Villa Inspection Results

We have just completed our first inspection for  Birdie Villa and we were impressed with the general quality

A coupleof things to look out for were the location of the hot & cold cut off taps, under the worktop next to the sink, means that there is insufficent space for the dishwasher and they need moving

There was no electricity connected so some areas could not be checked so you should make sure that you tell RODA, as with all properties with electric shutters, that all of these must be open at the time of the inspection

The external areas were not grassed and a comment was made by the buyer was that Villa owners were not entitled to use the community pools, as they pay lower community fees and they are expected to install their own pools. It is worth checking this with RODA, prior to completion

RODA have now moven to an electronic system where they enter the defects using a handheld device as you check the property so we will see how this goes and let people know

We have produced a buyer guide for RODA which lists hints and details of local shops markets etc plus if you would like a sample report for the villa please e-mail rodavilla@inspectahomespain.com

 

 

Hi Roy

Re the Villa owners use of the communal pools - I attended the first AGM and I believe that as Villa owners do not pay towards the communal upkeep then they are not entitled to use the pools.  This is something that I will bring up with the President as I am not sure how us apartment owners who pay the majority of the communal fees would feel about non-contributors and their guests using facilities that they have not contributed towards.

What do others who own apartments at Roda feel about this.

Sandra

 

 

 

I would certainly agree Sandra, it would seem a little unfair for apartment owners to pay for pools and have people using them who make no contribution.

As you know I am in Phase 2 and did not manage to attend the AGM but I believe the minutes will be posted shortly so have no idea if this was brought up.

Actually I am a little surprised that all owners do not contribute to communal pools as it will be very hard to monitor who is using them especially with so many being rented.

Personally I would have preffered to see villa owners make a contribution as I can t see how you will be able to restrict your pool just to local apartment users.

Hi Hugh

We need to get this checked out because I for one will insist that this is sorted at the AGM if this is the case.  I think everyone on the resort should contribute to the cost of maintaining the pools, including the water as well as the communal gardens as quite honestly anyone can walk anywhere!

 

Sandra

 

Sorry Sandra and Hugh I see where you are coming from but I think that this issue is a non-starter.

There is no way to maintain the lovely open aspect of the whole resort if we are going to ask Roda to police usage of the pools. Roda will of course understandably refer this issue back to the various communities and I believe that It would be extremely unfair to ask any community to police this.

The following points in no particular order occur to me:-

A possible way to police the issue would be to have a pass key system for each pool but that would involve fencing in all of the pools which would do nothing for the overall ambience of Roda. Another possible solution would be the wearing of wrist bands but again there are problems with this such as people forgetting, losing them, renters remembering to leave them behind etc etc

The beauty of the whole resort is that owners are free to use any pool they like at present and move around without any issues. 

There are of course a substantial number of Spanish owners on the Resort who it would be fair to assume often have family and friends visiting but not necessarily staying on the resort. These visitors I am sure use the pools and I cannot see how anyone could have an issue with this.

There are also non Spanish owners in the resort who have visitors from other resorts or perhaps hotels in the area and these visitors use the pools as their guests. I have seen this happening during the past few months and particularly over the summer months and again it is difficult to see how this could be an issue for anyone.

A number of owners rent out their properties and again the renters may have visitors who use the pools and it is hard to have a problem with this.

There are probably a number of owners both Spanish and non Spanish who NEVER use the pools and don´t have any visitors who do either.

There are a number of owners who are paying community fees and who are only here possibly for short visits and would only use their apartments for 4-6 weeks in total.

There are some owners living here full time and use the pools more than the rest of us put together.

All of the above groups pay full community fees which cover all the different costs.

Should they now all pay proportionately? Ie if they have visitors who use the pools - should they pay more? If they only come here for a few weeks in the year should they pay less? If they do not rent their properties - should they pay less? If they are ground floor and never use the lifts should they still pay lift maintenance charges? If they don´t have a car and don´t use the underground car parks should they not pay the proportionate garage cleaning fees? If they don´t have children and don´t use the play areas should they not pay for the cleaning and maintenance of these? If people live here full time should they pay more refuse collection charges? - Where would all of this end???

When you consider the above Is there a chance that in raising this at AGMs it may be akin to shooting ourselves in the foot?  

If we take the issue about policing the usage of pools- ie ensuring that they are solely for the apartment owners -to its logical conclusion- ie that we must ask all owners on the property to contribute to the pool maintenance -then would it possibly not only be fair that villa owners ask all of us to pay for maintenance of any private pools and gardens at their properties as they do not use the communal pools but still have to pay for them?

