theft from appartment

hi all

i don't know if anyone else has had anything stolen from their appartment by POLARIS workmen.

the workmen were replacing the steps to the solarium due to a water leak when i left to come to UK

i locked the appartment and turned off the water and electric.when i returned in september the workmen had been inside the appartment as the water had been turned back on and they had used the kitchen as a tea room leaving it untidy.they had also used the toilet and left that dirty.the new mobile phone and charger was missing from my appartment (it was inside my bedside cupboard top drawer).they must have been snooping around my personal stuff which i find very upsetting.i work in multi-million pound houses in uk and clients leave me to get on with the work while they go on holiday they trust me to look after their property

which makes this even more annoying.

i have written to Polaris and phoned them twice telling them that they must repay me for the phone and i want an apology from them.so far i have had no response.

they still have a key as i have still not had the water and electric connected by the utilities.as soon as that is done they will no longer be allowed to keep the key.

i have threatened to lay a charge against them with the police but i don't know if that will do any good as i was told that the police

have been told not to rock the boat as far as dealing with polaris world is concerned.

i hope no one else has had to go through this.it certainly spoiled my last visit.

best wishes to all of you

tony barrett naranjos 7.

We also had items stolen from Polaris workmen earlier this year when they were also replacing our solarium steps (for the 3rd time)! We did the same, sent letters to the main Polaris guy and went in to complain to the complex manager but were told that 1) their workmen would not do that (they were the only people who had access to our apartment) and 2) all we could do is report it to the police and they would deal with it. Polaris were not interested or helpful and we have just had to leave it.  We were very disappointed but immediately took our key from them.  I hope you manage to get somewhere with them.

Our Spanish neighbour also had her bag stolen from Polaris workmen a month ago when she was in the shower!

Good Evening.

I am so sorry that you have had things stolen from your apartment.

Do you have a key holder yet?

May I suggest you contact one of the many on the site. They do not have to do anything other than to hold on to the key or keys that Polaris hold at the moment..You would probably need to enquire if there is a master key to all of the apartments. If there is then it does mean the workers can come & go as they please I`m afraid.

The other alternative is to have your locks changed. I am sure there is some one living on Condado  who would buy & fit  for you if your are in the UK.  

This means that every time Polaris workers want to get into you apartment they will have to let your key holder know . They can then act a bit like a security guard. & will keep an eye on your things for you..

hopefully preventing any futher loss of valuables & their use of your kitchen etc

Though I`m sure your key holder will not have the time to "baby sit " the work force, they can at least report any thing and every thing untowrd in a very short trime to Polaris.

If you do not have a key holder we can recomend Carole Millar from Jarsin 13. 

I will happily email you her details if required.

Also there is Jill & Terry, whom we have heard are very good too & live on Naranjos.

Best Wishes .

Jan & Ham

Hi Tony

sorry to hear about this.  As you say there is not a lot you can do about it, because they will never accept that it is them, although, I don't think they have a leg to stand on if they are the only  ones with keys.  It has happened before with them going in to apartments and leaving doors open, at least one with the key left in, and they still say it's not them, even though that person was left with an extra key. That was in our garden as well.

You could try emailing asking them again, and telling them that if you do not get the response you deserve, you insist they send you a complaints form.  That should shift them.

Just one other thing.  You say they are holding on to your key for the electrics and water?  People that have keys with PW are now being told, or should be, that PW are only holding keys till 30th of this month.  After that they are handing them to another company.   If you do not contact them to renew contract, they will destroy the keys. So you need to look into that.

Hope it didn't spoil your stay too much, and that everything else is still good.  We're back out soon and can't wait.

June

Even if you get the 5th key from PW they are still able to enter the property with their bunch of master keys. During a recent visit one of our group noticed somebody entering our 2 bed ( they were in 3 bed beneath so they didn't know we were the owners). when challenged the PW workmen they said that washers needed replacing on all the kitchen taps as there was a recall type defect and PW had told them to do it. Nobody had asked us if they could enter and no permission given.

we had taken our key back off PW prior to this so they should not have been able to enter !

Hi Folks

We just picked up our key today from PW, there was no mention of time gap when keys had to be picked up.We sent email last week to customer services and we were told that we could pick up our key as the electric meter is now fitted.They do not require to hold on to your key for the installation of water meters.Sorry to hear of the breakins and goods being stolen, takes a lot of the shine from the place.Now we have all the keys we will be looking for resident key holders to keep one for us just in case.

