23 Sep 2009 1:25 PM:
Hola Mattock, completely agree with you with those people smoking in the swimming pools, I'm sure you in spa valley II will have some "normas de convivencia", "community rules" so make sure the administrator address them on the next meeting.
Concerning the market, I don't think there is one now, so I suggest you have a long term view as you said. I've been with the oasis mediterraneo people these past day in some kind of real estate meetings, and it's the market is just gone. It will take months to recover, may be 1 yr, they say next year we will be slowly recovering so I guess we will have just to relax and wait. In the meantime, try to enjoy your appartment the maximum you can, that's what we are doing.
As I have been aware, all the spa valley II owners would have access to become member of the social/sports club being built, and owners of spa valley I would have to pay some quantity (I don't exactly know how much it is, but I heard some figures time ago and they seemed waaaay expensive) to become members. And then, there would a monthly quota or something like that, you said 600€ annual which makes a monthly retainer of 50€. I think that is very expensive, for what you take (at the end of the day there are just a couple of tennis courts, and two paddle courts). And then, you have to pay for using the courts everytime you play. There are many sports clubs in Murcia that have meeeeeny more services than those for a monthly retainer of 30 or 40€. The only think is that they are kind of far away from Spa Valley. But still, you can use the courts without being a member, the only thing is that renting that hour is going to be more expensive for non members that for members. I remember seeing the prices, is like 9€ for a paddle court and hour for members, and 18€ an hour for non members. I rather be a non members even though I have to pay double everytime I use it, because I'm not going to play every day. That's how it works.
I'm living in spa valley I, apt 200, cell +34699441451, fernando.ballesta@gmail.com so anything you need just let me know. Maybe when can meet when you are here. And go to IKEA, that's the better place, my apt is an IKEA apt exept for the TV, the couch and the bed.
regards
fernando
Community thread: Property Management Company?
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05 Jun 2009 11:21 AM:
Dear all, please come down. g fisk in order to get things in the "orden del dia" you would normally ask the president or the administrator if you don't know the president. If its easier for you, please forward me your notes for the meeting and I will pass it to the president, no problem with that.
All the open spaces aroung the "La Morra urbanization" (that's how they have called it this area), are owned by the Villanueva city hall or particular owners. The one existing besides Spa Vally I and facing the Archena Spa is owned by the city hall. They can't build houses or flats there, it's only for tertiary or social projects. Sport centre, a school, a health centre, etc... the important thing is that they can only build one story high. Given the actual situtation of crisis, I don't think the city hall is doin'g anything there by now. So, our only possibility is putting some pressure to the city hall so that they mantain this space clean, and maybe we could suggest them to build a garden or something like until they decide what are they doing to do with this plot. I don't know about the other open spaces, they might be owned by the city hall in which case it would be the same, or owned by particular. In that case they could build whatever they are alloud to do in the "plan parcial" or local urbanistic plan (penthouses, houses, or tertiary).
Regarding the pathway, maybe you are right and there is a piece of land far from the river owned by some particular. I wouldn't be much worried about this, they want to make a long pathway all along the river, going through several towns. In some point we will have access to this pathway for sure. They only thing is that, given the case it is the city hall doing this, they are very slow. It is important again to put some pressure on them so they can push this project further.
anthonyb, it is important to understand that the community will deal with community affairs, and not those private business that the residents may have. I mean, there is no difference between a resident (for example myself) and an investor (f.e. yourselve if that's the case). It's better to talk in terms of owners. If you are an owner you have exactly the same rights and duties just as me, no matter for what purpose you bought the appartment for. If you have some kind of agreement with the developer to rent your appartment that's something private between you two. Maybe if there is a big number of owners that want to rent their appartment, you could suggest something at the meeting in order to help you do that, for example an exhibit at the concierge giving information about the rentals or things like that. Maybe given the number of owners who are interested in renting their appartment, you could get the support from the community in order to get some extra cleaning in the streets, or signs, or any other thing you may think of. For example, our estatues are forbiding any owner to put "For sale" or "For rent" signs in the fachade: this clause was written by the developer due to the fact that they have a big amount of appartments to sell and rent, so they don't not have any competition around. But we all signed this estatutes when we signed our deed. Now, to change this clause we need both majorities in the voting, so we won't be able to vote for this as the deloper has one of the majorities (the share's majority). I have myself a "Se vende" sign in the terrace, so supoussedly I will loose my vote in the voting unless I remove it a few days before the meeting. I think that things like that are important.
I'm sure that you both misunderstood what the other was saying. You pay fees like any other owner, and have the same rights to enjoy or rent or sell your property as any other.
Best regards.
Fernando
Community thread: Property Management Company?
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05 Jun 2009 10:35 AM:
All right, you will receive the agenda for the meeting together with the confirmation letter stating the date and time of the meeting. This is ussually done about 15 days prior to the meeting. If you want something to be included in that agenda you should do it before that, you have to tell it to the president (or the administrator if you don't know the president). Administrator's email is: mm.asesores at terra. es and his name is Francisco Mulero, phone number is +34968211668. Just be careful with the address given to the administrator (normally by the developer), because if it's wrong you'll never get the letter or any other communications.
In order to vote you have two options: 1. being there and vote personally; 2. name a representative for the meeting, ussually another neighbor that will vote for you. Only in really important issues (like if the community was thinking about a really large investment for something, for example) you would have the possibility to vote afterwards (I think ten days after the meeting), should your vote go contrary to what was voted and accepted.
