Also, Sylvia has assured me that the maintenance money, although held within the community account will be clearly visible and able to be examined at any time, that it will be “ring fenced” as only to be used for this sat tv system maintenance and that no call outs will be made or money spent unless on the direction of the appointed nominees namely Terry Sharp or myself.

Re The Freesat System Meeting, Maintenance Fund etc
Just to give an update, there were 6 couples who attended the meeting on 3.4.17 regarding the La Recoleta British TV system that was known as the Community Freesat system. We decided on a €40 injection from each owner on the system (currently approx 30) into a maintenance fund, that our Administrators Mar Azul under the direction of Sylvia would assist in the collection of and administration of the fund, (thanks Sylvia), that Moller would continue as our maintenance engineers, that Terry Sharp, who resides at La Recoleta and who is on the system would be the no.1 point of contact between president/administrator and the owners and that I would be no. 2.
€40 was then collected by me from each of the couples attending the meeting and receipts issued. I also passed around a sheet for the attendees to input their email details, onto which was also put the respective receipt number and apt number. What was really impressive and heartening is the fact over the next few days, several people as they were arriving approached me and handed over envelopes containing the €40, some even sending their key holders down to me with it. This just goes to show that we are part of a great community that pulls together when it is needed. As an example of this, on my second last day there, Terry and I went to speak to Orville Hawthorn regarding some concerns that he had and as soon as we went into his apt he said, “right, who do I pay this €40 to”. I explained that I had just passed on the collected monies to Sylvia the day before and that he could call at Mar Azul and pay it personally or do an electronic transfer.
I had a meeting with Sylvia on 12.4.17, handed over the collected monies, discussed the administration of the funds and gave her the receipt book and list of payees. She was thereafter going to email all others who are on the system to request the €40 payments, electronically or otherwise.
I feel confident, seeing the evidence so far, that we will gather a healthy sum of money into this maintenance pot that will comfortably keep us going for some considerable time.
The dish was re-aligned near the end of March, bolts all tightened up etc at a cost of €85 and as far as I can gather, the quality of reception is now back to normal. Terry is going to do the greasing up of bolts, joints etc himself, so fingers crossed it will be a while until any further maintenance is required.
Thanks again everyone and have a happy Easter.

Good evening all,

I would like to inform everyone about the works that are being carried out in the gardens, in an increased effort to improve them for everyone to enjoy. The committee and I have been working closely with the gardeners to make sure this happens. As well as their usual maintenance of the gardens such as mowing the lawns, trimming the hedges, pruning of flowers, cleaning etc. They will also be making improvements to the appearance of the gardens as a whole. This will include the improvement of the appearance of block entrance ways. The grass will also be improved by having new soil and a mixture of three different grass seeds laid. The earth will be turned and aerated during this process. The works carried out will be taking place starting now in November and finishing at the end of March.

The swimming pools will also be improved as I have explained in an earlier post and this work will be completed at the same time.

Good afternoon all,

As you may have noticed a new gardening team has now joined us at La Recoleta. This is because we had issues with the previous gardeners. These issues were evident to many owners, so action was taken to remedy this situation.

I just hope that this new gardening team are efficient, hard working and prove to us, with results, that they know what they are doing. We need some stability with a good gardening team at our community that we can keep on for the long term. I do not think it is a good thing to keep changing gardeners. I am sure however that their job to bring the gardens into an acceptable condition will be an impossible task without the installation of a good quality, efficient watering system. Irrigation is so important in our hot climate and the grass especially has suffered through lack of it.

Good evening all,
This is an e-mail received from the administrator, regarding my request to help inform owners more about the court proceedings. Below are points that I am legally permitted to share with you, at this stage. Any further queries are to be directed to the administrator.
____________________________________________
Dear owners,
Regarding the court case that has been put against the whole community of La Recoleta by Mr Andrew Kyle and some supporters, we would like to inform about the points they raised:
1. Ben’s ownership. Before the election of Ben as President of the community he already had a private contract between him and his wife for the apartment. This private contract was created because Ben was a way working at the time of signing, which is perfectly legal in Spain. He therefore was already liable for ownership, although not officially registered in the land registry. The latter was done shortly after, as soon as work commitments permitted. Before Andrew Kyle and Ray Clarke would accept Ben as standing for president they demanded to see Ben´s documents and it was confirmed by the previous Administrator that this was the fact.
2. EGM and not being called correctly. The meeting was duly called and sufficient proof is made available to this affect. If an owner does not receive the invitation then there must be an error in the Administrator’s data base, like change of email address or anything similar. Many proxy votes were received for this meeting. Five owners are backing up this claim of a supposed illegal meeting, those being Mr Robert McEwen, Mr John Roberts, Mr Iblin Vladimir, Mr Gordon Davidson, Mrs Encarnación Martínez.
3. Not accepted proxy votes for phase III. It should be known by the previous Administrator and President that phase III was not officially incorporated into the community yet. This was done only in February 2016 under the corresponding constitution meeting for phase III, the day from which on those owners are liable for community payments. Therefore, proxy votes from the builder in the name of the previous Administrator cannot be counted for some months before these properties physically belong to the community.
Our lawyer is currently preparing the paperwork to be handed over to the courts in order to prove all of the above. As the court case is against the community, there will be considerable costs for lawyers and legal fees in order to fight this and stop all the bad feeling and confusion caused in our community.
The current president has been made aware on several occasions that his personal documents with sensitive information contained within them has been circulated amongst other owners. This is against the data protection laws. Depending on the outcome of this court case all parties involved one or another way do reserve their right to make a counter claim due to defamation and damaging of reputation, plus any financial loss due to the above.
The management team / Administration.

Good afternoon all,
I thought this should be brought to everyone's attention. As it is regarding the community accounts. I hope this clears up any confusion to owners over the comments that have been made.

___________________________________________

Dear Mr Brennan and Mr Clark,
I am writing to you regarding some recent Facebook publications regarding our “efficiency and correctness of accounts” for the community La Recoleta.
First of all, I am sure you agree, before putting out such allegations to any third party, it would have been better to check the facts first. All information is perfectly available here in the office, would you have asked for it. If you think that invoiced community fees are real income, your are of course wrong.
Fase III was only incorporated in February 2016, which makes them participating for 6 months only, not the 10 months suggested. Here again, this is wrong.
I therefore urge you to rectify your comments as you are clearly suggesting that our three book-keepers and myself, together with the community auditor (who by accident was a bank manager and got a little idea about figures) are not fit for purpose but you know things better.
Now, as we got a complete set of accounts with some real figures, it will be possible to give a better idea of real income and real expenses for the future. And the budget – for your information – is a proposal only, for discussion at the meeting, to be approved by majority.
And to finish this off, yes, debtors are actively chased. Not only the two that were chased under the previous team. Please see enclosed the pile we had to put together to lodge all the court claims in your community, which is three packages of 500 pieces of paper. If you still suggest that we not doing anything, I will have to reserve my right to take you to court for defamation and damaging our company’s reputation. I will keep everything on record to this effect.
I trust you will react and rectify your statements.
Yours sincerely,
Sylvia Fries
Manager
Administración y Servicios Mar Azul, S.L

A new facebook page has been started for la recoleta friends called "Recoleta Friends" It is a closed group for ALL owners. All are welcome to join.

We were at apartment last week. The gardens are looking lovely at the moment. A vast improvement I must say. Keep up the good work.

just want to see the bill for thos lot