Community matters! DJ I

Irma's times at the cabin in July are shown below. 2 Saturdays are included to facilitate holiday makers but she will not arrive until 6.00PM in the evenings except next Thursday

CALENDARIO DE LA ADMINISTRACIÓN – ADMINISTRATION SCHEDULE JULIO 2011

Thanks Janice,

There were 4 "bounced" e-mails so if you've changed your e-mail address please let me know your new address and I will forward a copy.

The Administrator also sent a message tonight - if you didn't get it please let me know as her circulation list is separate from mine.

The thing about the road and the new crossing under the bridge is that El Higueron gets things done with the town hall while our community is in bad standing there. We really should improve our relations there.

I know the various presidents of El Higueron. Its like Don Juan split in several communities but different from ours they work closel together. They have a good relation with the councillor of infrastructure while we blew up our good relation the moment we stole the central water pumping station.

In my view we should be much more pro active in establishing relations instead of acting on our own in isolation. The feeble attempt to create a facebook accout for the ´vecinos de don juan´ died slowly and the contacts with phase II are very bad. We could do so much more if we worked together.

I have spoken times and times with people in both phases and I can see that the committee of phase I is not encouraging good relations while phase II has in it´s constitition that they want a good together with phase I but can´t do so at the moment. A lot of people in phase II are still very sensitive to our land grabbing of the common pool area and the water pumping machine. Our lack of willingness to cooperate doesn´t make things better.

Time for a change for the better. I do what I can to get people in contact but I´m just a private person who happens to know as good as anyone in both phases. People ask me to mediate but I need the cooperation of our committee and the support of phase I as a whole to be able to proceed.

There are good plans being put forward but there is a need for broad support. Who would be willing here to change our attitude and start working actively with phase II?

Max

 Hi Max.

                I visited my apartment in phase 1 on the 11th May this year, that was only the second visit in 3 years.  My in-laws  who are in their seventies use my apartment several times a year and they have mentioned  the difficulty in walking from the train station up the very steep hill, and then down the hill to arrive at block 8.   I asked them if a passage way could have been made between the hill and across,  and between phase 2 apartments towards blocks 6.7.8., but that would appear out of order because of the disagreement between Phase 1 & 2.

                I have been away for quite some time so I have missed a lot of the messages on these pages, so if I repeat what has been mentioned previously then I apologise now.  I could not believe that Don Juan was so devided between phase 1 & phase two, for such a small number of apartments and also the location, I would have thought a joint board of committee members would serve Don Juan best.  I fully agree with you that an effort should be made to integrate all of Don Juan and I am sure the outgoing cost of running the site would be much cheaper.

                                                                                               Thanks Bevron.

Hi Bevron,

It´s good that you mention a passage way because that´s one of the things high on my agenda as well. I have after all these years of living here a long list of things we could enormously improve. It would add value to our apartments and comfort to the people living here, but unfortunately there is not a lot of progress on the crucial issues.

Both communities currently have committees who don´t function well. Ours is as good as empty as people didn´t want to be on it or got kicked out. Phase II still has a president who is also the owner of Arrohabitatge. The progress will have to come from the owners themselves.

Currently I would say phase II is a bit ahead of us even with the problem with their president. There is more activity from the neighbours themselves who take initiatives and really go for it. Meetings of phase II are much more pleasant to attend as there is real interaction with people taking papers and quotes with them. It are not lectures without participation. Critical questions about budget spendings are raised and answered and all in all they are more fun to attend and more productive to parcipate in.

We need much more activity of the Don Juan owners who leave things as they are. There are a lot of complaints about dogs, rats, children, pools, noise, gardens etc, but hardly any solutions put forward.

It went as far that the children who want to live here as well are so harassed by people shouting that they are not allowed to play or by mostly English even stating that they should be in bed that they now go round with petitions asking for play grounds and promising that if they get these they won´t bother anyone.

