Is anyone doing anything on this?

???????????????????

The Committee just do not get it

regardless of where a fence is placed, owners affected will still see the eyesore

What about the rubbish dumped there daily?
What about the smell from the decomposing rubbish?
What about the mixing of dangerous chemicals within a residential compound?
What about the sand being blown into apartments from vehicles accessing the site?
What about the planning permission that was never granted?

When o when will they get that the fence is NOT THE ISSUE......................

HRGR Association

The HRGR Association has been re-launched at http://hrgrassociation.blogspot.co.uk/

Bring on positive change and open and honest transparency.

Workers Compound - a disgrace for the community

A fundamental issue exists regarding the public land that is being used by the resort gardeners and IRM as a rubbish dump which was never part of the resort plans or did not ever receive planning permission.
The issue was first raised in 2009 and the Association has worked with its owners and Resortalia/Committee to progress what had been offically agreed with the Local Authority.
Despite several chasing letters and raising the issue consistently over the last 4 years, the Committee have not subsequently changed their views and decided this is no longer a problem.
Furthermore, the newly elected committee have publicly attacked 2 HRGR Presidents who have raised this issue for continuing to seek resolution to what is not approved or allowed on public land.
The Committee have also started a work to rule as they see this as being unfair to them!
In order to be very clear, this land is public land, has no planning permission to be used for any other purpose than public land and the HRGR Association will fight to ensure that IRM and the gardeners are not allowed to be there.


Posted from: http://hrgrassociation.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/workers-compound-disgrace-for-community.html

HRGR fundamental issues...........

Since 2008 the HRGR Association have been vocal in raising our views with great success to date however there are key fundamental issues that require readdressing:


1. Why did the Phase Presidents in Feb 2013 approve the reappointment of Resortalia and the approval the next year's financials and last years accounts 2 months before the Sub Community AGMs took place? Shouldn't there have been a majority of the sub communities approval beforehand? Was this legal? Do we have to hold the 2013 AGMs again? If it was, why for 2014 is it being changed to afterwards? If this advice is based on legal representation them are the people giving this really aware of what is required?

2. When the Community has one debtor's policy then why has the committee decided that the policy does not apply to our biggest debtor? Can they make that decision or should there have been an EGM to decide this resort wide significantly important matter? Now that the debtor has not paid despite the extra time allowed, then will the Committee follow the defined established debtor policy?

3. Why was the resort Health and Safety Policy changed in May 2013 that has been in existence since 2008? Is there still a risk register? It appears that the following policy statements no longer apply:
- "The presidents will take all reasonable steps to implement and maintain good standards of health, safety and environmental management on our resort."
 - "The HRGR owners committee will do everything within their power to ensure that suitable and sufficient risk control measures are put in place and maintained to eliminate or reduce the risks identified on the HRGR risk register."

In terms of "sensible to do a check to see if there were any other high risk issues that we did not know about. As a result of these inherited problems a full audit was done". So going forward are we saying that it is no longer sensible to perform further checks or that previous problems or new associated problems will no longer arise in the future? 

What has happened in order for the current committee to decide to change the H&S policy that has been in place since 2008? This is especially important since back in 2008 when the resort was being created, very little was actually owned by the Community of Owners hence its influence would of been very small indeed. Furthermore as the 2009 policy clearly stated "Where the risks identified are not in the HRGR community controlled areas but could affect people on HRGR, we will record these risks and bring them to attention of the appropriate company. At present, this will primarily be Polaris World as they have responsibility for areas such as the proposed town centre and the golf course etc."

So the current May 2013 committee statement is included in the current policy. The only difference we can see is the requirement for an independent H&S advisor which would cost the community money to perform the exercise. Surely we can still afford this?


4. The forum rules allows for free speech and the ability to raise any issues from owners. It has now been decided by the Committee that NO QUESTION can be raised to the committee, about the Committee or the running of the resort on the forum. Is the Committee allowed to do this? As this is a significant medium of communications should there not be an EGM to approve this proposed change? Under what rights is this allowed as it is not under the Spanish Constitution! Furthermore, we understand that an elected President has now been banned from this forum! On whose authority was this decision made to prevent an elected president be able to communicate the issues raised to them for resolution?

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HRGR Blog

3 Years on,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

http://t5.sharepoint.com/Pages/2010DecNewsletter.aspx


3 Years on and the same debates. This really needs resolution NOW.

Would YOU buy here?

