03 Sep 2008 12:00 AM:
Hi neighbours at Veranda
We have just returned from Vera after a 12 night stay, as i had explained we had hoped to complete on Wednesday the 20th of August which we did at the last minute with great work from our Spanish solicitors and Petra at Key Mare who came up trumps by getting the water and electric on by this date which they wouldnt normally do but as we were flying out on Thursday the 21st of August and with pressure from us daily from the UK she did manage to achieve this, so many thanks to her, but because things were getting so tight for time we decided to book apartments for the 1st 4 nights and do small jobs then move in to our duplex, only to find that the new beds and sofa bed had not been delivered and to our dismay when we went to EcoMueble, the furniture supplier for the complex, a note on the door explained that they were closed for the whole of August, so we found ourselves with our new holiday home but unable to stay in it, luckily we were alowed to stay in the apartments which we purposly booked on an existing Key Mare complex as we were interested to see how over a few years the urbanisation had developed, which we have to say we were very pleased with. The overall condition of the complex and the conversations we had around the pool area with the English owners was very valuble, some of the issues which we spoke about i feel are going to be very relavent to the owners on Veranda like us who have never gone through the process of being involved in setting up a community for the running of our development. The first thing I feel I should mention is, like us, as they were preparing for their first meeting many of them travelled out to experience, vote and have a positive input, only to find themselves spending time and money going in to a meeting room with Spanish builders and Spanish owners, to come back out and travel home not actually knowing what had happened, since their 2nd meeting they have insisted on a translator being present, which now having this knowledge is maybe something that we should put in place prior to our first meeting. Not wanting to bore you but the development we stayed on was Salinas De Vera which is just above Veranda, while we were there I considered the conversations on this site regarding the pool and the lifeguard situation. The sign on their gates is the pool opening times by order of the community is from 8am til midnight daily, with no anual times as they have an indoor pool and the residents inform me that they normally start to use that mid October. I also felt that although their pool is a more free form shape it is no smaller than ours and I brought up the subject of lifeguards which they don't require I then asked Gemma in the Key Mare office if she had any information and she felt that our pool would not need a lifeguard either so we feel that is very good news. Although midnight does seem late and people last week were swimming up til that time due to the heat, we never at any time found this to be a nucence as it was all in good nature. Other things that were said to us in regards to advice on our first meeting seemed minor but as they explained if you start with small items you get to know how much the builder is going to work with you rather than shouting and getting nowhere. Along these lines these are the things we noticed while we did our jobs and enjoyed the facilities of Veranda. Firstly, the entry gate to the side always seemed to be open which we felt could become a problem as other sites in the area are experiencing locals using the facilities which we are paying for. Secondly, a palm tree at this entrance has snapped in half, obviously in high winds, again it's not important but it would be interesting to see what Key Mare are prepared to do. Also, we used the underground carpark and noticed that the fire heads still had a protective cover fitted which in our opinion, as we are in the building trade, would make them useless in the event of being needed, as we did not have any reason to go to the apartments we don't know if there are fireheads in the communial areas there, which may be the same. The worst complaint we found was in the lovely spa area, we were alarmed that when getting out of the pool wet and using the toilet facilities that if the basin tap was touched you recieved an electric shock, what we would put down to a lack of earth bonding, the only English people round the pool that day were 2 of our future neighbours Lizzie and Debbie who we were delighted to meet but who had not noticed the problem, so in my limited broken Spanish i managed to persuade a father of several small children who were in the pool to follow me in for me to try to explain, in his English, which was better than my Spanish, he informed me that the Spanish families were aware of this and had complained already but I just wanted to make everyone aware particularly if you have small children or health problems. Another very small problem in the spa was the doors on the massaging showers were allowed to swing in and out, we felt a simple door stop would prevent this and could save undue damage and cost later, prehaps it's us but possibly when people are on site they could look and respond to this. The last items which we spoke about with the owners on Salinas De Vera may or may not have a bearing on us in regards that their experience in the area is that they made sure a grey rubbish bin was sited outside their main gate as other development owners have to load rubbish in to cars or carry a very long way to dispose of it, again not important now but it may be in the future to some people less able. Going back to their first meeting they informed us that people travel from the UK to attend only to find their vote was not to be used due to their timing in not paying the first community fee before the meeting, which we have paid at 200euros just so that people are aware.
Having said all this and not wanting to sound negative we found the whole development delightful but was a little dissapointed that as we were not staying there we didn't meet many English owners and although the Spanish owners seemed quite nice you can only wave and say 'Hola' so many times to be polite but overall we have a really good feeling in general and with other conversations we've had with other owners now feel that the first meeting and it's agenda is really of up most importance to us all. I won't bore you any more and hope that we can take some of this and use it to Veranda's advantage. Looking forward to our next visit mid October and would really like to meet up with any other owners unless we are able to attend the community meeting which will depend on work load.
Hope to see you soon
Glenn
Community thread:
Proposed changes to Spanish Health system
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