Can anyone recommend a Property Management Co - Los Flamingos, Estapona

Hello All

My wife (Pat) myself (Neil) & son Stuart are buying Townhouse No.4

We have been expecting completion October time but have just been told by our Solicitor that they

will be ready this month - (Good of them to give us so much notice)

We are due to come out to Alcaidesa for the last 2 weeks of July and hope to carry out the snagging then.

Has anyone already done theirs or if not have Ros Y Falcon said when you can get in to do it?

Neil

Hi Neil,

I was out there end of May and Rosy y Falcon was already doing snagging with their own person (whom I might add was doing a great job) . I did some of my own but basically she said that we have a year for snagging when we have moved in and since they (Rosy y Falcon) will be arround Alcaidesa for 6 more years (estimate) it is in their on going interest to get it done properly.

When I was there the development was finished and I am just waiting for my solicitor to tell me that the habitation licience has been granted. I believe it has but is still with Rosy Y Falcon and hasn't been passed to the various solicitors yet.

My wife Julia and I have bought appartment number 123 and on our visit we were very impressed with the finished look of the whole project - I think you will be pleased.

Regards

Steve

Thanks for the reply Steve

I have had a qoute to get a company in to snag my house - has any body else thought of going this route

or do you think its not necesary?

I read somewhere not to complete on the property until all the snagging had been put right by the builder

as they have no incentive to put it right once you have.

I dont know if this is possible until I speak to my Solicitor on Friday - does anyone know?

Neil

Neil,

My wife (Cathy) and I are buying Townhouse No. 23 and had been told by our solicitor that we were completing last Monday (4 June). I travelled out at the end of last week but it seems that Ros y Falcon have delayed completion while they carry out some further last minute snagging themselves. I understand that all habitation certificates have been issued and I know that the sale of one of the townhouses has been completed. 

There is clearly some rectification work to be done but the the Ros y Falcon representative in charge of organising the snagging (Rosi) seems to be very good. I understand that legally we have 15 days after completion to submit our snagging lists (I will provide a copy to my solicitor just to maintain a legal appraoch however, Ros y Falcon seem pretty relaxed about the whole thing.

The Birdie Club development is really lovely but the whole area is a huge building site and likely to remain so for some months yet so there is a lot of dust around during the day as the lorries trundle around Alcaidesa. The Gradens have been landscaped and there is a gardener on site each day to water and give the plants some TLC.

One issue you may be interested in is the provisional Community fees which are running at around £250/month (4500 euros/year) for the townhouses. I understand a big slice of that is for security personnel.

Hope this helps

Gareth

Hi,

I am the owner of townhouse no. 6.  We completed today in San Roque. Ros y Falcon give you a snagging form and you have 30 days after completion to fill it out and report any problems. They are pretty adamant that they will fix anything that needs fixing.

I had already had an independent snagging survey done a last week by Gordon at www.snagging.es - he does a very thorough job and gives a very fussy report in both English and Spanish. Mine didn't highlight any major problems, mainly basic clean-up jobs of grout and paint, doors not shutting flush and plugs on sinks not working properly. Am a bit disappointed that Ros y Falcon are doing nothing with the private gardens (just uncultivated earth with weeds growing).

I was pretty shocked at how high the service charge is going to be : around 5000 euros/year for the townhouses. This is unacceptable to me. They gave a breakdown of the budget, main costs are roughly 80k/year for security (not sure we need 24h security if there is already 24h security just up the road at the entrance to Alcaidesa), 21k/year for caretaker (do we need a security guard during the day if there is a caretaker in the development ?) and 40k/year for the garden company (this seems very steep considering most of the communal area is paved). The total budget for the community is about 290k euros/year split between 77 properties, the townhouses pay around 2% and the apartments somewhere between 0.75 and 1.5%.

We are going to have to get together as a community and decide what we want our money spent on before the next meeting takes place later this year.

Look forward to meeting you all soon,

Gideon (& Katie)

Whew If the community charges are correct they are the highest I have heard of, I was expecting something between 150 and 200 euros per month maximum. We certainly do need to get together  as a community as that level seems a bit too gold plated for the sort of development. I have friends in Duquesa in a town house and they pay 160 euro/month and complain that that is too high!!