WOULD YOU BUY AN APARTMENT THAT OVERLOOKED THIS?

THE HRGR C0MMITTEE DOES NOT SEE THIS AS AN ISSUE................

sober thoughts.......

Apology for late involvement, new family taking all my time and only been fleetingly reviewing via Blackberry (never a good thing), plus I would have preferred to do this on a private forum. A further small request Luc, in future pse could you rather bcc all parties, as I have now done, cc offers welcome opportunities for spam mailers.

 

However, with an obvious vested interest and with matters getting rather heated, perhaps I could add my, hopefully sober thoughts to bring everything into perceptive..well as I see it.

 

While I agree with what seems to be a majority feeling, the approach could have been a little more diplomatic, the issues at stake remain the same and should not be ignored. Luc/Chris, you know you have my support and I thank you for taking the fight on your shoulders but perhaps a little more tact could go further, although I fully understand your frustrations as the slow progress and again, what we perceive to be, the digression of the HGRG Committee.

 

Also, although if my fleeting reviews of the emails are correct, to me the threat of legal action is at this stage merely utilising the same tactic that the Golf owners, etc are using, namely a tactical threat to sell out, take action etc. Legal action and the financial costs associated with such action, are perceived by any normal person with major concern, hence the numerous emails attempting to remove themselves from any such action.. Here again, my constructive criticism, a private forum discussion would have dispelled any thoughts that you were forcing us into major legal and financial implications. Also the notice period of a few hours  to such an emotive matter is barely enough to read your email, let alone to consider and offer suggestions, support etc. May I respectfully suggest, in future sufficient time be granted before an email that should represent all of us, be sent.

 

An Owner

I have absolute sympathy for Committee members who in the circumstances are doing their best for little recognition and in truth, a voluntary position. But with all due respect, that is no excuse, you took on the position so deal with the criticism. I am not being harsh but people, have you every stopped to look at HRGR as you enter from the highway...it's a citadel on it's own, it needs a full time professional 'Mayor and town council'., not, albeit well meaning and good people who are given up there retirement time to help the community, volunteers. Very much appreciated but guys, we invested in a 'city', to run it properly, will cost a bit more by having professionals but could solve so much. I have no doubt some of the committee members, in their professional capacities could very well be part of the council, who get paid and are held accountable to look after our interest. However, to respond to criticism by banning an elected person from discussions, I must respectfully remark, kinda proves my point.

 

I think I also read somewhere that Luci was being accused of trying to hand the golf course to amateurs?...again, emotions have understandably taken over and the emails have not been read correctly. From what I understand, that isn't at all what is being said and in truth I agree with Luci that equally, the HRGR Committee should not be intimidated by bulling tactics of PW, Banks controlling sections of HGRG etc.

 

As far as the workers compound (one of my three pet 'passions', together with gardens and the eroding back hill! ), has got to a point which really needs to be addressed. I have read and understand the Presidents seemly logical explanations but none of this solves the fact, it is a major eye sore (I'm on the the 3rd floor, it is what I look over and no amount of screening trees will block it's ugliness or improve the value of my apartment) and a further fact you cannot ignore, IT WAS NEVER IN THE ORIGINAL PLANS. However, from the emails, it seems Luci has forced the issue and constructive meetings are going to take place with STV or whatever the gardening contractors are called?!

 

..oh yes, I have another pet 'passion'..the Pigeons?!! Thanks to Luci, we don't have a major problem anymore but Jim, sorry mate, they now house with you and when I enquired why a similar blocking off of the ducts couldn't be done so to once and for all get rid of the health problem being caused, I was told because you haven't requested it yet??! Yeah, that's forward thinking.

 

I have no doubt all of us, especially the volunteers have only HRGR at heart (I have absolutely no doubt about Chris/Luci motives) but we would do so much more if we worked together, started accepting the enormity of the job and maybe considered getting full time professionals in. Yes it will cost a bit more but at the moment, costs are rising all the time, so I can't see what we have to lose.

 

Have a peaceful Sunday.

 

Sincerely

 

Options

This is so incorrect.

There are clear options in the formal plans of the resort for IRM to locate its staff and the Committee do know this.

Proposed Soutions

As we have previously stated this is a sub community matter first and foremost and although it has impacts on the community, it is not the community directly impacted. The Community of owners does not own this land and does not need to be involved going forward on any proposed solutions.

