I am pleased to report that work commenced today on the painting of the front wall.
A coat of plastic sealing paint was applied before work began on the paintings themselves.
Around 15 young people were involved, even though they worked until after dark, it is expected to take several days to complete.
Photos will be posted here of the finished article.
Wednesday 26 December 2007
Monthly Payments
From the 1st January 2008, Owners will be able to pay their Community, water and electricity charges by monthly instalments. A Spanish bank account will be required in order to take advantage of this facility.
Forms to arrange monthly payments will be available in the Office, or by e.mail to me directly at
misolpark@gmail.com.
The monthly payment system cannot be used to pay off existing debts, except by special arrangement with the Committee.
The water and electricity meters will be read three times next year, instead of the usual four, the bills therefore will be correspondingly higher. Research has shown many Owners would prefer to pay in monthly instalments, and it would help the Committee manage the finances better knowing regular income was going into the Banco Popular account
Forms to arrange monthly payments will be available in the Office, or by e.mail to me directly at
misolpark@gmail.com.
The monthly payment system cannot be used to pay off existing debts, except by special arrangement with the Committee.
The water and electricity meters will be read three times next year, instead of the usual four, the bills therefore will be correspondingly higher. Research has shown many Owners would prefer to pay in monthly instalments, and it would help the Committee manage the finances better knowing regular income was going into the Banco Popular account
Monday 24 December 2007
Merry Christmas
To all our readers, I would like to wish you all a
merry Christmas
and a
Healthy and prosperous New year
Friday 21 December 2007
Bank Statement
Attached is the latest Statement from Banco Popular.Cheque number 763 was to pay the Procurator, as mentioned in a previous post.
Cheque 766 was to pay the Administrators Apyme two months fees.
Cheque 767 was to pay a Suma bill (rates). This money will be added to the Owners bills for the plots it relates to.
Committee Meeting
Official Meeting
Present: N. Stacey, P. Olive, J. Hanrahan, L. Foley, A. Impey, P. Whitehead, S. Shaw, J. Titterton.
Alberto the Administrator and his assistant Melanie.
Absent without apology L. Jimenez.
Neill welcomed Marco the graffiti artist to the meeting with his proposals for painting Mi-Sol’s exterior front wall, free of charge. - ~Work will start immediately after Christmas.
Alberto wrote a cheque to pay the outstanding SUMA bill of 76 Euros.
A Letter had been sent to Mr. & Mrs. Harris explaining that when they get a copy simple for the recently purchased 3 plots, the name on the account can be changed by the administrator, also a final decision can be taken about their wiring problem. Mrs Harris attended the meeting and the Administrator explained to Mrs. Harris that in all circumstances electric and water connections are only brought to the boundary of a persons land, the connection from the boundary to the house is the Owners responsibility.
The bar contract has been translated into English at a cost of 160.22 Euros plus I.V.A at 16%. This has been done so that everyone, English and Spanish can understand it. The lease in force is for 5 years. The rent should be paid by the 5th of every month. The controversy over the new tiled floor is to be settled by a cash adjustment to the outstanding bill when receipts are provided.
So far 6 different contractors have inspected the pool. All have diagnosed serious problems, leaking pipework, bad grouting, porous cement , broken skimmers etc. A quote of 3850 Euros plus I.V.A at 16% on repairs and a quote of 580 Euros per month to maintain the pool in the future has been received so far. The pool is unnecessarily deep, and water could be saved if the depth was reduced. A vote was taken and it was unanimously agreed that the pool must undergo a complete refurbishment, and not a series of ad hoc, on the cheap repairs. The committee are still waiting for further quotes.
A list of Owners owing the greatest amount of money has been given to the Administrator who in turn will issue certificates to the Lawyer to instigate court proceedings during January 2008
Melanie was asked for a typed copy of the lst Official meeting (
For the past two months an advert has appeared every week in the Coastrider newspaper reading as follows: Mi-Sol Park Residents Association. Phone xxxxxxxxx. The phone number belongs to Committee member Lynne Jimenez who is quoted as saying she has nothing to do with the advert.. If anyone has any information or an explanation please advise.
Above are the minutes from the Committee meeting held in the Bar on Tuesday 18th December 2007. The next meeting will be held in the Bar on Tuesday the 8th January 2008 at 4 p.m.
I will expand on a couple of the matters raised in the meeting.Firstly the Artist Marco showed us a book of proposed work, whilst the exact content will be left to him and his colleagues, it was agreed that nothing political, racist or generally offensive will be painted on the wall. It was checked and double checked that there will be no cost to the Community for this work to be carried out. They plan to start work immediately after Christmas during the holiday period.
It took me some time to acquire a copy of the contract for the bar lease, it transpired that Pepe did not use Mi Sol Lawyer, Rosario, to draw up the contract. I decided to have it translated into English by an authorised translator, so both Spanish and English owners can have the opportunity to read it. A copy will be posted here in a later post.
The swimming pool is proving very problematic. Six different, experienced pool maintenance companies have now had the chance to examine it, so far only one has submitted any quotation.
We are trying very hard to get the best advice we can, before making any decision on what exactly needs to be done. On top of all the other problems there now appear to be cracks in the base of the pool. However it has become clear that the time has come after 25 years of wear and tear, to have the pool fully refurbished, backed by a guarantee of the workmanship.
On the cheap ad hoc repairs will not solve the problems on a long term basis.
The Committee have expressed their wish by a unanimous vote, that the pool should be properly refurbished.
I will continue to get advice and quotes for the work, discuss the matter further in the New Year.
For a couple of months now an advert has appeared in the local Coastrider newspaper and reads :- Mi Sol Park residents Association telephone xxxxxxxxx. The telephone number quoted belongs to Committee member Lynne Jimenez, she has apparently denied having anything to do with it. Unfortunately she did not attend the meeting, so we were unable to question her about it. Why it is advertised in the newspaper, and not on Mi Sol, which after all is where the Residents live, is a mystery.
Sunday 16 December 2007
Damaged Street Lights
The photo above shows all that remains of TWO street lights damaged by children a few nights ago.
A long stick was used to push the plastic outer globes onto the bulbs causing the plastic globes to ignite. It is the first time I have seen any of these lights catch fire before, yet we had two ignite within the space of 1 hour.
Not only is it very dangerous to the children involved, but potentially disastrous to the park, the dripping burning plastic took some considerable time to extinguish.
At the moment I am not able to say how much it will cost to replace the fittings and have them re-wired.
Thursday 13 December 2007
Committee Meeting
Attached are some notes from the Committee meeting held on December 4th at the Bar.
Wednesday 12 December 2007
Debtors
As mentioned in a previous post the Community is owed over Euro 235,000 by debtors, this is not only unfair to the Community itself, but very unfair on those Owners who pay their bills on time, and especially those who have helped Mi Sol, by paying their Community charge for next year, in advance.
It is unacceptable that that such large sums of money are owed, when the Committee and I are struggling just to pay the basic water and electricity charges each month.
Because of this situation EVERY owner in debt to the Community on the 1st January 2008, will be taken to Court to recover the debts owed from 2005 - 2006 - and 2007.
Yesterday I signed the certificate for the first one, which will be presented to the Court on the 2nd January 2008. The Owner in question owes over Euro 7,200, this is more than the current balance in Banco Popular !!