Steve

At the time we signed up (Aug 2004) we were told by Ros Y Falcon that the community charge would be 140-150 euros a month for the

houses and less for the apartments as the cost was shared between more properties.I know we are now 3 years on but surely inflation

would have only put them up to 200 euros max

Neil

Yes they told me a similar story a few years ago (the fees will be small and be decided by all the owners).

I am currently renting in Alcaidesa Village. They do not pay for a security company and it feels perfectly secure here. Their annual community charge is 180k euros which is roughly what Birdie Club would be if we decide not to have security. Also I think the budget for the company to manage the communal garden of around 40k euros a year could be trimmed down substantially.  The other charges cannot really be reduced (they are things like caretaker which I think is vital, cleaner, maintenance of pool, lift maintenance, electricity, water, insurance etc).

So if we can get the annual fee down to about 165k euros, that works out to around 3,300 euros per annum for the townhouse, i.e. 275 euros/month and less than that for the apartments. Still pretty high, but much more acceptable.

Gideon

In your posting you say that  security is 80K , Gardening 40K and Caretaker 21K  - this totals 141K - did they tell you what the other 150K was for?

Neil

Neil,

Here are the annual charges :

Caretaker 18k

Security Company 66k

Garden Company 34k

Cleaner 7k

Social Security 5.5k

Lifts 11k

Electricity 15k

Water 10k

Insurance 6k

Administration 11k

Maintenance Works 7k

Maintenance Materials 7k

Pool Maintenance + Chemicals 4.5k

Macrocommunity 27k

Stationery & Stamps 2k

5% into a reserve fund 12k

A few other small charges.

That little lot totals 247k. Townhouses pay 2% of that, so just under 5k a year.

( I got my numbers a little wrong in the first posting because they actually give the figures for June-December and I just doubled it but it should be a little less than double )

Hi Neil & Gideon,

We've just been out to the Birdie Club for our first holiday (completed on apartment 137 about a month ago) and (even though I'm not sure this is something I can influence) I'd like your opinion on the need for 24h security?

I've seen the guys for myself now. One was indeed very helpful when we had queries (had to try and speak to him in my very poor Spanish) but the other guy I saw was praying/singing in his cubicle almost everytime I walked past. My point is - I'm not sure what they add to the issue of security or if they are indeed necessary since it's practically impossible to get in, or out for that matter, to the place anyway without keys.

On the issue of snagging - Rosi from Ros y Falcon who is in charge of snagging is suberb. She is very efficient and speaks great english. 

Thanks for your time.

All the best,

Maud

Hi Maud,

My view (having lived in Alcaidesa Village for 9 months) is that we don't need 24 hour security (costing 80k euros a year!), but we do need a daytime caretaker. The caretaker at Alcaidesa Village is excellent, very helpful, always doing some job or another and delivers your post to your door, so we should try and get someone like that.

Gideon

Regarding the post, has anyone actually received anything at their address in the Birdie Club?  I am still waiting to receive something that was sent from Gibraltar almost two weeks ago, to the address that Rosie supplied us with.  And there are also items that have not yet arrived from the UK.  I know the Spanish postal system is bad, but 2 weeks just from Gibraltar seems a lot.

I agree we definitely need a caretaker/porter -type person there during the daytime. 

Hi All,

Regarding the security costs I would like to make the following couple of points.

Everyone tells me that the most vulnerable time for theft, burglary etc. is just after a property has been finally purchased and the advise is to change the locks. It maybe therefore wise to have 24hr security for the first year and then review after that.

The problem with a new development is that until the employees are supervised to some extent, it is difficult to comment on their effectiveness. 

Finally if after a year the situation with 24hr cover is reviewed it maybe that an option exists to combine that with another job and reduce the cost substantially.

Anyway just some thoughts.

Jules and I will be renting an appartment in the Birdie Club from the 4th September to the 25th September whilst we complete on our own property and sort out furnishings etc. So if any of you are around it would be great to have a drink and a chat.

Regards

Steve and Julia