In terms of your sub community role then again we need to be very clear that you should not confuse or impact in any way the directions of the sub communities and overall community. This is why despite requests to you to not involve the general community in these matters, you refused and clearly told us that Resortalia could not do anything until the Resort Committee had reached an agreed position. At that time on the 17/6/2013 we clearly informed you that there were a conflict of interests and that you could not appropriately represent our owners in these matters. I cannot see any reason for any change to this viewpoint to date.

To be very clear we represent a number of owners that purchased their apartments off-plan and at that time including up to when contracts were exchanged/completed, where there have never any mention of a compound area for workers which we would directly look at both from the front and rear of our apartments in some cases.

We are well prepared to seek the necessary local court injunctions either individually as owners or collectively as majorities within a number of sub communities. These matters are clear injustices that have to be corrected immediately.

We believe the workers compound is a visual eyesore, is a health and safety hazard and materially affects the valuation of our properties and their rentability.

We have been working very closely with the HRGR Community of Owners Committees over a number of years firstly to establish whose land it was and then who had permission to be on this land and for what approved usage.  We have minuted agenda items on every Tomillo 5 Sub Community AGM and EGM held over the last 3 years specifically to cover these points. There are also key actions raised at the HRGR Community of Owners Phase Presidents meetings

The outcome of all of this work is very clear is that this is local authority land and the current workers compound should not be there. It should be located on the infrastructure areas clearly marked on the resort planning permission maps.  We had hoped to continue the established dialogue with the Committee however their banning of us rather late in the day after clearly agreeing a sense of direction in the May 2013 minutes means that no future dialogue is possible at this time with the Committee. This only came about as we informed them legally that they held legal positions within the community and accordingly needed to action the minutes that they all approved.

If and only if the current ban is removed and a clear statement made by the committee that they are prepared to work to correct the current injustices of our owners then we would be prepared to listen to suggestions from them.

However, in order to move this position forward, we are as clearly stated directly with IRM and STV in the emails from us, prepared to work a solution which is beneficial to our owners as well as the contractors using this facility. This will then allow the Committee to concentrate on their material matters that are substantial if the community is to survive.

These measures to be assessed directly with us with the contractors could include:

1.       The relocation of the current workers compound
2.       The relocation of certain contractors, their tools, vehicles, workshops and rubbish
3.       Potential sites within the community and resort that could assist improved health, safety, accommodation and living requirements for the workers within the resort
4.       The relocation of the garden and golf course skips
5.       The potential improved screening and roof screening of the compound so that it would not be visually from any of our apartments
6.       The agreed opening and closing times of the new, existing and relocated compound
7.       The noise from these activities
8.       The measures to ensure health and safety standards are complied with for the benefit of all workers and all of our owners
9.       Measures to reduce the sandy dust blown into our apartments

We would suggest to all contractors that there are sizable buildings next to the pro-shop in the town square/centre which could be converted into rest facilities. The car park is also available all around these facilities and an improved screen could be erected if required to hold infrastructure, vehicles etc.  In addition, there are two clear areas within the resort which are earmarked as infrastructure which could be used straight away especially for the smelling garden and golf course grass cuttings.

Accordingly, we would prefer to address Enrique Herrero from IRM and the corresponding general managers from STV and the other contractors directly on these matters.

I therefore suggest that Jim and I will send an email to Enrique on Monday outlining the above. I am prepared to take into account any email input you may want us to consider in these exchanges however I cannot guarantee that all of this will be included.

If we do not receive a reply to this email by midday on Monday, then we will still go ahead and communicate with Enrique the background to date and our proposed solutions.

Jim and Lucinda

Sub Community President

HRGR Community of Owners

Admnistrators Response

In our opinion the workers compound affects to all the owners of the Resort and it´s not an easy question that could be addressed by an owner or a group of owners because potentially could affect to all the Resort.

Therefore and as you may be aware, as Community Administrator of the General Community that represents to all the owners, including the owners of your both Subcommunities, we have been in dialogue with Mr. Herrero and STV on the Last Month, on that dialogue the Presidents of the Resort and the President of your Phase has had a very active role.

In the last Committee Meeting was commented that you were threatening with a legal action to all the members of the Committee and their President. The reaction to that threat are on the Minutes.

IRM has proposed a solution that is included on that Minutes and, in principle, could be acceptable, it´s the same that they were explaining on the e-mail they sent you.

