Damp in apartments

Hi All,

I am Jim McArthur and my wife is Anne. We own apartment 225.  We have  met a few others, including Sally & Tim and Sarah, who permanently live there. We are residents in Spain and live in the Puerto Banus area .This is our second home that we intend to rent out.

The reason I am writing is no progress has been made in the points I raised with the builder and our maintenance company since we moved in,  in June, except for the snagging inside our apartment which was carried out satisfactorily, although it took a few visits. We are very pleased with the apartment although the security blinds that were promised by the salesman in all the windows and doors were only fitted to the bedrooms. Was anyone else promised these?

I note a few people commented that perhaps we could stop having a security guard as we have lots of lockable gates but I doubt if we will ever be able to lock these gates as they would contravene health and safety rules.No one would be expected to find a key if they were by the swimming pool and there was an emergency - fire or whatever .All of the gates leading to the apartments should have an electrically operated switch on the inside of the gate operated from the emergency system .I don't know how the builder could possibly have managed to get a habitatation licence with the present set up.The main gate at the top of the stairs is also a locked gate but has a switch on the inside which is how the other gates should be. Also I notice the large manhole into the pumproom at the apartment swimming pool is permanently propped up in a precarious manner  and a child could easily fall down into the pumproom. Is it left open as it is too large to lift ? If so it should be modified. If it is open for venting purposes then the pumproom should be properly vented.

The emergency exit gates, one at each end of the plot, are locked with no notice to say who has the keys to these gates( in the middle of the night no security guard (?) is there if he is the holder) .In an emergency the ambulance or fire brigade need to know this.The access road from the gate at the townhouse end has been nicely paved  for safe vehicle access but at the apartment end it is just a rough weed covered path for ambulance or other vehicle entrance and no safety railing on the edge of the road which is  a very big slope.This finish is very unsightly from the main road. This should have been finished properly in a safe and presentable manner.

Our contract stated that the gardens would be landscaped but if you stand on the road outside there is just a weed covered slope of rough earth leading down to a partially concreted flood culvert that is only half finished.  Also  the apartment gardens around the swimming pool are just rough earth with grass seed thrown over, in fact, a big area near the emergency gates is just hard building rubble where the grass couldn't grow.No trees or flowers are in this area.

I suggest that we arrange a meeting with the builder and our maintenance company to discuss these and any other points that the owners feel need to be raised.  We could appoint maybe two people ,one from the townhouses and one from the apartments to represent the community until we get the unfinished building points sorted out. It will also show us if our maintenance company is capable of being pro-active about our site. So far they appear to have done very little.We could arrange to meet with these representatives every month to evaluate progress.  The onus would be with our maintenance company  in between meetings to liase with the builder. At the moment their orders come from the builders who have someone appointed as our president for the first year until our first general meeting.

I suggest that the owners write to this site with their complaints and say if they agree with these and other complaints. Also  if anyone is also interested in being the representative at the meetings please let us know. I am prepared to be one of the reps.  I live 50 kilometres from the birdie club ,but lets have volunteers if you agree something needs to be done.   We can meet and choose the representatives. It is obvious if we leave it to our maintenance company nothing will be done.

Regards

Jim McArthur  

Hi All,

I agree with everything that Jim has said and more!! - I have just returned after spending 5 weeks at The Birdie club we also have an appartment there. Jim's points on the gates is well taken but it applies to the doors after you exit the lifts to enter the various corridors - these were also meant to be locked for security reasons. The H&S that Jim mentioned is very relevant but that means that a lot of gates need to be changed to electric release.

I was very disappointed with the pool area - as they are, apart form holes and the paths themselves making them dangerous, so unattractive that no one will spend time there - they look unfinished and the state of the surrounding tiles is appalling in both pool areas. The gardens fronting The Birdie Club are just a dumping area and look thrown together without any real thought. The dirt access road just makes things look even worse. I accept that some of the garden area here is the responsibility of the town council but the unfinished storm drains are just not acceptable.

While we were staying there I saw no evidence of the communal areas being cleaned, apart from the pools themselves and some half hearted gardening around the pool area near to the pool by the town houses. The main walk area up to the town houses was being spoilt by tire marks from, I assume, dumper trucks.  In addition the lights in the car park to the apartments were constantly switched on - what a waste. In my opinion anyone who has bought for rental purposes will have very little chance unless there are major improvements.

