Erasmusplus Spanish courses in Spain with grants!

I was over at DV this weekend and had a walk around the development; I must say I was pretty taken aback when I came across quite a lot of Dog mess on the grassy areas....What’s going on? who on earth is letting their dogs mess the area an then not have the decency to clean it up....I was pretty appalled, I though DV was a classy development, if I see any dog owners let their dogs foul the area I will be having a word, an I suggest if any one else does they too have a word...apart from the obvious it stinks in the heat and no one wants to accidentally step in some on their way home from the pool bare foot...Urgghhhh!!!

 

Bernie,

I'd like to second this one.  
I walk down to the garbage disposal below the bottom pools.  One the road opposite were many heaps of black dog muck.   It was very obvious that someone has been taking  their dog  down there daily   allowing it to mess and walking away without clearing it up.

In the local park they fine you £50 for doing that.  If they didn't  it would just become unusable for the kids.

Its too late to do anything on the AGM but we can name and shame.

My plan is to catch the offender and  take a photo of the offender   and publish here t complete with the  apartment address.

The topic was going to be covered in my blog (yet to be written).

Paul

If I am correct one of the rules of the development is that there should be no loose animals , whatever that means. I think it means dogs and cats. The most likely cause will be those people who are living there on long term lets...

paul, suggest writing to AEA to put notices up to warn them.

I have seen a woman and her dog coming out of the white block by the road next to the pool and fouling on the grass at between this block and the golf course. However she did appear to collect the mess. Maybe its her dog that's causing the problem.

However when we were over in March we could hear at night a number of wild dogs barking over the other side of the gully towards Coto Real and it is possible that there are some wild dogs in the area.

I agree that any owner letting a dog foul should be fined heavily.

Michael

We agree with everything said about the dog fouling issue, if this problem is a result from long term lets then the owners of the apartments should be making there tenants aware as a condition of rental. Dog fouling signage should be erected around the development as early as possible imposing a community fine, as this problem could get out of hand very quickly.

Chris

This message was last edited by cjb1 on 8/17/2007.

I was suprised to see a few dogs on the site, albeit on leads with their owners. I dont know if there had been a vote early on as to whether dogs were allowed at DV, but if there had been one, i would have voted against for the reasons stated in this thread and also due to the fact my son has a strong fear of dogs. I agree it lessens the class of the village to see dogs around.

Another gripe has just crossed my mind...

The wild dogs from across the valley may also be attracted to our Village by the refuse that is left outside the bins at the bottom of the site. Its often a mess down there and i dont know if anyone has noticed, but if you look over the wall by the bins there is more refuse that has been dumped "out of site". It seems to be a mixture of paint cans, rubble, boxes and food waste.

This needs cleaning up pronto.

Also, the wall down there stops abruptly half way down the road for some reason, does anyone know why?

For security reasons alone, it should be continued down to the bottom or fenced at least.

I agree with the previous posts on dog mess, however the Spanish and English love their dogs.

I don't think it would be possible to vote against dogs in Horizontal Law, if you could we could take it a step further i.e no children as mine are all over 28 years old (joke!!).

There should be a rule -  dogs on leads, owners clear up the mess. On my other comunity of 15 houses we have 2 dogs (used to have 4) we never had a problem with dogs noise or mess. We have had more problems with cats fouling including feral cats.

I have a let in my apartment 8,27,xx with a very small dog and will check with them about using a lead and clearing up.

I am not sure if we have developed a set of community rules. Below I have enclosed the rules we use in our community near Manilva village and it could be used as the basis for s DV set of rules.

This message was last edited by manilvajl on 8/17/2007.

Good stuff Jeff.

No glasses around the pool is vital and i saw several cases of people with glasses by the pool when i was over recently. They were a bit drunk to by the looks of them on one occasion. Perhaps the pool attendant should be made to police this more.

Also, i heard a few people swearing as well, which isnt the best example to set the kids. They may have been rental people but its no excuse and ultimately the owners/property managers are responsible for their actions, which further underlines the need for clear published guidelines.

 

Totally agree Jeff internal rules are just what we need, maybe we could forward these rules to the AEA for there consideration (after any amendments that we may have of course)

 

             Kind Regards  

                    Chris

This message was last edited by cjb1 on 8/17/2007.

Jeff's rules are in hindsight what you would expect from a mature and established community.

If we started with blank sheet  of paper, after a few years I would guess we'd go through the same learning curve and eventually come up with something similar.
...but only after some years of residents having undesirable experiences.

So it is an opportunity to jump start here.

I know that there are some rules in our Horizontal Property Agreement but being entirely in Spanish and greater than 30 pages I haven't manage to work them out.
Does anyone know what that covers?

