Present:- Bo Gottschalk; Alec Aspden; Francisco Mas Riquelme; Francisco Llopis Sempere: Michael Kilburn; Cherry Lewis: Pat Parkes.
The purpose of the meeting was to find out what information had been obtained from Elche Council in the previous meetings with our Spanish colleagues on the committee.
These meetings (4 number) had been held over the previous 4/5 weeks. Unfortunately nothing concrete was obtained and we are still no closer to knowing when we are likely to receive our Habitation Certificates. The council are very busy at this time with the forthcoming May elections.!
The two main stumbling blocks appear to be the pending transfer of a section of our site M19 into the ownership of Elche from San Jose Group (which we have been informed is proceeding) and the planning and installation of the new electricity cable capable of supplying the required power to the whole of the site including the unfinished properties. Iberdrola have informed us that everything is in place to enable them to undertake this work but that they require the go-ahead from Elche!
San Jose will also need to be back on site to continue their works part of which will be to construct a new sub-station for the site.
San Jose will be clear of administration at the end of this month and we await with fingers crossed their appearance on site.
We also have other developers waiting to start on site. We will provide further details of this when we can.
The committee then discussed the possibility of installing our own meters on site such that owners will then only pay for the standing charge and the electric used.
An information meeting is to be held tomorrow on site with owners present at which our Administrator will outline a possible scheme.
A Aspden then outlined discussions he and Bo have held with another company of Administrators who have said that they will install meters for us, read them, prepare bills and also open an office here on site for the benefit of owners. We have asked them to prepare a more detailed presentation which will include contact numbers of urbanisations where they have said they have done this previously.
A Aspden then informed the committee that himself and Bo have met with a company, based in the UK, who specialise in the collection of community fees from debtors based anywhere in the European community, with the exception of Spain, under a European Directive. Costs of collection are met by the debtors and any monies are sent direct to the community accounts not through their account. We will pursue this further as it appears to be an excellent way of recovering fees.
Post Meeting Note
The on- site meeting was held on Wednesday morning outside the Sales office and was well attended by owners. Our Administrator, Francisco Moreno, outlined a scheme where we could
install electric meters of the correct standard on the properties and these would have to be read by committee members on a monthly basis. The standing charge and the charge for electricity used could possibly be added to community bills sent out monthly. Non payment would result in disconnections. A further meeting is to be called at which more precise details can be outlined, suggestions taken, and voted on.
We believe that we can no longer wait for the relevant authorities to act and that we must instigate a course of action leading to a system of meters which will enable owners to pay for what they use individually. We can then set, as individual communities, a charge for maintaining our communities and paying for the swimming pools, street and tower lighting and water pumps. This would then become our community fee to be paid by all.
The Committee
El Pinet 6