We have arranged a meeting in order to obtain more information about it, but their condition to do it is that all owners, specifically you, agrees with the proposal and don´t follow your threat of legal action against IRM, or the Presidents of Phase, etc.

We have arranged a meeting with Mr. Herrero on our offices next Tuesday at 10.00, please be so kind to check if the solution would be acceptable, and if so, let me know if you were interested on joining the meeting via Skype in order that you personally clarify any doubts about the solution and their implications.

If you don´t consider that the solution proposed is acceptable, please let us know it as soon as possible.

We personally think that you are talking at cross-purposes with the General Community when both objectives are the same: the benefit of all owners of Hacienda Riquelme, and together we will be able to obtain better results that fighting each other.

Best Regards,

Resortalia  

Thanks for the feedback

Thanks to eveyone, we appreciate the feedback, a few fellow owner comments:

Hi Lucinda, just wanted to say I really appreciate all the hard work that you have been doing on behalf of us owners. I don’t think there is anything wrong in ruffling some feathers on occasions, but for your own sanity and welfare I would just take a deep breath and not get involved in slanging matches. As I say, 90% of your work/proposals I fully support, there maybe 10% I don’t but given your commitment to the buildings I accept that you have the best interests of everyone at heart and we’re not ever going to agree on everything.

Can I ask before this escalates to a point of no return, you consider if there is a better approach to how we move forward?

As I said you personally have my support for all the hard work you are doing.

An owner

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Lucy well done for taking this stance lets see now how the committee perform having in effect held the removal of the course to building site over our heads .  

For the first time the committee cannot pull the wool over your eyes . 

Hopefully now they will work for the whole community .

Once again congratulations to you both .

AO

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With regards to the statement that HRGR is not suitable as a holiday resort we have to disagree as we have had a family now returning with us for the fourth year just for a holiday, they don't play golf but absolutely love the complex.

Phase President resigns.............

Hi everyone,

As two Sub Community Presidents on Phase 7 have threatened to take legal action against the committee and myself, and one of those Sub Community Presidents has stated the committee are not fit for purpose, I have decided to resign as Phase 7 President as I obviously do not have the support of at least a part of our Phase.

Under these circumstances, I am not prepared to commit huge amounts of my time providing what I believe to be a valuable contribution to our Community.

 

Owners posting criticisms of the committee on publicly accessible forums /blogs and letting the world see our Community in a bad light is not something I can see any justification for.

I will ask Resortalia to contact you all to advise what happens next regarding an EGM to elect a replacement for me.

 

Many thanks to the vast majority of you who have always been very supportive of me, it is appreciated.

Kind regards,

 

MC

Censorship of HRGR Forum

Censorship of HRGR Forum
11 July 2013 @ 18:23

Regarding the HRGR.es website forum, it has to be known that the censorship made on forum discussions, by eliminating for any reason part of or total posts written by owners under their own name, is prohibited by Law, both Spanish Constitution AND the European Community Charter of Freedom of Expression:

About the EC Article regulating our charter of freedom of expression, is the numeral 1, which reads "Article 20. [Freedom of expression]
1. Are recognized and protected rights:
a) To freely express and disseminate thoughts, ideas and opinions by word, writing or any other means of reproduction
b) Production and literary, artistic, scientific and technical information.
c) Academic freedom.
d) To communicate or receive freely truthful information by any media. The law shall regulate the right to the clause of conscience and professional secrecy in the exercise of these freedoms.
2. The exercise of these rights can not be restricted by any form of censorship."

We insist that from now on, this law should be respected and applied by all forum administrators.

In the event that it would happen again, we shall
keep copies of all infringements and hand them over for potential court action.

In conclusion, you have to just put up with the bullying and misinformation of a small group of owners at the resort if you dare to ask any questions or point out something that is not right.

Phase Presidents Legal Responsibilities

We have been actively working with the Committee to correct the injustice of the workers compound for the past 3 years and the Committee finally agreed that the site should not be used  as a workers compound as owners would seek legal action for this to be corrected.

The May 2013 Phase Presidents clearly stated this position.

It came as a complete surprise to each Phase President we understand that they legally represent each of the Phases as per the legal ,title structure of the resort. They had expected that all of the decision making for the Community rested with the Resort President which is now shown as not being the case.