Others have started to maintain part of the communal garden themselves to solve what our gardeners couldn´t manage in four years. If I compare it with developments of the same age where there are tropical gardens by now with shade, flowers, colour and beautiful smells Don Juan still looks bare. Some of  the large earthen walls are still completely bare. Most plants we bought have died while we spend a lot of money on them and the gardens themselves still look barely kept.

Due to the rain water neighbours have huge arguments about whose water is spilling on whom´s balcony and if you look at the buildings they have huge blackened streaks where the water caused damage to the coating and some black fungus now grows.

Internet reception is bad to non existent for a lot of people and we are in the hands of one provider without even approving that contract. There are a lot of complaints why we can´t have other providers and the answer is silence.

All of these things could and should the focus of our common energy. Leaving things to a committee chosen by some proxy votes where most of the members are no longer willing to participate due to the atmosphere is not in anyones interest. We shoud all stop thinking that committees, town halls, ´they´ or whoever will solve things and get active ourselves.

There is a huge pool of talent in Don Juan. We have physicians, micro-biologists, professional gardeners, carpenters, painters, lawyers and politicians as our neighbours. Let´s use all that knowledge and get things moving as owners. In the end its our property which could be so much more attractive and comfortable if we just join forces. Add phase II to this pool of owners energy and we can really achieve something within a year.

/end of rant :)

Max.

it would be great  if the two commites could come together and put all there energies together in getting the rockie road sorted and maybe a new passage way it would be great for everyone.  I was over in my apartment last week got a taxi from fuengirola at 2 am taxi man drove under railway bridge turned left and stopped he asked us to get out as the road was to bad he would not go any further so we had to walk the rest  of the way home it was not a good experience walkin in the dark. and i have to say i dont blame the taxi man for not wanting to drive on that horrible road.

dermot

Yes Dublin that would be great indeed, but there is a lot more we have to do to get Don Juan I back in shape. I mentioned a few of the pressing issues where I feel the owners should take their responsibilities and do more than wait for others or just complain.I wont repeat them, but as an anecdote which shows some of the lacking responsibility for each other I want to mention the fire we had.

If the firemen come up with blazing horns, storm out, billowing smoke is hanging over Don Juan, you would expect neighbours to gather. I happened to be in an apartment in phase II and couldn´t hear it from there. However people from phase II came to me and asked me what was going on and if I could have a look. They can´t enter the communal garden next to their pool as we have forbidden them to enter that for strange reasons so they couldn´t go that way in their bath clothes.

Of course I went to the huge fire in block six when notified. I have a key to all the common grounds so I was there in a minute. The firemen were just gone. I looked around as the place looked a mess and noticed a few people hanging from their balconies. Then i saw the owner! She was in shock and crying so I stepped in and consoled her. After using more than six cannisters of fire extinguisher because it was an electric fire where they dont use water the whole apartment was white. Smoke still came out of the kitchen. Of course I have helped her sort out insurance papers, get the electricity off as the kitchen was completely burnt out so there were dangerous bare wires. Affter that Saskia took over and I went to look for Irma as it was the time she normally visits.

She was already awara as the owner had called her, but she chose to help the viistors to the booth first and after my urgent question went there. She was a great help and sorted out the insurance and everything is now fully under control.

It left me wondering though why none of the other neighbours had done anything to try to help, console the women, be supportive etc. In such a small community you would expect much more people to come forward, but it was up to me and Saskia. I found it a tell tale sign about the state of our Don Juan community and a sharp contrast with phase I.

We should help each other and it´s hardly any trouble. Most of the people have ample time as they are on holiday while we are working people. Yet there are quite tragedies in don juan where nobody stepped in. This was just a very recent example.

I strongly feel that this community feeling should return. We had it in the first year and now it seems gone and people ignore others because of petty problems they have had in the past. That will never solve our problems. Stepping over our own shadowos and contribute to community business should be a task for everyone. Only then can we substantially improve the current culture.