I can see why this has sparked your interest but it I think that the community fee is one of those things in life that we can keep an eye on and certainly challenge the various charges at the AGM if we feel that they are out of order or need clarified. As regards getting into the nitty gritty of who uses the communal pools and who pays for what and how much of each service we all use I cannot see how the current system, which I understand is based on best practice in other resorts and communities, can be improved upon.  

Anyone else feel the same?   

Phew - that's a posting and a half.

I know it would be impossible to police, so all I am suggesting, and sorry if it sounded different, is that if the villa owners are not contributing to the communal costs, then they should do in any case.  As you say there are probably lots of apartment owners who don't use the pools,but have to pay,  and lots of people who invite guests in etc. etc. but  I don't see why villa owners should be any different.  I happen to believe that all the facilities should be available for everyone and everyone who owns property on the resort should contribute in fair proportions,whether they use it or not because they own the property.

I certainly don't want armies of security police checking people's credentials and fences round pools et

Sorry I  misled anyone on my point of view.

Best regards

Sandra

 

Everything IP says is true, but  feel that this leads to the conclusion that Sandra is correct. It is an impossible task to police.

Everyone who owns a property should pay an equal amount.

This message was last edited by ace on 11/9/2007.

Sandra / RD, I agree with you both, but the policing of pool usage is already happening. Let me share an experience we had in August this year;

My wife and I went for a swim late one afternoon and chasing the setting sun we ended up in one of the pools outside the townhouses on phase one. We were the only two people swimmingin it and after a while a Spanish family returning to their townhouse stood by the pool for a moment looking dissapprovingly at us. We thought this quite rude but thought no more about it.  About ten minutes later, just after we had got out of the pool, a Roda security guard arrived and asked us where we were staying. When we said in the adjacent apartments he asked us to leave as the pool was for the exclusive use fo the townhouse residents. I refused and argued that we were entitled to use the pool. As it happened the sun had gone in and we were planning to leave in any case, but I made a point of remaining there until the securitiy guard left.

It was an unpleasant experience and I am only pleased that it was me and not one of my tenants.

I resolved to take the matter up with Roda the following day as when we originally bought into the development we were definitely told that we would be able to use all the pools and I recall saying to my son that it would make a great "poolcrawl" when all 50+ pools were finished and open.

When I got back to my apartment I checked the community budget to get my facts straight as I felt sure we all contributed to all pools on the phase and as such would be entitled to use them. What i found was that we only pay for othe upkeep of our own community pools and communal areas, unlike gate security and refuse collection which is centrally funded. I therefore let the matter drop.

Let me be clear that I do not think it should be necessary or desirable to police the pools and I firmly believe that everyone should be able to use any pool on the resort. However, this would require everyone to pay towards the upkeep of all pools and communal gardens across the whole site, including the villa owners, but clearly some people, such as the Spanish family in the townhouse, clearly value the "exclusivity" of their own pool so I'm not sure how realistic this would be.

Hopefully, unlike many other resorts, there will be sufficient pools at Roda for everyone.

Melvin

This message was last edited by gbzmep on 11/9/2007.

Another sore subject at Roda. We are buying a Villa in phase 4 & were told explicitly we would have use of ALL the communal pools (51 was the figure we were told). I assumed the 2000 plus euros we would be paying each year would include a contribution to this. If not what is all this money going to be spent on? It is generally accepted that a large portion of community fees on any complex goes towards the cleaning & maintenance of the pool(s). Two grand a year from each villa owner to pay for security & plants seems rather excessive.

Unfortunately, this is just one subject in an ever growing list of untruths we were told before buying at Roda, what will be next.....

Mike

I don't know about the villa situation at Roda but we are buying a villa at Corvera and we very specifically checked on the swimming pool issue.  We were told that as villa owners we won't have use of the communal pools - BUT - consequently - the community charges for villas will be considerably less than those for apartments and town houses where maintenance of pools, parking, stairways, and other common areas etc. has to be built into the equation.  We were also told that villa owners will be responsible for the maintenance of their private garden area. 