Accordingly, we have requested therefore that they implement their own documented approved Phase Presidents Minutes especially concerning the actions required by owners to do with the injustices that are taking place for the Workers Compound. We are also informed that the STV gardeners will move if so instructed by the Phase Presidents as it these people in these positions that are responsible for the contracts within the resort and for meeting owners and phases requirements. Again legally, this has also come to be a surprise for the Phase Presidents concerned.

The Committee has now stated that they are working to rule and require the proposed court actions to be dropped and for the 2 Sub Community Presidents to apologise. We have cleared stated that the Committee is no longer fit for purpose and this direction by them will never happen.

We have been constantly verbally attacked in the past recent weeks for only raising a number of matters that do not meet our expectations.

Committee Work to Rule !!!!!!!!!!

To all owners,

At yesterday’s meeting of the committee we took the unprecedented step of deciding that we would, in UK terms, work to rule. That is for the immediate future, we will only perform such duties as are legally required of us. The alternative option was that the entire committee considered stepping down but this, it was felt, would be exactly what the minority are aiming for.

The cause of this decision is the threat by a small minority of owners to take legal action against all and individual members of the committee. This is on top of a continuing barrage of inappropriate e-mails and postings on various forums which have been insulting, inaccurate and deeply upsetting. This cannot be allowed to continue as it will make future recruitment to the committee incredibly difficult as few are likely to volunteer in the face of such vitriol.

In the short term, the two persons at the heart of this campaign have also been banned from our forum.

The work to rule will continue until such time as all threats of legal action against committee members are rescinded, there is a public apology for the nature of their e-mails and forum postings and a commitment that their future behaviour will conform to socially acceptable standards.

In the meantime, the committee’s work will be restricted to emergency management and matters covered by the Horizontal Property Act. Regrettably this means that contacts by owners to committee members will not garner  their usual response so please do not expect correspondence to be answered.

The committee wish to assure all owners that they continue to have the best interests of Hacienda Riquelme at heart and look forward to an early return to normality.

NB

Resort President

Hacienda Riquelme Golf Resort

Notice of Legal Action Feedback

Thank you for confirmation of receipt of our email, the notice therein served and the points you raised. We also acknowledge that the notice served has been sent to all phase presidents, thank you.


We do enact our legal roles as presidents of our sub communities in which majority discussions and decisions have previously been taken to enforce the actions so planned although this is not an requirement in order to readdress the current issues faced by individual owners.

We are instructed that legally there are 87 communities formed and properly registered in the Land Registry Office from Murcia under the Title Deed 3773/05 being 78 Sub Communities, 8 Phases and one for the Community of the Property Complex.  Accordingly we are informed that we need to give legal notice to the title holders especially for Phase 7 as this is where the compound is located and is comanaged under this phase legal title. In addition, the legal minutes of the Community and legal Phase Presidents representation are the monthly Phase Presidents Meeting minutes and as stated in the May 2013 minutes "none of the contractors have the right to use this area and that owners would start any necessary legal claim to avoid the continued use". This statement has full approval of the Phase Presidents as in the minutes therein issued and there is agreement that the contractors are engaged on behalf of the owners of the sub communities and Phases.

We therefore seek implementation of this direction by all of the Phase Presidents so elected and stated in the May 2013 Phase Presidents Minutes that the individual representatives of the legal entities aforementioned to which they all showed their approvals in the May Phase Presidents Minutes can be enforced.

In summary our actions raised to which we require readdress are:

Firstly, It's not just about the view of the compound. It's also about dust, air, Health & Safety, noise pollution and the combination these on the market valuation of our properties adjacent to the workers site. A screen is not going to block the dust, air and noise pollution, stop the additional traffic going in and out of the site and compensate property owners for the reduction in the value of their homes. Also we do not know what chemicals if any are being stored, mixed, sprayed or poured on the site and whether this could potentially be a health hazard to our owners and visitors.

Vehicles entering, moving around within and existing the site are kicking up dust and goodness knows what else which is depositing itself all over our buildings. If this operation was stopped the natural vegetation would grow back and reduce these issues and stop this from happening. To date the additional dust that has accumulated on the roof of our buildings and then washed down the side by the rain means that they are stained prematurely and are going to need to be repainted ahead of time. Besides the immediate issue, can you tell me how the individual Phase Presidents are planning to compensate Phase 7 owners for the cost and inconvenience of that?

Secondly, any threats from IRM to close the golf course because they have been asked to move their equipment is merely speculation and nothing more that that. All of their equipment is portable and can be easily loaded and unloaded at another location. If IRM close the golf course they will lose considerably more than the cost of moving their equipment to another location. So why would they close the golf course? The answer is they wouldn't they would sell it. 

