El Pinet

Whilst I'm sure the matter has been thought through can someone confirm that the fitting of individual meters isn't going to be blocked in any way by Iberdrola - them having an outstanding bill they need paying?

Does anyone know the outcome of the meetings last Saturday, 30th April?    When asking for a proxy vote in favour of engaging a firm of Administrators which would oversee the provision of individual meters, I did make it clear that my vote was on the condition that we had the full backing of Iberdrola.  I couldn't imagine anyone would proceed without checking out every possible potential problem, but felt I should say it anyway.

9_Palms - your comment suggests that meters are going to be fitted.  Was this decided at the meeting, do you know?    

I do wish someone out there would keep us non-residents informed via the El Pinet website.  I've always appreciated the effort the committee make on our behalf and was delighted when we were told a year or so ago that regular updates would be posted on the website, but sadly this just doesn't happen.   There seems to be more El Pinet information on the SARC website than our own.   I know there have been some very negative comments on this forum, aimed at the committee , but I for one am thankful for what they do particularly given all the false promises etc. that they have to contend with.   I'm sure that regular postings, even to tell us that nothing much has changed, would help to maintain a sense of community, which seems to be sadly lacking at the moment.

Hi Lambourn,

The information I have heard (not officially) is that meters are going to be fitted for a small cost. I for one would agree that Iberdrola should be aware of what is going on as the system/cabling is being altered to the property's. As you will see from previous posting my concern is there is a risk to people and property!! The cabling is at least 5 years old and has anyone check it, I doubt it?

I am of the same opinion as you regarding information. The EP committee should have someone to keep the web site up to date. It would stop this site from being used as a firefight. I am sure they are doing things behind the scenes that would/should be of interest. Its not a easy position they have.

Have you read the comment kindly posted futher down by Leomack. Makes interesting reading. But no surprise about the administrators!

Don't shoot the messenger

It was proposed and accepted (by those present) that meters for water & electricity will be fitted for the sum of 120 euro's plus tax, you will be sent a request to pay this in the next few weeks.

Once everyone pays the meters will be fitted (that may take some time)

They hope / plan to do this in early June. Getting all owners to pay up 120 euros will be harder than they think and they can't just do the ones that pay, its an all or nothing deal.

Would you trust them to use the money to pay for meters or would they be tempted to use it to pay the outstanding utility bills?

I guess it's a risk worth taking, but once they get your paid in bank details be aware! Spanish banks operate different to most! -

Pay in cash only and get a reciept is my advice!!

Assuming they can overcome the electrical issues i.e. lots of properties are fed from other properties or the supply is looped, therefore individual meters will not work!? hopefully they can overcome this minor detail!?

They then intend billing each individual based on their consumption, the tariff will be the tariff that is charged to San Jose as the supply of both electric and water is still with them from the utility suppliers. (as it should be, I hear some of you say!)

The new administrators (god bless them) will take reading every month and send you a bill. The balance of any water & electric bills that is not down to individual consumption will be split based on the sqft of your property, you will recieve a bill for this monthly also, that's the community element. They claim a full breakdown of community related charges will be highlighted on your bill including their fee!!

The meters have been approved by the electric & water companies and will be adopted once CoH are issued

So basically the community (otherwise known as the residents) have realsied that no one sane is going to pay 100 euro or infact the 150 euro per month, and also realised they have no way of getting any money out of the so called debtors, so they have sacked the current administrators and found some (who seem actually really good) that claim to be able to do their dirty work. (i.e. getting everyone making some contribution & chasing with menacies those that have not paid, although I think even they see that they are on a loser there)

Anyway if meters are in fact installed its a clear admission that the previous tactics were totally unfair, the newly appointed administrators obviously see that the best way forward is individual meters & bills, no one (other than those that still believe San Jose should be paying) will mind paying for what they use?

I wasn't at the meeting but the gagging order on those that were, doesn't seem to have worked - I thought super-injunctions only worked in the UK. tweet tweet!

 This message was last edited by Divineintervention on 10/05/2011.

So much for the 'peppercorn'. Why isn't there an effort to get back the payments for meters we have made?

