18 Jun 2008 9:09 AM:
Hallo folks - here are my further reactions to the Phase 1 meeting. I put this on the Polaris World Forum as well, hence the introductory bit at the beginning. If I've broken any EOS rules by doing that, please forgive me.
My partner and I completed on Phase 1 in December and, apart from one teething problem with the boiler, I think we have been lucky in comparison with some people.
As we now live in Spain, about an hour and half north east of HR, we are able to visit our appartment frequently. We were at our community meeting on Monday and, as we were the only people present from our block, I am now its president. As I speak fairly good Spanish and as we are not so far away it seemed a good thing to do. I have to say that out of the 30 or so people that were there from phase 1 there were a lot of people who were perfectly happy to criticise but not, when it came to the crunch, to stand up and be counted ie to be elected. This made me sad because surely, if you feel strongly about something, then you should put yourself in a position where you can do something about it. Come on folks, please do your bit to make this new community work. If you don't, then whilst a single appartment remains in your block then Mari Jose of Polaris World will be your president. I am sure she is a very nice lady but...
I have to say that I felt that Resortalia made a pretty good impression in spite of the general mood of scepticism at the meeting. Here are some of the points from that meeting which maybe have not been aired so far.
1) Resortalia are employees of our community. If we don't like them, we can get rid of them whenever we like and either run things ourselves or choose another management company. They were chosen by Polaris out of several but we don't have to stick with them.
2) Polaris are paying all community charges up to the end of December, or maybe January. Sorry I can't remember - it was a long morning! Otherwise you pay from the month after completion.
3) It says in the 'Welcome Pack' that moneys will be collected for 2008 in two chunks, July and September, and for 2009 quarterly in January, April, July and October. The Resortalia Administrator suggested that the 2008 amount should be divided into three chunks, July, September and November, and this was agreed.
4) People in the meeting found it difficult to grasp that the figure of approx 100€ per month is a budget and that at the end of the year there will be a reconciliation (Resortalia call it liquidation!) and that any surplus or shortfall will roll over into the next year. The money is used to pay actual invoices which we can demand to see and can question. If your pool, like ours, is not filled and working, then the pool company shouldn't be invoicing for it. We won't be paying for things we haven't had. Resortalia made a great point of total transparency. Maybe this is because they had their fingers burned at LT and have learned from their mistakes. Let's hope so.
I'll probably remember other points as the day goes on so I'll post again when I think of them.
In the meantime, we shall be back at HR next week so I think I'll put o notice up on my block door to say who I am. I'll also put a flyer under each door in the block inviting people to contact me. If there are any other presidents who want to do the same thing and would like me to do a Spanish translation so that their message is in both languages, please let me know.
It's gonna be hot all this week!
Community thread:
Long term rental, villa wanted in Chiclana, must have ADSL
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