Although we respect your views and some of the other Phase Presidents members, we don't agree with all of the views raised by the Resort President and Committee and neither do many of the other owners in the Sub Communities being affected by the contractors illegal use of the adjacent land. 

We will continue to pursue a legal resolution or until a suitable alternative is proposed by either the community or IRM. However at such time as writing, no suitable solution has been proposed and what has been done to date has been less than adequate.

In fact it does seems that the Phase Presidents are failing to understand the issue entirely.

 

 

LM                                                    JD
President                                           President
Tomillo 5                                            Almizcle 10

Notice of Legal Action and key points raised by Presidents Newsletter

Notice of Legal Action and key points raised by Presidents Newsletter

 

We need to stress that the following comment in this month’s newsletter, “HRGR is just not suitable as a general holiday resort” is distasteful and really is no concern of the President or Committee on how individual owners decide to manage their personal investments. We strongly suggest that the President focuses on managing areas within his direct responsibility only, 

In addition, the following points also show we, as Sub Community Presidents and Owners are heading in a different direction to the President and Committee:

1.   Workers Compound and Golf Course

Owners are entitled to expect what was originally sold to them. The local authority land is, we are all now agreed, not approved to be used by any HRGR contractor.  It's clear from this month’s president newsletter that the Committee are continuing supporting the contractor’s illegal use of the area currently defined as the workers compound and the Committee have no intention of resolving this matter to the benefit of its fellow elected representatives and owners. Furthermore, Nigel Bradbury's message could incite angst against owners in phase 7 for seeking a resolution to an issue which materially affects the market valuation of their properties.

Accordingly:

• Any screen existing or improved would be pointless.
•  We will continue to seek legal address once the one months notice is up in two weeks time unless the Committee informs their gardeners employed under contract to HRGR to vacate this area. This will also mean that we will have to name and take proceedings against the HRGR President and individual Committee members as they are the responsible owners in charge of the Community and service providers.
•  As mentioned above the Committee have been fully aware of these issues and ongoing debates however we are legally informed that we also now need to give you, as our Phase President, formal and legal notice, so that you can take this personally to the President and Committee at next weeks Committee meeting. This is hereby given  and we hereby give 14 days notice that we demand that your contractors using the land authority land on phase 7 relocate to other locations by 28^th August 2013. Failure to comply with this request will mean that we will seek a court injunction naming and preventing the President, individual Committee members and any contractors engaged by HRGR from having access to this site or using this site for reasons other than those previously approved by the local authority.

 

For the gol company the formal Notice has been duly served. If the golf course closes then we see this as a long term benefit to the resort as the IRM bankruptcy will result in a fire-sale of the golf course assets with valuations probably at give away levels.  We have estimated the operating costs of the golf course at 336K euros which equates to 200 euros per apartment per year with no revenue expectation.

Our proposal would be to charge each owner a yearly fee of less than 200 euros and each owner would be entitled to special golf rates that would be significantly lower than the current tariffs.  In addition,each owner would be given special rates for their renters and friends using the resort. There would also be public membership at realistic competitive pricing.
At least two of our Sub Community Presidents as well as other owners are personally prepared to set up this operation as really it is a no brainer strategic solution.

If this purchase were to go ahead at these rates then we are very confident that a significant majority of owners would concur with the purchase strategy.  A significant number of our golfers have also informed us that the new climate would also drive additional revenues for the course thereby creating a lucrative cashflow stream for the community.

This would also drive key economies of scale by having one set of contractors including gardeners,  massively reduced maintenance for the course. allowing the community access to the lakes and eliminating the current no- mans land between the community and IRM.

2.   Debtors and Polaris Debts

The general feedback on what has been said in this month’s Resort Newsletter is what on earth is Nigel doing?

Does the Committee really want to define who owners rent their properties to? What happens when parents bring put their teenager children’s and friends, are these now looked down upon?

Surely fewer rentals will mean more debtors?

For Polaris, owners are outraged that the President and Committee are not following the defined debtor’s policy.  It is inexcusable that the Committee is prepared to force foreclosure of individual owner’s assets and at the same time are not driving the same process for its biggest debtor, Polaris.

Nigel Bradbury should be giving the community of owner’s options with facts and figures (costs) on pursuing Polaris for their debt. His newsletter is woolly at best and sounds more like the mad rants of a dictator.

