SOS (Save Our reSort)
If you had
economical problems at your home, which action would you take?
·
To
reduce the expenses related to the maintenance of your house as much as
possible, and to wait for better times? or
·
To
keep the expenses level and to start a debatable reform of dubious profitability
and only in the long term?
We believe
that the sensible solution is the first one.
Our Committee has chosen the second one in the case of the renovation of
the Hacienda Riquelme gardening contract.
The Committee intended to directly approve the bid submitted by STV, which includes removing the so
called “Polaris strips”. Given the
strong opposition to this measure
by some owners, an EGM has been called for
January 8th, 2014 to put to a vote this proposal.
Our opposition
to sign the contract with STV in the conditions reported to us (very poorly, by
the way) is based the following reasons:
·
The
removal of Polaris strips is an irreversible modification that substantially
alters the property we bought.
·
It
is a change that, as our legal advisors report, to be approved, it is mandatory
the agreement of every owner. And there is no unanimity (The article 17 of the
Condominium Law and the article 5bis of our statutes set that unanimity is
required before introducing relevant reforms in the property of all of us).
·
It
is a reform that replaces lawns (in good or bad condition) by stones. We
believe that the aesthetics of the resort becomes worse. In addition, an earth floor could be
regenerated. A stone floor cannot.
·
It
is a reform than can put into risk the trees of the resort that have grown
properly (precisely the ones planted in these strips).
·
We know neither the small letter of this contract, nor rigorous, solvent and
comprehensive data to support the
decision that the Committee promotes.
·
The savings are only hypothetical and in the long-term. A much more
actual saving would be to
deduct the cost of removing the Polaris
strips included in the bid of STV (no company works for free). That is a lot
of money to pay for irrigation water!
·
Up
to date, Resortalia has not delivered any data, as requested by at least a
sub-community president, in order to objectively evaluate
the true advantages of the STV bid.
The current President of the resort is elected only for the community of owners and not the public EUCC land hence he has no authority to call an EGM. Furthermore, the notice of the EGM has not been delivered legally.
·
If the financial and economical survival of the resort recommends changes, we
think they should be done within a strategic plan, and not as isolated
initiatives.
·
Making these changes to the resort is very dangerous. It sets
a precedent and opens the way for other controversial decisions.
Why not
to cut down our trees to save the cost of pruning, spraying and irrigating
them? Why not to convert lawns into fields to grow lettuces (we could use
cheaper irrigation water)? Why not to paint the buildings in a different color,
if we find cheaper paint? Why not to remove the perimeter fence to radically
finish with the problem of its rusty?
We appreciate the job carried out by
the Committee members. No doubt it must be frustrating to work hard as a
volunteer and to receive opposite opinions.
But as owners that have invested our
savings in Hacienda Riquelme, we do not have to consider positively any
Committee proposal. We are not going to say always yes, in particular if we
firmly believe that they are putting into risk the future market value of our
investment, already very devaluated.
The
Committee represents the owners’ community and their task is to ensure the
maintenance of the resort, not dismantling it.
The resort has developed and survived six years of world crisis. Now that
it seems that the situation improves, we believe it is not time for
experiments. We prefer other measures, like trying to renegotiate some
contracts still having too high rates, and improve the effective monitoring and
control of our gardening suppliers.