The Administrators APYME are in the process of compiling the full list of debtors, and producing the certificates to give to the Lawyers, who will then present them to the Court.
Whilst the wheels of the Spanish civil Judicial system turn at a fairly slow speed, they are dogged and do not stop until the debt and the Court and Judges fees have been paid in full.
It is unacceptable that that such large sums of money are owed, when the Committee and I are struggling just to pay the basic water and electricity charges each month.
Because of this situation EVERY owner in debt to the Community on the 1st January 2008, will be taken to Court to recover the debts owed from 2005 - 2006 - and 2007.
Yesterday I signed the certificate for the first one, which will be presented to the Court on the 2nd January 2008. The Owner in question owes over Euro 7,200, this is more than the current balance in Banco Popular !!
The Administrators APYME are in the process of compiling the full list of debtors, and producing the certificates to give to the Lawyers, who will then present them to the Court.
Whilst the wheels of the Spanish civil Judicial system turn at a fairly slow speed, they are dogged and do not stop until the debt and the Court and Judges fees have been paid in full.
Swimming Pool
The new Committee are always striving to obtain 3 quotations for any work planned to be carried out on Mi Sol. However, this is not always as easy as it sounds, the Contract Gardeners, being a case in point.
The same situation applies to the Swimming Pool repairs, so far we have had 5 different contractors inspect the pool, not one of them has presented us with a quotation.
To be fair, one of the Contractors did say the job was too big for them, and recommended another company, who inspected the pool yesterday. I am hopeful this Company will provide us with a quotation.
After speaking with the various Contractors, it has become very evident that there are several MAJOR problems, mainly due to lack of maintenance combined with poor workmanship regarding the repairs that have been carried out over the last 20 years.
It is clear that a great deal of money will need to be spent in order to restore the pool back into a sound condition.
When we finally manage to get a quotation for the work, I will post it here.
The same situation applies to the Swimming Pool repairs, so far we have had 5 different contractors inspect the pool, not one of them has presented us with a quotation.
To be fair, one of the Contractors did say the job was too big for them, and recommended another company, who inspected the pool yesterday. I am hopeful this Company will provide us with a quotation.
After speaking with the various Contractors, it has become very evident that there are several MAJOR problems, mainly due to lack of maintenance combined with poor workmanship regarding the repairs that have been carried out over the last 20 years.
It is clear that a great deal of money will need to be spent in order to restore the pool back into a sound condition.
When we finally manage to get a quotation for the work, I will post it here.
Tuesday 11 December 2007
Entrance Gates
You will remember that recently we received a Court Judgement ruling that we must remove the Security Gates at the entrance to Mi Sol.
On the advice of the Lawyers, I have instigated new proceedings to get this ruling overturned.
Attached is a copy of the certificate, which will be produced in Court showing that that none of the people who obtained the judgement to have the gates removed are Owners on Mi Sol any longer.
Saturday 8 December 2007
Bank Statement
Here is the latest statement from Banco Popular. There are a few points of note as follows :-
2 cheques "Al Portador" for Euro 500, these are for the cash float, the first covers August, September, October and November. A copy of the accounts for this period and the receipts for the money spent have been given to APYME. From now on the cash book account and receipts will be given to the Administrators every month.
You will notice an amount of Euro 100 . 03, this is an embargo on our bank account for non payment of Social Security. I am led to believe this is to do with Social Security non payment in June this year for the Gardener Steve. The administrator has been asked to investigate why we have been charged, and to ask the Accountant paid to deal with these matters, why he did not tell Pepe to pay it.
A cheque for Euro 1500, to pay the Procurator (Barrister), some of this bill should have been paid 2 years ago.
The water charges this month amount to Euro 1737 . 65 in total, compare this to July when it was Euro 5855 . 96. Even if we take into account that not so many residents are on Mi Sol at the moment as compared to July, it would seem to indicate that the Swimming Pool has been using more than double the amount of water than all the Owners of the Park put together !!
Not shown on this statement, but due to be paid shortly, is a cheque for Euro 2000 . 00 in favour of the Administrators APYME. We actually owe them Euro 6500.
This will leave around Euro 4700 in the Bank, provided we receive no more nasty surprises, which should hopefully be enough to see the Electricity and Water charges paid through to the New year, when the 2008 Community charges are due.
Friday 7 December 2007
Gardening
The Committee have been investigating the best way to keep Mi Sol neat and tidy with regard to the employment of Gardeners. Everyone agrees that Mi Sol is too much for one Gardener to cope with on their own. It costs about Euro 12000 per year to employ one gardener, plus having to employ an Accountant to deal with the Social security payments, insurance etc.
It was decided to investigate the possibility of employing a Company on a contract basis, the feeling being that it would be better to have the Park given a thorough clean up two or three times a year, rather than employ one Gardener trying to cope on his own. The key here would be the cost.
Several Companies were approached with a view to acquiring at least three estimates. In the event only one Company put forward a quotation, which was discussed at the Committee meeting on the 20Th November.
Essentially the quote was in three phases. The first phase was to strim, weed and apply weed killer, and trim bushes throughout the Park at a cost of Euro 4500.
The second phase was to prune all the trees, which again was quoted at Euro 4500.
The third phase would be to again prune bushes, clear all areas that had been previously been sprayed with weed killer, and generally tidy up the whole site. This quote was for Euro 3600. As you can see this cost is fairly comparable with employing one Gardener full time.
Fundamental to the thinking of the Committee was that the common garden areas should be made almost maintenance free by either covering the ground with plastic and gravel, or planting "ground cover " plants or using the chippings from the tree cutting as a mulch to inhibit the growth of weeds.
Given that there were no other quotes available to the Committee at that time, and that the Company had agreed to wait until January to be paid, it was decided to to go ahead with phase one to see how the Contractors performed, before committing ourselves to the other phases of the work.
However in the period between that meeting and the last one on December 4Th, we received a quotation from the former Gardener Steve Foley, his quotation was also for phase one, the price being Euro 4380. During this period we also received bad news on the financial front, effectively reducing our Bank balance by over Euro 3500. In addition we still have no idea how much it is going to cost to repair the swimming Pool. ( More on this subject in a later post)
In light of this it was decided to defer employing any contractors until the subject has been discussed again in January. I have spoken to the contractors and explained this to them.
It is important we keep on top of the gardening, and improve on it all the time, however it is more important to pay the utility bills first. I am not happy for the Community to be committed to spending money that is not actually in the Bank to spend.
It was decided to investigate the possibility of employing a Company on a contract basis, the feeling being that it would be better to have the Park given a thorough clean up two or three times a year, rather than employ one Gardener trying to cope on his own. The key here would be the cost.
Several Companies were approached with a view to acquiring at least three estimates. In the event only one Company put forward a quotation, which was discussed at the Committee meeting on the 20Th November.
Essentially the quote was in three phases. The first phase was to strim, weed and apply weed killer, and trim bushes throughout the Park at a cost of Euro 4500.
The second phase was to prune all the trees, which again was quoted at Euro 4500.
The third phase would be to again prune bushes, clear all areas that had been previously been sprayed with weed killer, and generally tidy up the whole site. This quote was for Euro 3600. As you can see this cost is fairly comparable with employing one Gardener full time.