Max.

i agree max the sooner the better everybody pulls to gether the better for everybody in don juan

 Hi if you are being asked to get out of a taxi or being charged a extra fee to take you up the hill to don Juan please send a e/mail to the town hall.The town hall have in the past sent all complaint made to them about the taxi drivers to the police as they can have there licence taken a way or be fined if they do this.If we all complain to the town hall more often we might get a path for us to walk on the side of the train station. 

Hi Irene and Dublin,

See the latest posts in the chit chat area for some news about the acces problems.

Regarding phase I I have been approached with a proposal by people from phase II to solve our access to block 1 and their blocks 1 and 2 from the path and pools below. It won´t help the people in other block of course but for a lot of others it would be much more convenient. This requires close cooperation between the two phases and phase II would like to discuss it with us.

I have already proposed a meeting between the available member of our committee and the people who took the initative to work this proposal out who are mostly from phase II. They will have an owners meeting coming Friday so I have stressed the importance that we talk about this before Friday and see what we can do together.

It´s a very reasonable proposal from phase II so it needs to be respected as we have not been very helpful to them by locking away their pumping station and their communal pool. We even had put up locks on our pools and our landgrabbed part next to their pool to get them out of our properties which is not a really nice approach. You don´t make friends by doing this. So we need to grab this chance with both hands.

Let´s hope the remaining few on our committtee respond quickly and positve so that we can try to heal the wounds and start looking forward.

Max.

Max,

I don’t normally bother responding to your posts. As our neighbours in Phase 2 are involved in this and they may not be aware of your history I am making an exception on this occasion.

We are already aware of the proposals brought forward at the Phase 2 AGM and of the further meeting this Friday. A meeting has already been arranged with our committee and the neighbours in Phase 2 so there is no need to try to arrange another one

David,

The intention was not to setup another meeting but a broader meeting with all available committee members who still are on board. Of course our president was aware as i pointed out her name and contact details to the people of phase II. My intention as always is for the greater good of both communities and I want to draw this in to a further reaching meeting to solve more than one issue.

The neighbours in phase II and in phase I are very well aware of my history of being the first vice president and still one of the most active neighbours visiting both meetings. That my responses has not always been to your liking doesn`t ring with other people. I plead for transparency, budgets which are clear and legally approved, important proposal like selling us to one vendor for internet to be passed by the owners meeting instead of at a bar meeting, free access to all the files and books we have for all owners, etc.

These things are normal in all other communities, even in phase II, so we are the exception and it´s completely true that I and a lot of others like to be involved in our own decision making and want to know where money is spend on and what contracts are arranged to the disadvantage of a large number of owners. All quite normal in every Spanish communtiy (and by the way also in the UK and in the Netherlands. I sat on the board of a much larger complex in Amsterdam for seven years and the rules and laws governing communities are quite similar to the Spanish ones).

You choice not to respond on this forum and yet doing so is yours only. A private choice I respect, but it would be good of course as our committee and especially our president would inform the people about the proceedings. Not everyone is in the position to know everything happening here due to living and working here. It would be good if more is shared. The current newsletters are very selective, don´t mention important things, are full of positive news but do not necessarily reflect the reality on the ground.

It would be good if this would be done by our president so that people had the chance to ask questions and really participate instead of being passive consumers. Most of the people I know would prefer this.

Max.

Hello Max,

I approve completely your commitment concerning both phases. We are French and my parents have an apartment in the block 1 phase 1 and I in the block 4 phase 2
And we do not intend to wage war to us.

STEF

Hi.

         I posted a message a short while ago in regards to Phase 1 & Phase 2.  this is just to confirm that I full confidence in David and the rest of the Don Juan Phase 1 committee and I thank them all for performing a very difficult task on behalf of all other residents.  My earlier comments were not fault finding in any way with the committee, but was mentioned in the belief that a joint communial committee would be benificial to all parties of Don Juan and should be  considered. 

                                                                                           Thats all Bevron 

Thanks Ron & Hi Stef,

I do agree it will be mutually beneficial to work together.