Regarding the developer's share, normally a voting for the most important issues is a product of two majorities: 1. Accounting for the number of shares you have on the building (33% in case of Oasis the developer); 2. Accounting for the number of owners (1 in the case of the developer). You need majority in both equations, so the developer can't do whatever he wants, because he would fail in the second majority. For normal votings, for really day-a-day issues I think it's enough with the first majority. We are legally studying the conflict of interest, for example in the next meeting we will be discussin if to pay or not the electricity charges the developer paid until we all could get the contract with Iberdrola (the electric company). These expenses, total amount 15.000€, can not be requirable to the community, due to the fact that we all could have rejected the signing of our deed until we could personally contract the electric service, and the developer is forced to pay for this and all the other necessary supplies. Oasis is kindly asking if we would agree to pay this quantity, but there are some concerns:
1. They have made this calculation themselves, the 15,000€ come from an inhouse calculation, and those are estimated quantities.
2. This electric bill hasn't been paid directly by the developer, it has been paid by a third party, the builder.
3. By signing all the deeds before time, the developer has saved an important amount of money in financial interests from his mortgage loan, so they were the most interested party in signing the flats. In the other hand, they have to pay for all the common supllies until all the owner can contract this by themselves.
4. In addition to the self calculation of this amount, they haven't paid this quantity to the community for this amount in terms of fees from their apartments, so they have self calculated and self liquidated this quantity. Kind of difficult to explain.
That's why I'm saying that it is important that we all be there at the meeting, we need to vote against this. I think that most of the owners agree that we should no pay this quantity to the developer, nobody can require us to pay this.
Best regards.
Fernando
Community thread: The Spa Valley chronicle
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29 May 2009 11:15 AM:
Hello g fisk:
I have a few comments. I understand your concerns about the language, from a mere formal point of view there is no obligation from the owners association to translate documents or to have a translator in the meetings. In the last meeting myself and some other lady were friendly translating to a few foreign people, but it would be good to have it fromally approved. That is something that can be suggested in the annual meeting and voted, since there is a good number of foreign owners, it could be approved. Moreover, the developer Oasis Mediterraneo has an important share of the votes (around 33%), so if they voted affirmative, that could be done, you can ask them to do it. We could also think about selecting a new english-spanish speaking administrator, that could also help a lot. This is something that you guys have to suggest to be include in the "orden del dia" which means the number of issues to be discussed during the meeting, and voted. You have to suggest it prior to the meeting in order to be considered.
I don't know what you meant about "open spaces". Do you mean the spa valley comunal areas, or the garden and parks outside? The parks outside are beautiful indeed. Some of the other developments are going well, some other are not doing so well. The crisis is everywhere, and Spain is not different, if not worse.
Fernando
Community thread: Property Management Company?
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28 May 2009 11:28 AM:
Dear all, I think you guys are wrong about the orchard owner, as per Spanish law a number of meters (I don't remember how many) along any river is the property of the "confederacion hidrografica" which is the state company who takes care of all the water from rivers. Nobody can own land there, build or plant anything legally. As you can see there are plenty of maybe lemon trees and other plants along the river, but most of them are iligal. There are like 20 or 30 meters from the river that are protected, and that includes any public work that the town hall or any other public authority may want to do. It is not that they can't do it, it is that they need to ask for permision, licenses, permits, etc and that takes time. So the orchard owner can only put his price if the town hall wants to take a bigger piece of land other than the one owned by the confederacion.
I don't know which one is the case, but I know that there is construction machinery on the site these days and that they are working on it, so I supousse the city hall has all the permits. They are slow, but they are definitely making works. Being this area from two different city halls (Archena and Villanueva) doesn't help either, because they need to cooperate, and that definitely also slow things down.
So this confederacion state company doesn't have any interest in the spa, the spa valley, or any other. They just do things slow, but it is not their interest to block the spa valley development. Nor the Archena Spa I would say. They don't see us as a competitor, but as a complementary accomodation that brings more customers to their facilities, restaurants and bars. They have three hotels, 100% occupied most part of the year, and if you see all the money they have invested in the spa has been allocated to have more services and facilities, but not more hotel accomodation. They could have built another hotel, but instead are building more swimming pools and other staff. So they are not blocking the pathway either.
Regarding the discount at the spa, it is true that we don't have a discount. All the people living in Archena they do have a doscount, but spa valley is formally in villanueva so... But even in the case they would give discount to the villanueva inhabitants, they would ask you to be "empadronado", I mean, to set your residency here, so I don't know how many of you want to do that. Even myself, I live here but don't have my residency here. I have a discount in the spa because the company I work for made an special agreement with the "natural health association" where the archena spa is, along with many other hotels and spas with health treatments. That's something we could also do as Spa Valley as a whole, it wouldn't be difficult to get a similar agreement as we are 120 people in my company, and Spa Valley inhabitants are far more than that, and I have the contacts. Besides you all will have discount in all the other spas, thalasotherapy centers, some hotels, etc. This is something we could discuss and propose in our next meeting, set for july 12th.
For all of you that want to see how the new facilities at the archena spa look, I have uploaded a few pictures. Hey, and if your a visiting, please let me know! Apartment 200, I'd love to know other owners! My cell is +34699441451, in case you need anything.
Fernando
Community thread: Property Management Company?
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