Fundamental to the thinking of the Committee was that the common garden areas should be made almost maintenance free by either covering the ground with plastic and gravel, or planting "ground cover " plants or using the chippings from the tree cutting as a mulch to inhibit the growth of weeds.
Given that there were no other quotes available to the Committee at that time, and that the Company had agreed to wait until January to be paid, it was decided to to go ahead with phase one to see how the Contractors performed, before committing ourselves to the other phases of the work.
However in the period between that meeting and the last one on December 4Th, we received a quotation from the former Gardener Steve Foley, his quotation was also for phase one, the price being Euro 4380. During this period we also received bad news on the financial front, effectively reducing our Bank balance by over Euro 3500. In addition we still have no idea how much it is going to cost to repair the swimming Pool. ( More on this subject in a later post)
In light of this it was decided to defer employing any contractors until the subject has been discussed again in January. I have spoken to the contractors and explained this to them.
It is important we keep on top of the gardening, and improve on it all the time, however it is more important to pay the utility bills first. I am not happy for the Community to be committed to spending money that is not actually in the Bank to spend.
Sunday 2 December 2007
Committee meeting 20/11/2007
Here are the Minutes from the last Committee meeting.
PRESENT: N. Stacey, P. Olive, J. Hanrahan, , L. Foley, P. Whitehead, S. Shaw,
A. Impey.----
ABSENT: L. Jeminez(Holiday) P. Whitehead (unknown) J. Titterton (England)
Alberto & Melanie (illness)
Neill read the minutes of last weeks meeting.
The graffiti artist attended the meeting providing pictures of his work, it was agreed he will correlate some ideas with his team for our wall and get back to us in the near future for approval. He needs a letter of authorization signed by the President.
The gardeners also came and submitted quotes for work needing to be done..
It was decided that the gardeners will start phase 1 of the operation to clean up Mi-Sol Park. A contract needs to be drawn up.
There are 2 skips on site and Brian & Teresa Woods, and their two friends have volunteered to remove some of the rubbish. This they did, finding bags of dirty nappies hidden in the undergrowth amongst other unsavoury objects.
A disclaimer notice is to be attached to the lamp post near Brian Woods Parcela warning of an electrical problem in the area. This is occurring due to wet weather.
An appeal is to be lodged against the judgement for the removal of the gates at the entrance, on the ground of security. A vast number of owners would like the gates to stay, however all owners that have been burgled and reported this to the Guardia need to write a letter stating this for Rosario to use as backup for the appeal.
The name on the Electrical account with Iberdrola had to be changed from Pepe to Neill. The engineer who did this was given a cheque by Pepe to cash immediately,
he did not do this, and is subsequently still waiting to be paid. We have asked for a factura for the amount owing (250.00Euros), which we have not yet received.
The test to cure the swimming pool problem for water loss failed. The pool has significant problems. The pipe work is seriously damaged and the grouting needs updating. Last year 2000.00Euros was spent on the pool but because of sub-standard work it needs doing again. Until the repairs are done the pool cannot be opened.
The 500 Euro float signed for last week has already been spent, catching up on overdue cash receipts dating back to August. A 2nd cheque has been written and signed by Neill and J. Hanrahan to Portador.
The SUMA office have sent a bill that should have been paid in August 2007 totalling 840 Euros. Most of this money will be redirected to owners accounts, including fines and costs if applicable.
The lawyers have received a payment of 975.76Euros via the bank and court case.
There is a bill outstanding for the Proculator for 1500.00Euros.
Rosario has assured Neill that any owners taken to court in 2008 will be won by us. These owners will be informed by letter in January 2008
The minutes taken by Snr. Lavado at the meeting held by Paco on the terrace at the
same time at the official AGM were posted to Mi-Sol owners presumably by Snr. Lavado. Some of these owners no longer live on Mi-Sol Park, and some are deceased. This was a flagrant abuse of money collected by Snr. Lavado as the letters could quite easily have been transported from his office to the Mi-Sol Office by Paco at no cost whatsoever.
It has been reported that lock-up No9 rented by Susan Jones is being used by an unknown person to store paint and other building materials. This is clearly unacceptable and a letter asking for Mrs. Jones to vacate the lock-up will be sent out by the administrator.
MEETING CLOSED
Mi Sol Wall
As mentioned in a previous post an artist interested in painting the front wall of Mi Sol was invited to attend the last Committee meeting.
He did attend, bringing with him some examples of his work. He explained there would be no cost to Mi Sol as he was sponsored by other people, notably certain businesses in the town.
Discussions were held about what would be the most suitable theme for the wall.
A vote was taken, and it was unanimously agreed to let him and his friends carry out the painting, he was then given a letter of authority to allow him to proceed, subject to our agreement on the content of the work.
He has agreed to return after completing his current commissions, with drawings of his proposals.
Graffiti on the wall has been a perennial problem, but experience does seem to show that where walls are decorated by established artists , the vandal element tend not to deface it.
He did attend, bringing with him some examples of his work. He explained there would be no cost to Mi Sol as he was sponsored by other people, notably certain businesses in the town.
Discussions were held about what would be the most suitable theme for the wall.
A vote was taken, and it was unanimously agreed to let him and his friends carry out the painting, he was then given a letter of authority to allow him to proceed, subject to our agreement on the content of the work.
He has agreed to return after completing his current commissions, with drawings of his proposals.
Graffiti on the wall has been a perennial problem, but experience does seem to show that where walls are decorated by established artists , the vandal element tend not to deface it.
Saturday 1 December 2007
Finances
Whilst I would much prefer to look forward rather than dwell on the past, there are times when the past should be referred to, this is one of those times.
Since the 30th September this year we have had several nasty and unexpected surprises regarding unpaid bills from the previous Administration. Just this week we have suffered an embargo on our Bank account of Euro 100 . 03 By the Social Security regarding payments not made to them for Gardeners both Juan and Steve. I have asked our Administrators APYME to make investigations into why the Accountant employed to deal with this did not make sure Pepe made these payments. The first 6 months installment of the Insurance for the Park still has to be paid (due in June this year) amounting to Euro 440 . 25. We have had to pay a bill of Euro 1500 . 00 to the Procurator, some of which I am told goes back 2 years. A bill for unpaid Suma was received amounting to Euro 427 . 30. After a visit to the Suma Office, this has been reduced to Euro 76 . 89. We have also received a bill this week from the Administrators Apyme in excess of Euro 6500 . 00. To be fair Euro 2098 . 16 of this is owed to them for October and November which was not paid due to lack of funds in the Bank account.
A copy of the Banco Popular statement is attached.
In excess of Euro 4000 . 00 will be taken out of the account in the next couple of days for this month´s water bill. On the bright side, we did receive Euro 975 . 75 through the Court this week for a judgment against an Owner prosecuted for debt.
A study of the latest Owners accounts reveal that in excess of Euro 234,550 (getting close to a quarter of a million Euros) is owed to the Community. An unacceptable situation when we are struggling to balance the books, just to pay water and electricity charges through until Christmas. This is despite many Owners paying their bills on time, and indeed paying their Community charge for next year, in advance.
Many Owners stated they would not pay any money into Banco Popular until a new President was elected. It is now 2 months since the General Meeting elected me as the new President. There is no excuse now for not fulfilling their legal obligation to pay the amounts due.