Lesley&Sandy

It is concerning that PW can enter your premises even if you have taken your keys off them and passed them to a keyholder. Why they dont get RPM to at least mailshot owners I dont know- at least you'd be aware.

Reading the posts below makes us a bit more certain that a bottle of scotch went missing when having some work done by PW. My husband knew he'd bought some but then started to doubt himself when looking for it on our return visit.

Bit bothered when I read this thread as like many forum users we are not there all of the time and nor are our inlaws in their various apartments. However have to say there has been other family over briefly this week and they have had a great time and really loved the whole place, they didnt see or hear anything negative- loved the Clover and found that Manzano's was open to about 8.30pm. So whilst all this is concerning and my previous posts seem to focus on the negative I felt I had to respond saying its been very unlucky for some people to experience these losses (the bottle of scotch is galling  and the mob) but for most people CdA is looking good.

Hi Jann

Your comments about the bottle of scotch has made me think

We were over earlier in the year & I left some clothing & a lilac jacker that I had bought from River Island in the half price sale , still expensive though We had had work men in the apartment after we left to rectify  a small damp patch

They had to collect keys from our key holder.

when I couldnt find the jacked on our return in june I too thought I was loosing the plot.

As the jacket is not at home maybe it isnt in another place as Ham seemed to think . its probably wa;ked too.

Wont know for sure until our next visit when I will look in every nook & crany.

jan 

I would be surprised if pw did have a set of master keys,as they always have asked to get in apts before. I have seen workmen with keys after we completed last year and they had all individual apt keys, not masters, if it where masters they would only need to carry around a couple of keys. Also if they did enter your apt without your permission they would I assume be committing a crime, because PW no longer own the property and they are not our landlords as it is freehold, so you could quite rightly phone the police. I cannot see PW risking that sort of hassle. My advice would for everyone to buy a small safe and keep any valuables locked away, these safes are now really cheap and stop opportunist thieves. If anyone is out there at the moment could they pop into customer services and ask them if they do have master keys, then we would all know.

We got 5 keys when we completed and didnt leave any with PW. In fact now we are waiting for a further radiator to be fitted its going to take a bit of co-ordination either via us or our keyholder for them to access the apartment- I've had an email from PW on that very point. So I really dont think they do hold 'master' keys. What they could possibly have is a range of keys for their yet unfinished or unsold apartments- afterall there wont be 1,500 different door keys to the Jardines apartments, so it wouldn't be hard to match a key with a lock. Even if this is the case they should not be accessing private apartments without permission

Hi

Jan I agree, I too got 5 keys from PW on completion and so far I haven't heard of anyone getting anymore.  So if you haven't got 5 keys maybe you should go to PW before 30th September to get the remaining.

I agree with Andy our properties are freehold therefore PW does not have any rights to enter your property without your permission.    

Hello all,

although i have not been afectted by this my friend on j10 has , the work men stole there spanish bank card they use only while here and went to the brothel and suppermarket,aprox 600€ was spent, they were caught on cctv using the card and identified by PW and were arrested sack and ordered to pay back to money.

this week PW are starting to install tower carmera along roads and end of propertys although this will not get back the goods you have lost already it might help for the future.

and if you have not collected your 5th key from PW the chances of it being properly distroyed are small and there is no garentee the tags will be removed, i would ask a friend/keyholder/yourself to pick it up asap.

craig

With the economic climate as it is, people out of work, both in the UK and

Spain, opportunist thefts are bound to increase. It is a fact of recessaional times.

Just need to be aware of this and be careful with windows and doors and don't

trust anyone who comes into your place to carry out work. Keep any eye on them

and try not to leave anything laying about. A safe is also a very good idea to keep

passports, money and bank cards when not in use.

hi all

after having my phone stolen from my appartment i have e-mailed polaris customer services demanding that they refund me the cost of the phone and simcard as they are responsible for their workmen.so far, as you may have guessed  i have not had a reply.the lady at RPM said she would see if she could do anything but also i have not heard from her.

i intend to have a roller shutter fitted to my door and the window next to it and also the front lounge window.if anyone on the resort knows of a reliable tradesman to do this for me at a competitive price i would be grateful if you could let me know.

david ingman did a great job for us arranging our spanish wills and would recommend him to anyone,very helpfull.thanks david.

hope to see some of you at the end of next month on the resort.

best wishes

tony barrett naranjos 7

a spanish gentelman on garden 8 or 9 jardins inslalled ours

we contacted him through craig a local english guy who lives above him

The service was excellant and as he lives on the complex he is anserable locally

craig also is a good hanyman removing bidets etc so give craig a call and he should sort you out

0034634309883