Members of the Phase 1 committee have always had contact with Phase 2 neighbours and have never waged war on anyone. We are however in the middle of a legal dispute with the developer. With the developer's daughter being the President of phase 2 and the developers lawyer being the administrator we have not had much opportunity for cooperation so far. Let's see if we can move things forward now.

Hi Stef,

This will be a long post as it´s a recap of years just to remember people what happened, why it happened, what background it had and how I think our future should be.

To start off, no we won´t start a war against you, be assured, but a lot of your neighbours in phase II are not happy with the land grabbing we did at the expense of the communal garden of phase II next to the pool, nor the fact that we took the water pumping station which was intended for all three phases and has the capacity to serve all of them.

We just locked it up instead of going to the developer and negotiate with them as they had made an error in the original division lines between the communities. This has never been intentional by the promoter as it would have been a huge waste of their money to put a 500 household very sophisticated pumping station up only to end with the need to build new simple and noisy ones in phase II and III.

A mistake had been made by the developer in the concept of Don Juan. It has always been intended to be one complex with shared pools and facilities. However due to unforeseen economics it had to be built and completed at different times. So that neccesitated the need to split up the phases at the land registry.

This had to be done in such a way that the original building permit was fullfilled and as a lot of people dont know Carvajal is a special zone for the town hall. It´s intended to be the luxury area as they don´t space anywhere else to attract the better off people so the requirements differ greatly from the normal demands for a building license. The architecture needs to be too a much higher standard, the amount of greenery, the average size of the apartments, communal facilities etc all have to be better. This all in the expectation that the range of prices would also be lifted and attract a different public.

In view of this we have the problem that Arrohabitatge improvised some lines to file at the land registry. There needed to be enough greenery pool, communal area etc to do justice to the building permits. The unavoidable outcome was that a communal garden had to be allocated on paper to phase 1 while it was intended as a pool area, the other outcome was that the water pumping station had to be somewhere as there is no such thing as an ´no phase zone´.

Hence the decisions made and filed at the registry. A member of the committee from the start found out which was smart. However by that time president and vice-president of the first committee stepped down thinkiing they had done enough as the first year is always the most time consuming. Hernan and I are both active businessmen so we had reached our goals as set out in our first meeting and stepped down. Our successors didn´t do what we expected. Instead of negotiating with the developer which whom we had and have a lot issues, we just sealed "our property" off.

So all we did was lose ourselves because suddenly a war was started in which access to our communal garden was put behind a lock not accessible to phase II, we put up signs forbidding phase II owners to use our pools and they have responded with similar measures.

So there we are. A lot of phase II owners are aware of this and don´t like us at all for doing this. Personally I found it plain stupid as we grabbed property instead of negotiating with the developer. We finally had something to put on the table and we didn´t use it. In business that´s never a good strategy.

We have also been on the receiving end as owners of phase I are not allowed to enter the pool of phase II, we have a large part of oiur community, which already has more gates than the average prison camp, closed off by locks so you can only make an evening stroll with large bunch of keys and on top of it we now bear the maintenance and consumption costs of a large expensive waterpump station with only 200 household so we pay more than was needed and we have less.

Ever since phase II was constitued I have been in touch with owners there, explaining our actions and admitting that these were huge errors made by us at their costs. I have visited all meetings they had last year (at least five!) and was the only person from phase I. On the first meeting there was a warning that there was a phase I member attending so be aware! That´s not a sign of a good relation. Over the meetings I have tried to help them in all aspects of a start up community. I did have the experience and I was a large part of the fight to kick the developer out so I have advised them as good as I could on ways to achieve this.

Yesterday on the meeting the new president was chosen and immediately got my congratulations just like the  vice president. I´m a regular face on their meetings, support the plans on behalf of the proxies I hold and continue to try to mend the division. Interestingly enough even yesterday night when at least one issue was on the agenda on which our committee claimed to have been in discussion about, this was denied. There had only been contact with our administrator and nothing really came out of it.

Most of all nobody of our committee was there to show we welcome our neighbours.

Max.