Subject to the approval of the Committee at the next meeting, the Administrators will begin preparing the certificates to give to the Lawyers, so they may take the appropriate action to recover the debts to the Community
Comment
I have received a comment from an anonymous sender attached to the post regarding Gardening.
The comment itself was not about the gardening post at all.
Comments are always welcome, but I have rejected this one, because I believe that those making the comments should stand up and be counted by at least appending their name and plot number to the comment.
The comment itself was not about the gardening post at all.
Comments are always welcome, but I have rejected this one, because I believe that those making the comments should stand up and be counted by at least appending their name and plot number to the comment.
Sunday 25 November 2007
Garden Rubbish
Two skips were ordered this week, and several Owners toured the Park and collected all the garden rubbish that had been dumped in various parts. The skips were very quickly filled and have now bee removed.
It is very pleasing that Owners are volunteering their time and effort into helping keep Mi Sol a nicer place for all of us.
It is very pleasing that Owners are volunteering their time and effort into helping keep Mi Sol a nicer place for all of us.
Sunday 18 November 2007
Letter
Included with the minutes of the Annual Meeting of Paco and his supporters is a letter which is attached here. This is entitled "Essential Minimums For A Reconciliation"
An inspection of the accounts provided by them, reveals that only 12 Owners paid them any money last year, why do this small minority think they can dictate to the vast majority, what should or should not be done on Mi Sol by the Democratically elected President and Committee?
Very conspicuous by it´s absence is their fundamental demand that the rest of the Community should pay the Euro 36616 . 00 they owe to THEIR Administrator. They employed him, we did not.
1. I recall our Administrator advising me that Pepe would not be eligible to stand for President for 5 years, but after that, as an Owner, and having paid all his bills, it would be his fundamental right to stand if he so wished.
2. The Committee and myself take advice from our Administrator and Lawyer on rules and Statutes under Spanish Law that is why they are employed by the Community.
3. Regarding the term of Office, the period of one year was proposed, seconded and approved at the AGM on September 29th 2007.
I can only carry out transactions and administration agreed at their General Meeting. I don´t think so !!
4. Election of President and Vice president, one British, one Spanish, with equal rights. They would probably have had a Spanish Vice president if Paco had kept his word and voted with the rest of the Community at the AGM in September.
5. Dismissal of the Committee or the Administrator. This would would only occur with the application of Spanish law. See point 2.
6. This had already been done before the AGM.
7. Committee meetings are held on the first and third Tuesday of the month at 4.pm, any Owner is welcome to attend. At every Committee meeting held so far, there have been some Owners attending to listen to the proceedings.
8. Should any plots become available, they will be sold, after taking advice. Again see point 2.
9. An Extra Ordinary Meeting will only be called when there is a reason to hold one. If anyone other than myself wishes to call such a meeting they must gain the sanction of at least 25% of the Owners, who must have paid their fees up to date and be legally entitled to vote.
10. Considered as Urgent Make Mi Sol a Limited Company. Apart from my job as a Self Employed Electronics engineer, I am also the Gerente (President) of a Spanish S.L (equivalent to an English Ltd) Company, registered in Madrid. Whilst leaving the financial and legal matters to the people employed to do this work, I can tell you something about it.
Even though I am in 50/50 partnership with a friend, I am the Gerente, you can only have one President. My signature alone is required on any cheques signed on behalf of the Company.
Tax has to be paid by the Company on the salary received by the Gerente, this amount is determined by Hacienda (Tax Office). This tax must be paid even if the Gerente does not actually receive any payment from the Company. The Company must pay the Social Security payments due on behalf of the Gerente. The Company must register and pay I:V:A (VAT) , in the case of Mi Sol the only Customers would be the Owners, who of course would all be shareholders, including other taxes, the bills would have to be increased by up to 20% to cover these costs. Any money left over after "outgoings" would be classed as profit, and of course subject to tax. The accountancy fees for administering a business the size of Mi Sol would be considerable. Even if making Mi Sol a Limited Company was considered desirable, due to the legal situation of Mi Sol at this time, it would be impossible to achieve.
Reorganization of the drainage system supervised by Aguagest. Whilst this is something that would be an advantage to Mi Sol, by diverting the sewerage to Parque Naciones it is going to cost in excess of Euro 52000 . 00, and does nothing to address the sewerage problems that many circles experience. Neither would it be a perfect solution, Parque Naciones have problems themselves with sewerage.
Closing of the gates on Mi Sol. The vast majority of Owners are in favour of this, but it needs to be done properly, with a system acceptable to all Owners. I am still waiting for advice from our Lawyer regarding a recent Court decision concerning the gates. This Court decision arrived after a judgement period of over 10 Years.
Revision of the contract concerning Mi Sol Bar. A strange one this as the letter mentions it twice. Very few, if any, of the people complaining about it actually use the Bar.
I understand that the present contract is for a period of 5 years, normal under Spanish Law, and that subject to all fees being paid to Mi Sol, there is an automatic right to renewal by the Bar tenant. This subject will be discussed in a separate post later, when I have all the facts from Mi Sol Lawyers.
Regarding the Swimming pool, although I did negotiate a contract with the Bar tenant to run the pool area last year, there ware no transfer of rights. The contract has finished, and the pool is again under the control of the Committee.
Revise the condition of the "Strength Box"?? and Transformer. The transformer and the main distribution cables have already been uprated this year, and are at present adequate for our needs.
For any work three estimates will be produced. This is already being done, where practical, there are times when three quotes are unobtainable, for example in the case of contractors for the gardening. We have been unable to get three contractors willing to submit quotations.
For all of these agreements, the spirit will be more fulfilled than the interpretation of the words. If a written agreement is made, it should mean what it says, not decide what you think it means.
The opening of a new Bank account for water and electric payments. This is completely impractical, there will never be enough money in the account to actually pay the bills.
Finally we ask for a new appointment. They have been informed several times, by me, by Mi Sol Lawyer, and Administrator, that we want a meeting immediately, but I will not condone the expense of Lawyers being employed at such a meeting when they are irrelevant to the exchange and inspection of accounts for the purpose of reaching agreement. This is the advice from our own Lawyer.
Thursday 15 November 2007
Interesting Minutes
Here are the minutes of the meeting held by Paco and his supporters on the Bar terrace at the same time as the the Official AGM on the 29th September 2007.
Some interesting points arise.
On their list of those "attending", several people seem to have attended their meeting more than once, two of those down as attending had previously given me their proxy votes, I still have the voting cards.
Under the heading "Represented" Paco is listed as having 18 proxy votes. At the time of printing, July 2007, it would seem from their own accounts, 15 of the 18 are ineligible to have a vote under the Law of Horizontal Dwellings, not having paid their Comunidad charges for 2007.
It is entirely possible of course that these Owners paid their fees before the meeting, in which case the total paid would have been Euro 12121 . 10, add this to the Euro 3804 . 20 in cash and Euro 4735 . 61 in the Cambank account as shown, they should have had Euro 20660 . 91. Yet only one week after the General meeting there was only Euro 9000 in their Bank account.
Looking at their statement of accounts it would appear that during the year August 2006 to July 2007 they received 13 payments from 12 Owners amounting to a total of Euro 9472 . 50 and spent Euro 12453 . 57. There seems to be no mention of plots 93-94-95-96 Owned by their Vice President, who has made some of his payments this year into Mi Sol Banco Popular account. It would also seem plot 444 does not exist according to them, I am sure the Owners will be delighted they are not in debt !!