So there are the moans if you like BUT we met some great people and our apartment was de-snagged and fairly well finished off nothing really to gripe about.

The problems are as a community why should we and not the builder pay for the finishing off of the complex to a reasonable state. The maintenance group seem to be next to not interested so it will be left to some of us getting a meeting with the builder and maintenance group to tell them want we feel are necessary changes. We are paying an unusually high community charge for next to nothing. We are back in Alcaidesa for the whole of February and will do anything that may help.

Regards

Steve and Julia

Hi all

We are Cathy and Gareth and we completed the purchase of our Townhouse in the Birdie Club in June. First, I would say that we agree whole heartedly with the issues raised about the communal areas and security and we wrote to the management company weeks ago to complain but got nowhere. The pool area has been an eye sore rather than somewhere to spend any quality time.  We were unfortunate enough to become stuck in the lift and despite pressing the alarm button got no response from the security person (they heard the bell but didn't know what it was!!!).  Had we not had our mobile phone with us and able to ring a neighbour I think we stay be in there!!!!  We later learned that the security person had not ben told about the alarm and had no idea what to do in case of an emergency i.e not trained in the basics.

Unfortunately, in addition to the communal issues and concerns  we (and some other townhouse owners) are still waiting to have the internal snagging work  undertaken.  We were assured all the way along that Ros y Falcon were a reputable developer with a name for quality and that there would be no problems having the remedial work carried.  How wrong that has proven. The local staff have proven to be unreliable and at times very unhelpful (they cut off the developers supply of water and electricity without notice).   We have done everything asked of us and presented our snagging list within the timeframe requested but despite many face to face discussions with the developer's respresentative on site, telephone calls and e-mails from England, and a formal, joint  meeting at the Ros y Falcon office with other unhappy owners we still have seen little progress. We get told time and again that they cannot obtain the key to the house from our on site key holders but we know that to be untrue as we have had many  furniture deliveries and those companies have had no problems getting access. Even when we are staying in the house the developer's representative is very unreliable and makes promises that are never delivered - we have spent many hours/days waiting in our house for workmen she has promised but no-one appears.  It seems that many of the townhouse owners who completed earlier last summer are in the same position as ourselves. Of great concern now is the fact that the Developer's representative and snagging staff have been moved off site to the Marina development and there are no workman left on site making it even less likely that repairs and corrective work will be done.

The reason for highlighting our personal snagging position is to show just how difficult it is proving to get Ros y Falcon to honour its legal commitments. If we can't get missing tiles fitted in our bathroom which cost only a few euros then it is hard to see how we can get them to finish the landscaping, gates and pool areas without some major effort. 

When we were out in October we overheard one of the office staff discussing the possibility of putting artificial turf around the pools to prevent the current mud bath however, they were adamant that the cost would have to be met by the Community of Owners and not Ros y Falcon - so clearly they see the problem but do not see it as their problem. 

We would certainly support any collective action by owners to force the developer to clean up and finish the communal areas to the standard laid down in the developers sales materials/patter and to a standard that satisfies H&S requirements.  We will be staying at the Birdie Club during the first 2 weeks of February and would be happy to meet up to discuss how to address these issues if others are around then.  To have a resident representative from both the apartments and townhouses seems like a very good idea and we would lend our support to them in whatever way possible.

Cathy

Hi,

Just a thought - about 4 years ago on another development in Alcaidesa the builder was also causing problems with the new owners (unfortunately I cannot remember if it was Rosy y Falcon or not) apparently the pools could not be used due to the cleaning system not working correctly or them not being chemically dosed with the proper quantity of chemicals. Anyway this must have been the final stroke as they put up huge sheets outside each of the road facing apartments saying "do not buy from this builder as they are ****** " fill in the blank spaces for yourselves.

Now to my mind Rosy y Falcon is going to be there for several more years as not even at the Birdie club are all the properties sold, so a threat of bad publicity through any and all of the legal means might just give them a wake up call (the other developers will also not like to be branded in the same way especially given the state of the market and the proximity of the Birdie Club to the golf club which sees the most visitors to the site - some of whom may just want to buy!).

The reason all my snagging was done was because I said I would not complete until it was and for all their posturing on it is "not legal"  for me to do this the results speak for themselves  everything done even to replacing the kitchen sink (literally) which had a small stain on the surface. They also fitted a concertina screen to the lounge window before we took possession!

Just some thoughts.

Regards

steve