DI .You also point out one of the main problems, the total lack of communication. ..Gagging orders...Sanctions     It just shows how out of touch or POWER crazy some are. Rather sad or desperate really.

OK I decide to pay.......not until its done. I buy petrol, I get it I pay. I shop etc.....get real

Have you heard if there is a plan b. What if.  Some don't give €120 for reasons you highlight, It is illegal to disconnect households without a court order. If the wires supplying the electricity are in need of repair ( previous comment by 9P) who pays? If an accident occurs because of...who is responsible?

Answers please.

Lets all keep tweeting twittering ranting ...whatever 
 

This message was last edited by victor meldrew on 10/05/2011.

 Hi I wonder if any one can help !

We have an apartment in El Pinet but we live in UK and do not know much about the developments there,but if we have to pay for water meter or anything else we need to be contacted in UK.

So please introduce a link person which we can pass our address to him or her,this will ensure we will speedily follow instruction and as regards issues like payment for water/electricity meter.

Thanks

DI. 9P, R.PSB. L. All would say get in touch with your block rep

Having only read the small amount of info that is available regarding the meeting, and not having had any official confirmation of anything, other than that which has been posted on this website, can anyone advise what else is happening. e.g. are the old administrators gone....have we to ignore the latest invoices they have sent, which only came in last week....have they used all my/our previous payments to pay for anything, and if not, what have they done with my money.....are the committee proposing to contact all those whose contact details they have...or are the new administrators going to contact us....any info from anyone who knows anything would be appreciated

Some answers to your questions

1. Apparently the new administrator agreed that they cannot legally disconnect any household that doesn't pay

2. They will not be pursuing San Jose for the money we have all already paid for electricty & water supply /meters - they beleive this is a wasted action

3. They want everybody to keep paying the existing bills until further notice

4. They are also attempting to get insurance for the site (although I don't think anyone will cover us until CoH are issued, catch 22!). This will form part of the community charge

5. They have no funds to get it done upfront so unfortunately, its all or nothing I think.........300 properties at 120 euro plus tax is over 40,000 euro, they can't pay the electricity bill never mind taking on this liability

6. They are also intending employing a debt collection agency in the UK to seek payment of the arrears, funnily enough these operate on a no fee basis, obviously taking a % of whatever some of us are stupid enough to pay when being hassled. You will be getting a letter through the post soon! A bit like parking fines i guess, if you don't pay within 10 days there's an added penalty ........and so on.........  Take some advice but mine is do not pay a penny (well euro, they are nearly the same nowadays!). This will be an interesting tactic for the new administrators, especially as by their own proposed actions they are acknowledging that the proposed fees / arrears were set on an unfair basis and that's even assuming that you consider the whole community as a legal entity..............did you vote them in?

7. Finally, unfortunately there was no truth in the rumour that the commitee are into BDSM, another super injunction wasted!

Tweet tweet

This message was last edited by Divineintervention on 11/05/2011.

More information here than on the proper web site. Thanks all.

Having had experience of 'parking charges'  shopping centre car parks. The 'debt collector' will try all sorts of prasing of letters to try and get people to pay. Legal advice on those is to completely ignore the letters. It needs a court action and the have to prove contracts existed etc.......only one case has gone to the parking co. Read honestjohn   onweb  parking charges / fines

I need a favour as I want to put a handle on the front door. If someone can measure the distance between the centre of the lever square (handle off) to the centre of the lock and tell me if it is 92mm.

thanks in advance

So now theres a new group involved, one that doesn't have the money to install meters but wants us to pay them some money up front so they can do it. Apparently unless evryone on the site pays up front its not going to happen, which means ......its not going to happen and then there'll be another battle to get back the fees paid to them....and on and on....

Maybe I'm stating the obvious but given the fact that San Jose are all but out of administration now, wouldn't it be better to wait and see what their proposals are before commiting to yet another bunch of people asking for up front fees before doing anything?

