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.