Meeting with Lawyers

Yesterday there was a meeting held at the offices of Mi Sol lawyers.
In attendance were Pepe, Alberto (Administrator), Shelagh Shaw, Pat Olive and myself.

Pepe explained that Social Security had taken a payment of 212 Euro from Mi Sol Bank account, in respect of person or persons unknown. This has now been sorted out and the money returned to Mi Sol account.

Paco and his supporters have opened a Bank account at the Cam Bank, as mentioned in the last posting. This account is also in the name of Mi Sol. Pepe has tried to get this account frozen, the Lawyer is attempting to find out if this has been accomplished yet.

Pepe was asked why 7000 Euro had been spent on insurance this year, when this had not happened in the past. The explanation seems to centre on a translation error. We were told by Melanie at a recent Committee meeting, it was for insurance for the Park and was a reasonable figure. Pepe now says it was not for insurance, but the money was put in a new account as a safeguard for contingencies. No details of the account or account number were given to us.
This point will be further investigated at the next Committee meeting.

You will recall from a previous posting a certificate given to me by Paco stating Pepe was not on the Land Registry as an Owner of property on Mi Sol. At that time I urged caution, as that may not be the full story. Yesterday Pepe was asked directly whether he was an Owner or not. He replied that he and his wife jointly owned plot number 108. This is entirely feasible, as this plot may be under Mi Sol Blanket Escritura, and therefore not entered in the Land Registry as a separate plot.

The question was then asked about the progress regarding the change of names on the electrical bill charged to Mi Sol by Iberdrola. It seems we are obliged to have a contract with an authorised Engineer. The present contract is in the name of Pepe, if Mi Sol does not pay the bill, Pepe is liable to pay it. If he does not pay it, then Mi Sol will have no electricity supply. We were advised to try and make a new contract with the Engineer, when a new President is appointed.

Pepe was asked why he spent 14,500 Euros on the new wet room, without the approval of the Committee. He answered that the new shower block was a "proper bathroom" with disabled persons facilities. Pepe said I had agreed to it, which is patently untrue, I refer you to previous post on this subject. In any event, the Committee should have approved the decision after being presented with the facts, which were not brought to light until after the work was started.

Pepe was then asked why he had been saying he would spend all the money in Mi Sol account before September, so the "other side" could not get hold of it. He denied saying this.

We were advised that a new Law was now in existence, regarding the gaining of Escrituras. Both the buyer and the seller must have a Fiscal number i.e. NIE number, otherwise the plots cannot be put on the Land Registry. Therefore if you wish to buy or sell any property, you must have the NIE number, which you need anyway to do many other things in Spain.

The meeting was told that I had formerly presented in writing, my intention to stand for election as President at the forthcoming AGM, as required by law. So far no other person has presented themselves in this way, although at least one other candidate is expected to do so.

A recent article from a local newspaper was presented. This explained a landmark Court ruling, that an AGM could be held in the language desired by the majority of Owners attending. It was explained that this was an interpretation of the ruling, by the Lawyer writing the article, and that unless every member attending agreed, the meeting would have to be held in Spanish. The reason for raising this subject is that many meetings have been held in Spanish on Mi Sol, where the standard of interpretation has been less than the highest quality, where five minutes of Spanish has been interpreted into ten words of English. This has led to much frustration on the part of those British Owners attending, and errors and omissions occurring in the Official minutes. The AGM of 2006 being a case in point.