This is a Bumper edition Blog so you might need a tea, coffee, or your favoured tipple to help you get to
the end of it. It is all important stuff, so please persevere.
Fase 1 AGM
I hope by now that you will have had the chance to read the information and documents that have been sent out in relation to the Fase 1 AGM, 5th April 2011.
The AGM can be arduous, so it might help to highlight a few points here, in the hope that things can speed up on the day.
Importantly if you want your vote to be counted but you cannot attend the meeting, then please send back the PROXY FORM. You must have paid all your dues up to and including MARCH 2011 in order to be able to vote. Of course I would be delighted to receive any of your proxies.
INCREASED COMMUNITY CHARGE
When we put the proposed budget together I did not realise that it would be pushing some one bedroom apartments over €200 per month. I regret this but please stop to consider that we are living through difficult economic times. We don’t live in a protected bubble here at Sol Andalusí and it must be accepted that there will be higher costs to maintain the same level of service. We are not squeeze-proofed.
My aim is for Fase 1 to become as self-sufficient and independent as possible from Sol Andalusí and in order to to this, some decisions have been made which have resulted in higher costs. Some of these higher costs are just for now, in order to make longer term savings. You can see that we have terminated the contract of one of the maintenance staff. This year his severance pay has cost almost as much as his annual salary, but next year the saving will be evident.
We also terminated the Fase 1 part of the contract of the Gardening Supervisor. There was no severance pay in this case as he was hired out to us by Martinez Guzón. He now works for Fase 2. I am pleased that we are no longer paying out our 50.572% share of his salary: a staggering €22,272.00. However, it is less pleasing to accept that as a result: we will now have to buy or rent our own vehicle to transport our rubbish; that we have to buy some new equipment (as some of it was his) and also that Fase 2 will no longer contribute to salaries of our three gardeners. It would be hoped that next year these costs will be greatly reduced (the van and the new equipment). Does anyone know of a van we could buy?
Legally we should have 5% of our budget available for emergency contingencies. We have nothing. €30,000 for this has been added to a new group, Group 11. You will also see another item in Group 11. Sol Andalusí have agreed to pay an additional 9.78% toward the gas and electricity costs of the Central Building, based on last year’s figures. At the time of writing, I am told that their lawyer is drawing up the letter of agreement, so we are optimistic that this amount will contribute to Fase 1 being able to settle the year’s utility bills without having to resort to asking Sol Andalusí to bail us out. We also need you to pay your community fees and utility bills and for Fase 2 to pay their contribution to the shared expenses.
I also added €2300 to the budget for Legal Advice. If we have rocky times ahead, it would be good to have some money to pay for help.
·
Item 2 on the agenda is the Board Election. Officially, there is currently no Board other than me, as Presidenta. Gerard Salters has been working as Treasurer and Gerard der Kinderen has been attending meetings along with Bonnie Bickram. John Holmes and Ronnie Morrison have given their time to the cause. We should at the very least elect a Vice President as in the event of my incapacity or absence, only the VP can sign and authorise payments and other documents. The VP should either live at Sol Andalusí or at least here in Málaga. Will it be you?
Whilst I recognise your reluctance to be involved, we need people to volunteer to join working parties to take up particular projects: security; gardening; maintenance; Sky/Telecoms/Internet; refuse Collection are a few of the topics which affect us all every day but I don’t have time to attend to them, so nothing happens. If you want to see changes you need to get involved.
·
Item 3 on the Agenda. We seek your approval to invoice individual apartment use of utilities monthly, by estimate. The software to take automatic readings seldom works and manual readings take a very long time. It is imperative to have the cash flow to pay the bills and last year we were sometimes receiving funds from owners, if at all, some four months after the community had settled the bill. Without the prompt settlement of your utility bills and community fees we cannot hope to operate independently of Sol Andalusí. Sol Andalusí are accused of compensating their fees etc, but if you don’t pay your bills, who will?
· Item 4 on the Agenda. The recent “disconnect the utilities” project was successful to the tune of nearly €60,000. We have disconnected 16 properties and we have been denounced by the owner of one of them. I fear, and am aware that within a few months we could be back to square one and the administration and effort to effect this exercise was considerable. We would therefore like to be able to continue this action in the future as a matter of course. Owners should know that if they are in arrears then they can expect to be disconnected.
· Item 5 was covered at the beginning of this blog.
· Item 6. The amount owed currently to us from debtors has reduced from over €345,000 in October 2010 to less than €245,000. Clearly we still have a way to go, but bear in mind that this figure could easily have increased over the last 7 months. We have taken bold and sometimes expensive measures to pursue debtors, to identify their reasons for non-payment and address issues people have with their statements. We have sent debt collectors to the UK and I have signed a cheque for nearly €10,000 in order to proceed with legal action to a number of cases in Spain. Although you will see some Usual Suspects on the list, I can assure that significant progress has been make. Our biggest debtor still owes a lot of money, but as they had never paid anything at all over recent years, it is good to know that they have now paid €7000 and make regular monthly payments.
· Hope to see you next Tuesday, but if you can’t make it, pay March, fill in your Proxy Form and return it to Alberto at Sagesa. But you will have had to be up to date including March 2011.
No comments:
Post a Comment