In addition, as this approach affects the long term viability of the resort and is a significant material change from the approved policy, then it should be voted on by all owners.

 

Accordingly, as we operate an agreed separate debtor’s process to the majority of the community, then we will take actions to the next steps in order to recover our sub community fees expected from Polaris. If Resortalia are unable/unwilling to follow this direction, then we will arrange for EGM’s to be called for in order to remove them officially and appoint administrators that will follow the Sub Community Presidents direction.

3.   Costs

We have for a considerable period stressed that costs for the resort are not in keeping with market rates and conditions. In addition, the lack of basis financial information to owners is disgraceful and needs actioning immediately.

We again call for the quarterly cash burn rate for the last 2 quarters and the next 10 quarters outlook.

4.   Communications

When you were Resort President then issues like the ones identified in this correspondence could be discussed with hopefully mutual results produced for the benefit of all. We believe this is no longerpossible with the current Resort President and matters need to change quickly or we will need to look for additional regime change.

5.   Health & Safety

The Sports area has been clearly shown to be a H&S risk which is why it was announced this week to close this facility.

We hope the Committee reviews the H&S policy and issues an update in this month’s committee meeting to ensure compliance throughout the resort.

 

 

  6.  Planning

We do really need to understand the cost implications of any new changes as these will not be appreciated by owners if the changes are too complex, intrusive or costly.

L                                                        J
President                                           President

June Newsletter

June Newsletter
11 July 2013 @ 07:56

Hacienda Riquelme Golf Resort

President’s Newsletter – June 2013

Regrettably, this newsletter is going to concentrate on some of our financial challenges.

Your committee continue to strive to work with Resortalia to manage costs and optimise revenue from our debtors but are unable to report success in one key area.

Polaris World.

 As we all know, PW are in dire financial straits. In discussion with them, it is acknowledged by PW that they are not able to pay their creditors, of which we are one but they continue to insist that it remains their intent to pay all our community fees. It is a fact that sales at Terrazas de la Torre are buoyant so it just may be that they are starting to see some net revenue which would enable them to make good on their promise.

The word on the street is that a number of creditors have initiated Court Action against PW whose response appears to have been that they will see the creditor on Court – which is likely to be in five years’ time. In the meantime, the creditor’s account sits at the bottom of the list for any potential payments so the net effect is that the creditor has fronted up legal fees and taxes which have no chance of reaching any beneficial conclusion for five years. Of course, the creditor has the feel good feeling that they have initiated Proceedings – but that is it.

Then, of course, we have to consider that even when we win our claim, would PW have the wherewithal to pay us?

This is the position we are in. We can either continue to communicate with PW and hope that if and when funds become available, they will pay us rather than anyone else or we can initiate Proceedings which may or may not yield a positive result in five years’ time but we will have to throw good money after bad to do it.

It may be that by taking Action we eventually force the sale of PW’s assets here on HR – and the sooner the better as the new owner will have to pay the last two years community fees. If so, this is a positive reason for initiating Action. But – it is conceivable that the banks will foreclose on those assets long before the Courts get around to forcing their sale so we would have incurred the legal costs for no return.

At our last committee meeting, in applying the thoughts outlined above, the committee decided to suspend any decision on suing PW for the debt pending the promised June payment. We will, of course, be monitoring the situation very carefully but can assure you that despite some opinions, we are not sitting idly by and simply doing nothing.

Bluntly, our options are limited to:

Do we sue and send good money after bad? or

Do we continue our discussions with PW?

Throughout my business career, I had a philosophy that I would only ever go in to a battle that I knew I would win. If I did not think I would win, I sought an alternative solution. In these circumstances, I think that any ultimate result would be a pyric victory so, personally, I have no desire to commit our community to prolonged and costly Proceedings.

Other debtors

 We used to contract a company called Community Fees Ltd to collect our UK and Irish debt but for some time have been concerned about their abilities. Accordingly, we have approached to alternative debt collection partners in the UK and I am delighted to report that initial impressions are very favourable.

In the first instance, debtors will hear from a company called CCDR who will endeavor to negotiate payment of the arrears including costs and surcharges. Normally we will accept payment plans that yield the full amount of the outstanding debt plus all current payments within an agreed period.

If the debtor will not enter in to such an agreement or defaults on it, we use a firm of solicitors called Welbeck Law to go to the UK Courts to gain an European Order of Payment.