It also seems that they owe their Administrator Euro 36616 . 00, many Owners will recall this is the same Administrator who at their very first meeting when Antonio Escudero was elected their President, said he would work for free.
It is interesting to note that according to the last paragraph, the first step in negotiations to resolve the dispute between the two sides would be the suspension of legal action. At this moment in time, as far as I am aware, they are still pressing ahead with the Court hearing due in February next year in Elche.
Monday 12 November 2007
Insurance Update
As mentioned in a previous post, Mrs Lynne Jimenez has contacted the brokers in Montesinos regarding the insurance policy that Pepe had apparently taken out on 20/6/2007 to cover liability claims against the Community.
Mrs Jimenez was informed by the broker that NO premium had been paid concerning this policy.
An initial inspection of the Bank account would seem to bear this out.
Several questions could be asked regarding this situation, most prominent amongst them:-
Why did Pepe not pay the premium when the Policy was taken out?
Why was the policy issued when payment had not been received by the Company?
Above is a copy of the Policy details, this would seem to indicate an inadequate level of cover.
Enquiries are being made to find a policy more suited to our needs.
Saturday 10 November 2007
Insurance
Recently it was discovered that Pepe had taken out an insurance policy for the Park on the 20th June 2007.
The premium was in the region of Euro 800, but for some reason Pepe did not pay the full premium, despite the fact that there was around Euro 40,000 in the Bank account at that time. I have not had an opportunity to ask Pepe why he did not pay all the premium at the time of taking out the policy. It would seem we still owe around Euro 400.
After studying the policy, it would seem that at best we are very under covered, and at worst the policy is a waste of money, as it appears not to be a policy to cover the Park against 3rd party claims.
Committee member Mrs Lyn Jimemez has agreed to contact the Agents in Montesinos, and find out exactly what the policy does cover, and what we need to do to in order to make it suitable for the needs of the Community. I will post the results of her investigation here in due course.
The premium was in the region of Euro 800, but for some reason Pepe did not pay the full premium, despite the fact that there was around Euro 40,000 in the Bank account at that time. I have not had an opportunity to ask Pepe why he did not pay all the premium at the time of taking out the policy. It would seem we still owe around Euro 400.
After studying the policy, it would seem that at best we are very under covered, and at worst the policy is a waste of money, as it appears not to be a policy to cover the Park against 3rd party claims.
Committee member Mrs Lyn Jimemez has agreed to contact the Agents in Montesinos, and find out exactly what the policy does cover, and what we need to do to in order to make it suitable for the needs of the Community. I will post the results of her investigation here in due course.
Friday 2 November 2007
Court Case
A Court case for debt was to be heard against an Owner on Wednesday 31st October 2007, in Torrevieja. After consulting with Mi Sol Lawyer, Rosario, and Alberto the Administrator, it was decided Rosario should petition the Judge to cancel the case, to allow more time for negotiation between the two parties. This she did, and the case was duly cancelled. This was done on the understanding that the case could be brought before the Court at an unspecified time in the future, if the claim for debt could not be resolved by other means.
An informal meeting then took place outside the Courtroom between Paco, the Lawyer for the other faction, Rosario, Alberto and myself. This seemed to be an ideal opportunity to make some progress between the two sides. However after a considerable period of debate, I regret to say we are no further forward.
Their Lawyer asked me to attend a meeting between the Administrators, Paco and myself, with the Lawyers from both sides present, I declined, for reasons which will become clear later in this post.
He later asked me if I would attend a meeting of the same composition, except the Lawyers would not speak. I declined again, saying what was the point of them being there if they were not going to speak? He was told that I would not be bullied into something that was not in the best interests of the majority of the Community.
I then gave to their Lawyer a copy of the Banco Popular statement obtained that morning. The same one attached to the last posting here. He studied it and asked some questions. It was clear he was surprised, I am sure they have no conception of how much money is required every month just to pay the basics of running the Park.
The reasons I declined the meetings asked for by their Lawyer are simply this :-
The first meeting should be for an exchange of accounts between the two Administrators, to see where the money has been spent during the last few years. Once this has been resolved we can then move onto other things, such as the money we have received through the Courts from their supporters. It would seem Paco and his supporters do not want this, they want to mix everything up at once. A good example of this happened during the meeting outside the Courtroom when Paco suddenly insisted on seeing a copy of the Bar lease agreement. I explained that when I had it myself he would be given a copy too, but that at this moment in time there were far more important matters to resolve. As Alberto pointed out to me, over the last 5 years the administration of the other faction should have received at least Euro 100,000 from their supporters. What has happened to this money? Given they have not contributed to the running of the Park, not even paying for the Water and Electricity they have used, why have they only around Euro 9,000 in the Bank? On top of this they seem to owe their Administrator a large amount of money, which they want the rest of the Community to pay...Why?
Since APYME have been our Administrators I am confident that the accounts of Mi Sol have been kept in accordance with the law, any Owner can visit their offices and inspect the accounts, to see where the money has been spent and what it has been spent on. The bank statements are regularly displayed on this web Log, and explanations of expenses given where required.
Their Lawyer asked me to agree to set up a separate bank account for the Water and Electric bills, with Paco and myself as signatories to any payments. Not wishing to be confrontational, I agreed in principle, but pointed out that in practice it had no chance of working. There are Owners who do not pay their bills on time, the amounts we pay to the Water and Electricity Authorities include the running of the street lights, the shower blocks and the swimming pool water, therefore there would never be enough money in the account to pay the bills on time.
In addition why should Owners be subjected to deciding which account is the right one to pay different amounts of money into?
Paco has said he has paid his current Water and Electric charges, however he has paid them into their Cambank account. This is not helping the Community, why do he and his supporters not pay it into the Banco Popular, that is where the money is taken from to pay the bills.
Their Lawyer then said that the former Committee and myself were culpable for allowing Pepe to spend Euro 14,500 on the refurbishment of a shower block. I pointed out to him that the Committee were unanimous in their objection to this work. He then said we should have taken Pepe to Court. I replied that we were not made aware that we could do that, and in any case, he had seen for himself we had no money to do it, but that more importantly the Community were "sick and tired" of wasting money on Lawyers and litigation which could be much better spent on improving Mi Sol for all owners. I then gave him a copy of the open letter to all Owners Pepe had written, dated 22/5/2007, condemning Committee member Mrs Pat Olive and myself claiming we were trying to manipulate him and working against the interests of the Community.
I tried to ask their Lawyer why we could not draw a line under the past and go forward together, given that they now had what they always wanted .... a new President, that Paco had said he was going to use his proxy votes in my favour at the General Meeting in September, until he stopped him from doing so, that they could have put their own candidate up for election, but did not, thus implying that they agreed with the rest of the Community in supporting me. Therefore what was his objection now? Surprisingly, I did not seem able to receive a reply from him.
After nearly 5 years they still seem obsessed with Lawyers and Court cases, I must leave you to draw your own conclusions as to why that is.
An informal meeting then took place outside the Courtroom between Paco, the Lawyer for the other faction, Rosario, Alberto and myself. This seemed to be an ideal opportunity to make some progress between the two sides. However after a considerable period of debate, I regret to say we are no further forward.
Their Lawyer asked me to attend a meeting between the Administrators, Paco and myself, with the Lawyers from both sides present, I declined, for reasons which will become clear later in this post.