Apologies if I have openned up a can of worms here however in my business we do our best to avoid these type of issues

Normally on resorts that have multiple pools line Polaris owners are entitled to use any pool and the percentage paid is all pools

There is a much larger issue here regarding the law and fences as currently none of the pools at RODA are fenced  and for safety and Spanish Law specifically requires that  swimming pool safety for public pools shared by 20 or more families has to be fenced

All of the pools as Polaris are fenced and RODA is the only resort that I know where they are not

RODA may therefore argue that by, making each pool specifically for use by a certain group of properties, that the law does not apply

I believe that the isue of pool safety should be raised with RODA and at the AGM

The lack of fences really worries me

Hi all

I have written to the Phase 1 President for clarification on this issue.

 

Sandra

 

 

Hi all

I have heard back from our President who in turn had sought clarification from the Phase 1 Administrators. 

They have confirmed It is correct that Villa owners do not have access to the communal pools.  They do not contribute via their comunidad fees to the communal expenses, just the general expenses of roads, rubbish removal, street lighting, security etc. 

Further, the townhouse pools are exclusive to the townhouse owners (as Melvin said) and they have a separate community.  The Phase 1 Apartment owners can only use the pools that are built within their Comunidad and not all the other pools on the resort in other communities.

Please contact the Adminsitrators if you have any further queries on this.  I for one agree that to police the usage of the pools is an impossible task, but obviously the town house owners know how to get rid of "interlopers" in their pools - so we should just call security if we have an interloper!!!!

Sandra

 

 

 

 

 

Hello everyone

We are buying a villa in phase 3 and we were told we had usage of all the pools.  This was during a 'question and answer' e-mail around April 2006 when we were deciding whether to purchase. The size of a pool we could have in our garden is ridiculous and with teenage children this was important to us.  We assumed that our community fees would include costs in this respect and that we could use all the gardens/facilities like everyone else.

I would rather have this included within our fees because I do not want unpleasant confrontations and this issue is a worry to me now.  I have spoken privately to another villa buyer and they too were under the impression we had use of all the communal pools.  I think the costs should be spread around all the residents.

 

Hi

Was it Roda Golf themselves that told you this or your sales company - just interested as it conflicts totally with what the Administrators for Phase 1 have advised.

 

Sandra

 

Hi Sandrab

It was Roda golf, we went direct.  It was answered by Carmen Garcia.  I also dealt with Pilar Carrasco.  I was looking over my questions and I noticed some of the answers conflict slightly with what seems to be happening.  We were told the villas would be 'grassed' and separated from each other with landscaping.  This was not the case judging from comments from Inspectahome.  We were also told that all the gardens are communal.  Unfortunately, it is difficult for me to send you a copy of this 12 page 'question and answer' sheet because I have scribbled all over it!  I am going to look through my file because I think I sent it to our Solicitor. 

I think a lot of villa owners are under the impression that they can use all the pools.  Certainly Mikelord was told the same.  We met another couple last year at the Golf Club with teenagers who were getting a hot tub and planning on using the communal pools and I know one other that does not use the forum who was told the same.  That is 4 villa owners in phase 3.

Again looking at my questions we were old our maintenance charges were going to be for 'all communal areas' - playgrounds, gardens, pools, security.  We expected to pay the same as everyone else plus extra for the maintenance of our own area.  This news is a complete surprise to us and we do not think it is a good idea.  It seems it will only cause friction.  I am hoping my teenagers will meet other friends within our phase.  They will all swim together in a communal pool.  How can you police this? 

I totally understand how other owners must feel about villa owners using the pools and not paying - but it seems, that on phase 3 at least, there are 4 villa owners all wanting to contribute.  Surely this can only be good news for distribution of costs. 

 

 

I totally agree - its a fair way of ensuring all have use of all the facilities which I must admit I understood to be the case when we bought on the Resort but now turns out not to be the case.  I am glad you can understand the frustration of the apartment owners who seem to have been landed with all the costs for the pools! 

I know our President on Phase 1 reviews this board so wlll be well aware of the situation.

Perhaps the issues will be raised at hte AGM?

 

Sandra

 

 

Just to clarify I have found out the the areas around the villa are going to be grassed using seed

At the time of the completion inspections this had not happened

 

I am on Phase 1 and just back from a short visit. Having read the postings I was amazed and very much amused to note that there are only 5 villas plus a show villa on Phase 1. One of the villas has a pool and two of the others have hot tubs. I cannot understand the waste of time and effort regarding this issue as on a 5 star resort we should be above worrying about the potential usage of shared pools. The "interlopers" would have to bypass the townhouse pools to reach the communal apartment owners shared pools which in reality is unlikely to happen and even if they all appeared at one pool which is extremely unlikely life would go on!!!!