An excellent point Vicmackie and well made.  San Jose sent the following mail to all of its creditors a few weeks ago;

Dear Sir / Madam 
  
I would like to advise you that San José Inversiones y Proy. Urb., S.A. is now nearing the end of the Administration Process after recently receiving notification from the Court that the “Proposal to Creditors” has achieved the majority vote of 70,53 %.  With the allegation period now complete, we only have to wait a few more weeks for an announcement to be posted on the official bulletin.  It is therefore expected that the Company will have successfully completed this final step and will be officially out of Administration by the end of April. 
  
San José Inversiones - Ref: Questionnaire 
Avda Doctor Gómez-Pardo Ródenas n. 1 
03300 Orihuela 
Alicante 
Spain

They have a commitment to provide both the Court and the banks with regular updates of their progress versus their promises to creditors so I believe we will see some building resuming very soon.  Given this fact it is definite that they will need power to operate their machinery.  It is also likely that they will pay the bills to Iberdrola to prevent them from being cut off.

It is odd that these facts were not distributed by the committee prior to the last meeting, which was coincidentally held a few days before San Jose were in a position to recommence building??

Vicmackie and Rolypoly make valid points.

If I am wrong someone will correct me. We all paid €300 for the meters to SJ. If that was paid by 300 buyers then we are talking a lot of money. Then a third party says is not worth chasing. It is however 'employing' (win only) another organisation to collect sorry harrass people over here to stump up for things they had nothing to do with.

Perhaps at the next 'meeting' someone might suggest helping the Greeks because the olympics were good

I am still somewhat confused at the the advice to keep paying your bills until further notice. I was under the impression that there was some doubt about what was happening with the money we had been paying into the account supplied by and run by the most recent administrator. If we now have a new administrator, why use the original account number, surely the new administrator will have a new account. Its bad enough paying when you are reluctant to do so, but it's worse if you are in doubt about who controls the account that you have been paying money into

Just read the minutes on the EP website.

SJ has Bo voting for the proposals taking away their responsibilities.

No mention of any pricing, how can anybody vote for something when they don't know the costs?

What is a SMALL monthly charge for the 'costs'?

Is the Johnathon Hirst Lavid the former employee or are there still links to SJ?

I still object to the dictatatorial style and threats. It is STILL ILLEGAL  to live there...period.

No contracts. Also can we please have information on when this committee was voted for by the owners. Candidates, voting procedures, dates of such elections would be a start, I and others in our block never recieved anything. Next the limits of any voted in comittees powers, as restrictions MUST be in place.

Do I take it there are about 50 ( from those present at the ' meeting' ) residents burning €30000 a month?

Don't get your hopes up, I suspect many will be unimpressed by the lack of clarity in the details of the proposals.

QUESTIONS that need to be addressed

This message was last edited by victor meldrew on 17/05/2011.

Been told by my aunt that its off due to non payment of bills ....again. I thought the new administrator had access to funds to get things paid

if there is a lock on any box....knock it off

the problem...it is still illegal to live there and as such all threats have no relevance. Until coh has been given it is still SJ's problem, but we seem to have people ' in their pocket'.. Spanish practices! 

The administraters do just that, for a BIG fee they administrate, Nothing else.  They don't have money,we do, ours, in plain English charge a lot for f@ck @ll. promise everything to the vunerable to give them business. The vunerable try to screw us. ( the underclass as far as the residents believe) I did overhear a conversation where residents described ' non residents' as 'one of them using OUR electricity' 
 

This message was last edited by victor meldrew on 20/05/2011.

I have a villa in La Hoya, we put the tv on every morning & evening, the pool pump comes on twice a day for two hours each time, the washing gets done three times a week and I wouldnt like to count how many times the kettle goes on. My electric bill is 77e. 

Why am I being told to pay 100e for electric that I do not use? 

The people that live there must be using more than what they are paying for and getting us to pay the extra.

As for people that have had conections with San Jose should be told to go away.

This guy with the new administraters worked with San Jose, in the moving in team. He must have known then what we know now. He may say that he only worked for San Jose, but he must have known they were selling properties with out COH. We are in this position because of people like him.  

It brings to mind war crime trials "I WAS ONLY CARRYING OUT ORDERS"   people like him put us in this position now people are voting him in to get us out of this mess. beware of enemies in the camp.