We understand that some owners have made payments to CF Ltd which C F Ltd have not advised us about and have not forwarded to ourselves so we have initiated Proceedings against them through Welbeck Law. If you have made any payments to Community Fees Ltd , please check with Resortalia to ensure that we have received them. If we have not received them, we need evidence of the payment so that this may be added to the claim against C F Ltd.

We make no apology for taking a hard line with debtors and are actively considering how we may go about forcing the sale of debtor properties. We know we are unlikely to be paid out of a forced sale but at least the new owner will have to pay for the last two years’ debt and we will have stopped hemorrhaging funds as the old debtor continues to default. And, yes, we are considering PW in this option.

MC will provide the quarterly debtor report after the July committee meeting

Cash flow

 Because of the decrease in revenue due to the increase in debtors (PW being by far the largest) we are generating substantially less cash than was forecast. Accordingly, we have embarked on an austerity program and are only spending on existing contracts plus essential repairs to maintain our security and infrastructure. Although we budgeted for 100,000€ for long term repairs and renewals, our cash flow means we would be “unwise” to consider committing to expense when we cannot be sure that we will receive all our budgeted revenue.

Holidaymakers

 June, July and August are the months when those owners who rent their apartments seek to optimize their revenue so that HR resembles a holiday resort.

Unfortunately, too many holidaymakers are attracted by some of the extremely low rentals that can be had here but who do not understand that apart from the golf course, there is little else to do. If the holidaymaker does not have access to a hire car, their options are decidedly limited.

We have already had a serious incident when one of a group of teenagers renting a second floor apartment apparently tried to jump off the apartment wall. He failed to walk away from his misguided attempt. This same group had earlier been smashing glass on to the road and had an altercation with our security.

If you rent, please make sure that your tenants understand the limitations of our facilities. HR was designed as a 5* golf resort and is just not suitable as a general holiday resort.

Our owners and renters must also appreciate that they have no rights to enter the golf course area, which includes the buggy paths unless they are actually playing the course. Any unauthorised person who is on the golf course is trespassing and there at their own risk. If they, or worse, their child, are hit by a golf ball, they would not be covered by insurance and the golfer would have no liability for the injury.

Phase 7 storage area

 Owners on Phase 7 are understandably upset about how the storage area is being used by contractors which causes them varying degrees of nuisance depending on their position. Successive committees have recognized this and endeavored to improve matters for Phase 7 but, regrettably have had little success. It would appear that some Phase 7 owners believe that the committee does not care about this issue but nothing could be further from the truth.

The problem lies with the issue that there is nowhere else for our contractors to use that is remotely as effective as the storage area. The alternative areas for contractors to use are both outside our perimeter so would need to be secured before they could be used. One of these areas is adjacent to the pump house to the left of the road to Sucina and the other is outside our security fence opposite the end of Phase 6. We understand that both these areas are owned by PW or IRM so the golf course machinery could be moved to these areas but our gardeners would have no right to use these areas. This would mean that we have nowhere for our gardeners to base themselves.

Moving these operations will involve costs which, eventually, would be passed through to us – either in increased golf course costs or increases in gardeners’ costs.

For these reasons, the majority of the committee has not been supportive of the idea to force the contractors to move although we have tried to have the contractors reduce the nuisance of the storage area and to reduce its adverse visual impact.

Some owners on Phase 7 have now had enough and are taking matters in to their own hands by initiating legal action to have the contractors removed. The majority of the committee is not prepared to support the action because they believe that such an action would not be in the best interests of the HR community as a whole.

We should also have a concern that the golf course is owned by a consortium of banks who have no choice but to take a tough commercial line. They have already told us that they are making a loss on the HR course with no sign of an improvement until they can source cheap water. We need to be mindful that if we push them in to a corner they could choose to close the course. I have had the benefit of being in communication with IRM so have a very real fear that this could well be their response so have this comment to say to the good folks on Phase 7: “Be careful what you wish for”

End on a high!

 I continue to receive feedback from visiting owners that they are agreeably surprised at how well the resort has developed since their last stay. I am fully aware of all the areas that, ideally, we would like to improve but have to agree that the general look of the place is better than ever.

The fairways are recovering well from the outbreak of alien grasses which are now dying back though the greens have recently been treated so are not yet at their best but look as though they will be fantastic within a week or so.

NB

President,

Hacienda Riquelme Golf Resort