Service charge increase

Have just checked my bank account and find that the additional charge for the painting fund has been increased from the agreed sum of € 55.28 per quarter to € 102.67.

Has anyone else experienced this.

 

Email me your apartment number at Duquesavillage@hotmail.co.uk and I can check what you should be paying on my list.

Thanks

Daniela

Now it is another charge for painting different from others and community charges quaterly is less.

The extra fees are due to a overspend in the painting work. Despite already paying a million euros for the 'fixed price contract' and getting 2 blokes working an hour a day in return, it appears that they want more money to finish the job.

That's not how I understand it. We have not paid for the painting in full. The cost is 1m but RyF pay 10%. (We were lucky to get that!)

The ordinary fees have been reduced this year. The reduction amount will be paid as extraordinary fees into a painting fund so that we can afford to pay the amount for the painting over the number of years it will take. The community fees have overall not been increased to pay for the painting.

This whole extra fee payment is an accounting exercise to cordon off the money for the painting without having to increase the fees.

Thanks Daniela, Sorry I think it may have been a bad translation in the AGM meeting minutes. Page 17 refers to the extra 105,000 euros being for an additional apportionment for painting. There is also references to this being caused by them finding cracks when powerwashing older buildings that will cause them extra work.

I live in phase 1 and there are a lot of cracks all of which were clearly visible and should have been accounted for in any quote, this is no excuse, unless the agreement and contract was badly worded.

For the million euros paid I would have expected a team of professionals to be working full time on the job. What we actually have is 2 blokes that work a couple of hours max per day, including tea and cigarette breaks and a few tins of paint.

They started on our block months ago and still no sign of finishing, even the work they have done has been poor. The powerwashing was done in a rush so they could leave early on friday which left more peeling paint which they are just going to paint over, making it a bodge job. by the time they have finished painting all the blocks they will have to start again!

Sorry I'm not meaning to shoot the messenger, Daniela. I raised my concerns with AEA but as per usual, no response

Who did you email at AEA? I don't get to see the work being done as I am at work in the daytime. I think we need to get everyone who can actually see the work being done (or not being done as the case may be) to bombard AEA with emails. I will bring it up at the next committee meeting as well.

Hi Michael, need a bit of maths. The painting has gone up but ,I think it is only 3 payments. The usual community fees have gone down. I cannot be bothered to work mine out .

I worked mine out to see if it worked and its about right.

Having spent three weeks here on holiday I can confirm that at most I have seen two men work for about an hour a day (and not every day) smoking and scratching their heads mainly. Obviously they could be working longer in a part of a building I can't see but there are no signs of work vans etc and basically very little presence. I also agree that the price should have been fixed. Is it going to keep going up with every block they get to? Additionally my son and his friends at the bottom of the pool yesterday found a bottle of white spirit which had been decanted into a drinking water bottle in the bushes!! Very dangerous and I am assuming left behind by the two painters we are paying a fortune for!

Hi Caroline

Can you email everything you posted to AEA please? Especially the white spirit part! Extremely dangerous!

I will though I don't expect a speedy reply!!

True! ;)

Assuming that  the two painters are working to a fixed priced contract - the first question is 

a) are they self employed and in partnership  or are they employees for a company.  

If the latter applies then we should inform their employer directly - as they would be surely interested to know that they only work a couple of hours a day and provide more supervision/instruction.  Or maybe just sack them !

If they are self employed then its a case of contract management.  The countract should include

a) payment milestones.  They are only paid when defined chunks of work is completed.

b) quality criteria.  The work is subject to inspection and confirmation of quality before payment.  We need to make sure AEA do a thorough inspection and that AEA ensure that the quality of painting is sound.  This is where I would worry as the employees of AEA do not have a vested interest is seeing that the work is up to standard.  We residents do!  So  I would propose that EVERY inspection event is attended by members of the resident/owners management committee who have an equal say about the standard and quality. 

If the contract is deficient then AEA are responsible for poor administration but I would be surprised about that given the sites that they manage and the number of years they have been around.

So its all about us managing AEA to manage the painters (or the painters employees).

 

Sorry that I am not there to help.  I only generally go to DV in winter when the noisey renting tourists are gone (admittedly not all renting tourist are bad but just one loud lot are enough to ruin my stay).