He later asked me if I would attend a meeting of the same composition, except the Lawyers would not speak. I declined again, saying what was the point of them being there if they were not going to speak? He was told that I would not be bullied into something that was not in the best interests of the majority of the Community.
I then gave to their Lawyer a copy of the Banco Popular statement obtained that morning. The same one attached to the last posting here. He studied it and asked some questions. It was clear he was surprised, I am sure they have no conception of how much money is required every month just to pay the basics of running the Park.
The reasons I declined the meetings asked for by their Lawyer are simply this :-
The first meeting should be for an exchange of accounts between the two Administrators, to see where the money has been spent during the last few years. Once this has been resolved we can then move onto other things, such as the money we have received through the Courts from their supporters. It would seem Paco and his supporters do not want this, they want to mix everything up at once. A good example of this happened during the meeting outside the Courtroom when Paco suddenly insisted on seeing a copy of the Bar lease agreement. I explained that when I had it myself he would be given a copy too, but that at this moment in time there were far more important matters to resolve. As Alberto pointed out to me, over the last 5 years the administration of the other faction should have received at least Euro 100,000 from their supporters. What has happened to this money? Given they have not contributed to the running of the Park, not even paying for the Water and Electricity they have used, why have they only around Euro 9,000 in the Bank? On top of this they seem to owe their Administrator a large amount of money, which they want the rest of the Community to pay...Why?
Since APYME have been our Administrators I am confident that the accounts of Mi Sol have been kept in accordance with the law, any Owner can visit their offices and inspect the accounts, to see where the money has been spent and what it has been spent on. The bank statements are regularly displayed on this web Log, and explanations of expenses given where required.
Their Lawyer asked me to agree to set up a separate bank account for the Water and Electric bills, with Paco and myself as signatories to any payments. Not wishing to be confrontational, I agreed in principle, but pointed out that in practice it had no chance of working. There are Owners who do not pay their bills on time, the amounts we pay to the Water and Electricity Authorities include the running of the street lights, the shower blocks and the swimming pool water, therefore there would never be enough money in the account to pay the bills on time.
In addition why should Owners be subjected to deciding which account is the right one to pay different amounts of money into?
Paco has said he has paid his current Water and Electric charges, however he has paid them into their Cambank account. This is not helping the Community, why do he and his supporters not pay it into the Banco Popular, that is where the money is taken from to pay the bills.
Their Lawyer then said that the former Committee and myself were culpable for allowing Pepe to spend Euro 14,500 on the refurbishment of a shower block. I pointed out to him that the Committee were unanimous in their objection to this work. He then said we should have taken Pepe to Court. I replied that we were not made aware that we could do that, and in any case, he had seen for himself we had no money to do it, but that more importantly the Community were "sick and tired" of wasting money on Lawyers and litigation which could be much better spent on improving Mi Sol for all owners. I then gave him a copy of the open letter to all Owners Pepe had written, dated 22/5/2007, condemning Committee member Mrs Pat Olive and myself claiming we were trying to manipulate him and working against the interests of the Community.
I tried to ask their Lawyer why we could not draw a line under the past and go forward together, given that they now had what they always wanted .... a new President, that Paco had said he was going to use his proxy votes in my favour at the General Meeting in September, until he stopped him from doing so, that they could have put their own candidate up for election, but did not, thus implying that they agreed with the rest of the Community in supporting me. Therefore what was his objection now? Surprisingly, I did not seem able to receive a reply from him.
After nearly 5 years they still seem obsessed with Lawyers and Court cases, I must leave you to draw your own conclusions as to why that is.
Bank Statement
Attached is the Statement from Banco Popular for 31st October 2007.
You will notice a payment taken out of Euro 516 - 59. This was for Taxes due to the government.
Very Sad News
It is with much sadness I report the death of Mr John Paul, a former Owner on Mi Sol.
His funeral took place at the Tanotoria, Torrevieja on Wednesday afternoon 31st October 2007.
The service was very well attended by his family and many friends.
His funeral took place at the Tanotoria, Torrevieja on Wednesday afternoon 31st October 2007.
The service was very well attended by his family and many friends.
Saturday 27 October 2007
Electrical Problems
Several circles are experiencing electrical problems just now. Due to an unusual amount of heavy rain in the last few weeks, the ground has become soaked, thus bringing these problems into focus.
Normally when the ground is dry these faults are not so apparent.
These faults are caused by bad workmanship and sub standard materials being used when Mi Sol was re-wired about 8 years ago.
The only recourse is to replace the faulty wiring with the correct type and size in an ongoing operation as funds allow.
This afternoon I assisted an Owner to install a temporary cable from the "Casita" to his connection box in order to by-pass faulty underground wiring.
Normally when the ground is dry these faults are not so apparent.
These faults are caused by bad workmanship and sub standard materials being used when Mi Sol was re-wired about 8 years ago.
The only recourse is to replace the faulty wiring with the correct type and size in an ongoing operation as funds allow.
This afternoon I assisted an Owner to install a temporary cable from the "Casita" to his connection box in order to by-pass faulty underground wiring.
Tuesday 23 October 2007
Bank Statement
Here is the latest statement from Banco Popular. Also attached the Electric Bill for this month which will be paid today.
The Committee and I are very grateful to all those Owners who have paid their latest bills so promptly, but we are still a long way from the amount we need to get us through to the end of this year. The next water bill is due for payment in the next few days, reducing the balance as it stands back to very little.
You will notice a withdrawal of Euro 516 . 59 as mentioned in the last post, we could well have done without that unexpected expense at this time.
Owners in the U.K are very welcome to e-mail me for their Bills, which can be paid by Bank Transfer or English cheque if they do not have a Spanish bank account.
The e-mail address is :- misolpark@gmail.com
Tax Bills
Yesterday two tax Bills had to be paid the total amounting to Euro 516 . 59 see attached, receipted copies. As yesterday was the last day for payment before fines were levied, a cheque for that amount was drawn "Al Portador" ( Cash) which was used to pay the bills. Things had to be done this way, because a cheque has to clear, before it is credited to the bill, and this takes several days.
Hopefully in the future we can avoid this situation by paying these kind of bills in good time by normal cheque. I will be speaking to Alberto the Administrator to impress upon him that we do not want to wait until the last day before being informed such accounts need paying.
Monday 22 October 2007
Committee Meeting
Here are the minutes from the Committee meeting held on 16th October 2007 as taken by Hazel.
OFFICAL MEETING
Present: N. Stacey, A. Impey, J. Hanrahan, P. Olive, L. Foley, L. Jeminez The
administrator Alberto and his assistant Melanie. '
Absent S. Shaw, P. Whitehead. J. Titterton (England)
An embargo has been placed against the Cambank account of Paco and his supporters to cover Social Security which should have been paid for the employment of Lucas and the Cleaner.
Neill has to speak to the solicitors to stop a court case on the 28th November in connection with plot 425 who has already paid.
We need approx 20,000.00 Euros to pay the electric and water bills throughout October, November and December. Money is being paid into the Banco Popular but we still need more members of the community to pay their dues.
Alberto was asked to phone Pepe for the keys to the lockup, office, electric boxes and transformer room. At the end of the meeting Alberto went to see Pepe and recovered the keys.