However we might have  expected AEA with their experience on managing communities to have standard set.

Suggestion: we all mail AEA with Jeff's rules and suggest they hold an EGM if necessary.  It might only need RyF and a few others to make if a quorum.

Paul

I have Horizontal rules in English Paul, I will send tomorrow. The community rules are in parallel and in addition.

 

 

I don't think you will need to ask for an EGM. Calling an EGM will cost money as AEA will probably have a annual set fee per property unit plus expenses as they occur, postage etc. Better to use the money on signage etc.

Better to take any rules AEA have plus the ones I have published and modify to suit DV. Perhaps the regular contributers here and elsewhere can quickly agee a set.

Then ask the President to agree them and publish. As he has more than 50% of the votes if he agrees he would get this though at an EGM even if the rest dissagreed, so why call it. 

I have modifed the rules at my community following common sense principles, I have then published to the 15 houses and ask is anybody against them, if no objections we agree wthout an EGM.

 

Luckily I am going over tomorrow , Sunday, for 8 days to work from there...yes i know its a hard life... I have arranged a meeting with Melisa and Rosa for Monday lunchtime. I will definately bring this issue to light.

Jeff..i think you are now back in CH so if possible can you send me a copy of your local regulations and i will take them with me. I do know our regulations forbid the hanging of washing on balconies so might be consistent in other areas.

What is important though is enforcement of these regulations..any ideas how they can be applied?  I think most people are reasonable and do not want to cause any issues and perhaps its ignorance of them that is the main issue.

 

John,

sent PM and email with them, but they are listed in thread lower down. You are only going because its raining !! If I didn't have thee decorating and the trip to France in 2 weeks I would have been back!!!

How do you enforce them?

Easy in 15 house community, I as President did it with as much diplomacy as possible. I also have the rules in a weatherproof notice board near the pool. I always feel odd telling adults what to do, but its my responsibility to enforce rules and protect the community assets. I also send an email to all owners rather name and shame on some occasions.

We also agreed at the AGM (where we approved the rules) that a copy of the rules must be attached to a notice board in the kitchen of every house that intended to rent or allow relatives and friends to use their house.

Only occasionally do we have problems, glasses or bottles at the pool and washing in sight.

I have reminded people that if a glass or bottle is dropped in the pool area the guilty party or the owner would be charged for draining of the pool, cleaning out and refilling. Water for our  9 x 5 m pool is 60 euros (about 80 cents per cubic metre) plus chemicals and labour so about 250 euros in total. 

For the pool we should get the lifeguard to enforce as glass in a pool or pool area is dangerous.

In DV we should have a block rep. for each block. Or 1 every two blocks, they could also be the default for proxy votes if somebody does not know a suitable person.

This message was last edited by manilvajl on 8/18/2007.

We are absolute dog lovers and will certainly be bringing our labrador over for the summer months.  We would never leave for a walk without a supply of plastic bags to pick up any mess and agree that all dog owners must pick up after their dog.  Usually there are separate covered bins to place bags in, rather than in with usual waste around pool areas etc.

We have stayed in a lovely development many times at La Quinta and there were many resident dog owners.  There was never any problem with dog mess and the dogs were never down around the pool area. 

Just received this from Rosa at AEA regarding dogs

Following up on the dog mess moan, I spent the weekend at DV and can honestly say, I think its the  wild cats in the area that are causing just as much if not  more of a mess, as I was walking around  the estate I found a place  (opposite bloque 12 edeficio 46 i think?)where someone is actually  feeding ferral cats, as there were at least 4 young cats/kittens sitting on the wall looking up at me and to my disbelief down over the wall on the ledge was evidence of  empty cat food tins!!... so someone is feeding them regularly. Im not against  domestic cats  as they are  hopefully trained and cat littered by their owners but I do object  to the wild cats being nurtured in our development, having food  left around for them, surely this will only encourage more cats to wonder onto the development and of cause  this means more  kittens and cat  mess!!...what on earth is going on???!!

Also does anyone have any good tips on how to stop cats from messing on the planters??.. there is one near  the entrance to my place that stinks of it and having got out the rubber gloves and disposed of it, I now need to find a way to deter it being used as a permanent toilet!

BIG moan over!!!

To discourage cats you can buy gels, powders and pellets to put them off using planters, they like fresh earth I am told, these however are not cheap solutions. My local UK diy shop told us to use moth balls, it works, as the smell puts the cats off, they last a long time and not too expensive. Don't carry them in hand luggage they are inflammable!! I need to check if you can them in Spain.

Whoever is feeding the feral cats needs to stop because feeding will encourage rats as well. We h ad the same problem up in Manilva.