, a number of people have been booked for paring opposite the Liffey and to the road to the right looking from Manos, both of them are no parking zones, the sign a blue circle with a reddish ring and a diagonal line, not the same as UK but the fines start at 40 Euros

Regards To You All

Alan

HI Alan thanks for the info so far, l will comment more if l ever see the minutes of these meetings, Also let them know if there are any other meetings called that they should send out the info a month before, then we will all know with in the 10 day legal limit. Have we now got the community bank account set up so that 2 have to sign for any expences ( the administrator and president )  l think for the sat tv systems you will be looking at setting up a large dish on the roof by the communual ariel and splitting the cost between those that want the service.Regards Pat.

Hi. Does that mean we are ok to pay direct now into the community bank. It has all to be paid by the end of july. I was going to pay today but i am still insure. Any advice would be help.

Vanessa

Hi all BDM

I am also confused about payment  is the payment the whole amount on the list added to the minutes of the meeting dated 3/6/09. Or do we pay in 2 halves as idicated in the previous correspondance?  If you pay by bank transfere how do they identify who the payment is from?  Any advice please?

Hi All

The payment was due in Feb and July, but because of all the delays it is now one payment,  if you look at the  letters you got with the amounts on is due now in July and is the one with the latest date on it, not the two amounts added together. You can pay by Bank Transfer or Direct Debit or you can take it to the Administrators Office. Next year the dates for payment will be Jan and July. For those struggling with this recession I cannot give advice other than do what you can, you should not incur any fines till next year. I will chase up the minutes this week so hopefully that will make things clearer. On any transfer make sure that your address is included for identification

Alan

Hi all. I have done a bank transfer from my spanish bank to the community bank for the full amount. I have also emailed the administrators with my details to show it has been done. Hopefully they will confirm it has got there. I did include my name and spanish address as well.

I am glad i have done it now and i dont feel like i am in debt any more.

Vanessa

Hi everyone, I have not had any correspondence with amounts due on it.  Was this posted to your UK address or apartment?

I have e mailed the administrators on several occassions but no reply. 

I would like to keep the account up to date

Hi carol, it was sent to my house in England a long with the minutes from June.

Vanessa