New laws concerning the swimming pool were asked for and emailed to Neill. These will have to be studied.
Alberto was asked once again if Antonio could publish the court papers on the web site, this was agreed to, as it was in the past, but will it happen?
The 1000 Euros paid by the Owner of plot 70 is in Banco Banestro. We are waiting for a form to be able to go and claim it.
We have had the copy of the Suma bill paid by Pepe just after the AGM. These amounts of Euro 747 . 08 relate to the office, bar and toilet blocks, and will be proportioned and added to the relevant accounts
We were informed that plot number 408 is for sale, and that this property has an embargo on it. Rosario advised Neill that the Embargo of the property was still in place pending the payment of Court and Lawyers fees.
A meeting was asked for by Neill, in which he, Paco and the 2 administrators would have met and discussed things, as Paco was unwilling for the meeting to take place without a lawyer this did not come to fruition. Neill once again asked Paco to place some of the money in CAM into the Banco Popular in order to help with the Electric and water bills. As yet no money has been transferred.
Rosario has just received a decision on a court case 10yrs old relating to the Gates. The denuncia was made by two people, who are no longer Owners on Mi Sol and the courts decided that the gates have to come down. We are waiting for Rosario to tell us exactly what the position is now.
Pepe had two electric meters, one of them without charge for his Office, when he was President, but will in future pay for both. In the absence of Peter Whitehead, Annie Impey volunteered to patrol Mi-Sol and mark down where most of the rubbish is. We can then get a skip and hopefully a party of volunteers to clear the site.
Several people on Mi-Sol Park are occupying community land and claiming it as their own. It was voted unanimously to inform these people that if they wish to continue to appropriate this land then a charge of 150 Euros per sq metres will be made, a receipt will be given and can be attached to their Escritura.
It was suggested that Alberto send a letter to Pepe, thanking him for all his past good work, and a formal thank you from the new President and Committee. It is
understood that some gesture was made to Pepe but unfortunately this was not made known to the Community, and very few people attended.
Finally Melanie asked if the meetings could be held at 4.00 p.m. instead of 5.00p.m. as this would suit her better. This was agreed to unanimously.
Next unofficial meeting 6th November 4.00 pm.
Next official meeting 20th November 4.00 p.m.
Saturday 20 October 2007
Meetings
As you know from a previous post, a meeting of the two Committees took place on the Bar Terrace which produced little in the way of moving forward to a united Community.
Since then I have held talks with Paco which again resulted in little, if any progress. On the advice of Apyme our Administrators, I formally invited Paco in writing to arrange a meeting between himself and their Administrator, myself and our Administrator. I also informed him that no Lawyers should be present. Having consulted Mi Sol Lawyer previously, she advised me that under the protocol of these things, Lawyers should not be present at this meeting. She explained that at this meeting the Administrators should exchange documents and financial accounts, and after studying them put forward proposals for an agreement, which would then have to be agreed between Paco and myself. Because of the complexity of the situation this could involve several meetings of this nature. Only after such an agreement was reached, should Lawyers be involved in drawing up a contract of agreement to be signed by both parties.
Paco did arrange a meeting, and our Administrators did telephone him to ask, due to a prior engagement whether the meeting could be brought forward by an hour. During this telephone call in my presence, he explicitly told Paco that if their Lawyer was going to be present, I would not attend the meeting.
The evening before the meeting was due to be held, Paco telephoned me to say the time could be brought forward by half an hour from the original arrangement. I asked him if their Lawyer was going to be present, and he answered yes, I informed Paco that because of this I would not be attending the meeting.
Alberto our Administrator, reported to our Committee that he did attend the meeting himself, and advised us of his findings. It would seem that Paco and his supporters owe a large sum of money to their Administrator. Their requirement for any settlement between the two sides would include the Community paying this money on their behalf.
At this moment in time the Committee and, I refuse to accept this proposal for the following reasons :-
In the first instance we do not have the money to pay it, even if we wanted to.
The Community did not employ their Administrator, they took it upon themselves to do that.
Except for money gained through the Courts for 2004, we have received no money from them to help with the running of Mi Sol. We have received no money from them for the last three years for the Water and Electricity they have used. We have received no Community charges from them for the last three years.
They have made no financial contribution towards the running of Mi Sol in the last three years, except for a Gardener and Cleaner, which again they took upon themselves to employ, and this was for a relatively short period.
An account was set up by them at the Cambank, which they said was to accept payments for their Water and Electricity accounts. Promises were made on several occasions that when a new President was elected, they would hand this money over to the Community, this now appears conditional on an agreement being reached between the two sides.
At the recent meeting of the two Committees the question was asked, where was all the money from their supporters for Community charges, Water and Electricity charges for the years 2005 ,2006 and 2007 , given that they only had around Euro 9000 in the Cambank account?
The answer was given that it had gone on Lawyers fees and the employment of a Gardener and Cleaner.
Whilst it is vital for the well being of Mi Sol that an agreement is reached, this should not be at "any price" the Committee and I will not be pressured into accepting something which is clearly unfair to the very large majority of Owners.
Since then I have held talks with Paco which again resulted in little, if any progress. On the advice of Apyme our Administrators, I formally invited Paco in writing to arrange a meeting between himself and their Administrator, myself and our Administrator. I also informed him that no Lawyers should be present. Having consulted Mi Sol Lawyer previously, she advised me that under the protocol of these things, Lawyers should not be present at this meeting. She explained that at this meeting the Administrators should exchange documents and financial accounts, and after studying them put forward proposals for an agreement, which would then have to be agreed between Paco and myself. Because of the complexity of the situation this could involve several meetings of this nature. Only after such an agreement was reached, should Lawyers be involved in drawing up a contract of agreement to be signed by both parties.
Paco did arrange a meeting, and our Administrators did telephone him to ask, due to a prior engagement whether the meeting could be brought forward by an hour. During this telephone call in my presence, he explicitly told Paco that if their Lawyer was going to be present, I would not attend the meeting.
The evening before the meeting was due to be held, Paco telephoned me to say the time could be brought forward by half an hour from the original arrangement. I asked him if their Lawyer was going to be present, and he answered yes, I informed Paco that because of this I would not be attending the meeting.
Alberto our Administrator, reported to our Committee that he did attend the meeting himself, and advised us of his findings. It would seem that Paco and his supporters owe a large sum of money to their Administrator. Their requirement for any settlement between the two sides would include the Community paying this money on their behalf.
At this moment in time the Committee and, I refuse to accept this proposal for the following reasons :-
In the first instance we do not have the money to pay it, even if we wanted to.
The Community did not employ their Administrator, they took it upon themselves to do that.
Except for money gained through the Courts for 2004, we have received no money from them to help with the running of Mi Sol. We have received no money from them for the last three years for the Water and Electricity they have used. We have received no Community charges from them for the last three years.
They have made no financial contribution towards the running of Mi Sol in the last three years, except for a Gardener and Cleaner, which again they took upon themselves to employ, and this was for a relatively short period.
An account was set up by them at the Cambank, which they said was to accept payments for their Water and Electricity accounts. Promises were made on several occasions that when a new President was elected, they would hand this money over to the Community, this now appears conditional on an agreement being reached between the two sides.
At the recent meeting of the two Committees the question was asked, where was all the money from their supporters for Community charges, Water and Electricity charges for the years 2005 ,2006 and 2007 , given that they only had around Euro 9000 in the Cambank account?
The answer was given that it had gone on Lawyers fees and the employment of a Gardener and Cleaner.
Whilst it is vital for the well being of Mi Sol that an agreement is reached, this should not be at "any price" the Committee and I will not be pressured into accepting something which is clearly unfair to the very large majority of Owners.
Sunday 14 October 2007
Urgent Appeal
The water and Electricity bills for the last quarter will be available in the next couple of days.
I urge all Owners to pay these bills as quickly as possible, we are in desperate need of funds to pay the Electricity account for this month, and of course Water and Electricity accounts for November and December. This is the only money we will receive before January when the annual Community charge becomes due.
Any Owners in England who want their bills in order to send cheques etc, can send an e-mail to me, and I will send them by return. The address is :- misolpark@gmail.com.
When making any payments, please make sure your name and plot number are on the cheque or transfer form, otherwise we will not know who has made the payment.
Any Owners wishing to help the Community by paying extra amounts into Banco Popular, can of course do so at any time. These extra payments will be credited against your next bill.
I would like to thank those Owners who have already contributed advance payments, these are much appreciated. This is not how I would have wished the new Presidency to start, but it is the reality and we have to deal with it.
I urge all Owners to pay these bills as quickly as possible, we are in desperate need of funds to pay the Electricity account for this month, and of course Water and Electricity accounts for November and December. This is the only money we will receive before January when the annual Community charge becomes due.
Any Owners in England who want their bills in order to send cheques etc, can send an e-mail to me, and I will send them by return. The address is :- misolpark@gmail.com.
When making any payments, please make sure your name and plot number are on the cheque or transfer form, otherwise we will not know who has made the payment.
Any Owners wishing to help the Community by paying extra amounts into Banco Popular, can of course do so at any time. These extra payments will be credited against your next bill.
I would like to thank those Owners who have already contributed advance payments, these are much appreciated. This is not how I would have wished the new Presidency to start, but it is the reality and we have to deal with it.
Friday 12 October 2007
Bad Weather
Mi Sol has experienced some stormy weather recently, in the latest, flooding was quite extensive, leaving several of the roads with deep ruts, see attached photos. Although flood levels reached higher than shown, the photos were taken during and after the storm. Photographs very kindly taken by Emilia.
Thursday 11 October 2007
Meeting
Paco gave me a letter requesting a meeting be held between representatives of the two Committees. I readily agreed, and a meeting was held on the Bar terrace last Saturday evening 6th October 2007.
We started by asking Paco what was it they wanted in order to reach a settlement of the dispute.
The reply seemed to consist of a series of questions regarding what had happened to various sums of money. It was pointed out that the only people that could answer these questions were the Administrators, they were the ones with the accounts and information.
I told the meeting that Paco had promised to vote at the AGM if arrangements could be made for both sides to vote at a combined meeting. This had been arranged, but at the last minute Paco did not vote on instructions from their Lawyer. This was a golden opportunity to reunite the Park, and we would now have had a Committee representing all sections of the Community under a new President. By not voting, such a Committee could not be legally formed without calling and Extraordinary general meeting.
It was also pointed out Paco had promised that once a new President had been elected, they would join the rest of the Community, handing over their Bank account, and documents. The reply was given that this would be done after everything had been sorted out. It was also noted that they have constantly said "ALL" they ever wanted was a new President, now they have one why not reunite the Community and go forward from here, and let the Lawyers and Administrators sort out the events of the past. After all they are the ones with the information, not us.
It was pointed out that after four years of Court cases, large sums of money wasted, which should have been used for the benefit of the Community and causing a great deal of damage to the Community, they had still not achieved their aim of having a new President. The Community had done this itself, without financial cost, by a democratic election.
Paco was presented with a copy of the Banco Popular statement, showing our dire financial position, knowing there was around Euro 9000 in their Cambank account, he was asked if they were going to contribute that money, which after all was supposed to be for paying water and electricity charges used by his supporters. He said yes, but he would have to consult his Committee first. One of their Committee suggested to Paco that they should now pay their water and electricity bills directly to Banco Popular. We assured them that bills could be provided for this purpose. To date we have not received any money from them.
They said we had received Euro 45,000 from their supporters through the Courts, we agreed, but explained this was for the year 2004 only, I have double checked this personally with Mi Sol Lawyer Rosario, we replied given they only have Euroo 9000 in the Cambank, where is all the money they should have from their supporters for 2005, 2006, and 2007
The meeting lasted for about an hour and a half. This post details the salient points as I remember them, Hazel did attend to take notes, but given the nature of the meeting, it was impossible for her to write an accurate account.
After consultation with our Administrator, I gave Paco a written letter asking him to arrange a meeting between him, the two Administrators and myself, a time and venue to be arranged by them. Paco has replied and the meeting should take place on Tuesday morning 16th October 2007 at the Offices of their administrator to inspect the financial records of both sides.
We started by asking Paco what was it they wanted in order to reach a settlement of the dispute.
The reply seemed to consist of a series of questions regarding what had happened to various sums of money. It was pointed out that the only people that could answer these questions were the Administrators, they were the ones with the accounts and information.
I told the meeting that Paco had promised to vote at the AGM if arrangements could be made for both sides to vote at a combined meeting. This had been arranged, but at the last minute Paco did not vote on instructions from their Lawyer. This was a golden opportunity to reunite the Park, and we would now have had a Committee representing all sections of the Community under a new President. By not voting, such a Committee could not be legally formed without calling and Extraordinary general meeting.
It was also pointed out Paco had promised that once a new President had been elected, they would join the rest of the Community, handing over their Bank account, and documents. The reply was given that this would be done after everything had been sorted out. It was also noted that they have constantly said "ALL" they ever wanted was a new President, now they have one why not reunite the Community and go forward from here, and let the Lawyers and Administrators sort out the events of the past. After all they are the ones with the information, not us.
It was pointed out that after four years of Court cases, large sums of money wasted, which should have been used for the benefit of the Community and causing a great deal of damage to the Community, they had still not achieved their aim of having a new President. The Community had done this itself, without financial cost, by a democratic election.
Paco was presented with a copy of the Banco Popular statement, showing our dire financial position, knowing there was around Euro 9000 in their Cambank account, he was asked if they were going to contribute that money, which after all was supposed to be for paying water and electricity charges used by his supporters. He said yes, but he would have to consult his Committee first. One of their Committee suggested to Paco that they should now pay their water and electricity bills directly to Banco Popular. We assured them that bills could be provided for this purpose. To date we have not received any money from them.
They said we had received Euro 45,000 from their supporters through the Courts, we agreed, but explained this was for the year 2004 only, I have double checked this personally with Mi Sol Lawyer Rosario, we replied given they only have Euroo 9000 in the Cambank, where is all the money they should have from their supporters for 2005, 2006, and 2007
The meeting lasted for about an hour and a half. This post details the salient points as I remember them, Hazel did attend to take notes, but given the nature of the meeting, it was impossible for her to write an accurate account.
After consultation with our Administrator, I gave Paco a written letter asking him to arrange a meeting between him, the two Administrators and myself, a time and venue to be arranged by them. Paco has replied and the meeting should take place on Tuesday morning 16th October 2007 at the Offices of their administrator to inspect the financial records of both sides.
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