Thursday, 27 December 2012

Minutes of the AGM - December 2012


 
I am pleased to finally be able to publish the Minutes from the AGM held in early December - these are enclosed on the below link in both English and Spanish.  The UK translation commences on Page 22 and runs through to page 42....the final few pages show the balance sheets for the year.
 
 
The listing of all the "elected "presidents is shown on page 40, this is the 1st and only notification I have had from ML that I am no longer the P16 president and have been out-voted and replaced by Iain Mitchell. I wish Iain well in this role and am sure he will keep all owners in the block as informed as I have tried to do over the last few years. 

My personal thanks go to the owners who expressed their proxy in my favour at the AGM and I am sorry that larger political issues have seemingly undermined and clouded, what should have been a legitimate voting process but appears to have been anything but....

I am hopeful that this P16 blog will continue and I hope to bring details of the resort / area and future improvements that we all expect to see to protect and add value to our property investments.

Happy New Year
Mark Needham

Tuesday, 4 December 2012

AGM minutes and confusion

The AGM's took place at Condado recently and with thanks to Phil Tann who attended, I enclose below his notes taken on the day.  Please note  - these are not the official minutes and I reproduce them for you "as is" - with my comments at the end of the narrative....when I have the official minutes from ML they will also be uploaded to the Blog.....

 
The agenda started with the approval of last years accounts, Mileniun read a prepared statement and informed the owners that at the 2011 year end there was €587K in the banks accounts.  It was pointed out that this figure included some €757K of debt so in reality the community was €170k in deficit, after much discussion Mileniun still insisted in including the debt within the balance as an asset. It was noted that as the majority of this debt is from 2009 onwards it is unlikely to be recovered in the short term, if at all.  The accounts were approved by the majority of gardens with the bank vote being used in Naranjos 1 and Naranjos 6 to pass the approval.  

The proposed budget for 2013 was discussed next.  In my opinion this budget had many errors and omissions, for example; 
 
All the contracts with the service companies gardening, security, cleaning etc. expire on December 31st and have not been renewed as yet, making it impossible for the budget to truly reflect their costs.  These contracts should of been negotiated in Oct/Nov so  the costs would of been established in preparation for the AGM.

The budget was not structured in a way that conforms to the statutes of level 1 and 2, which could result in the community fees being incorrectly calculated.  For example the sports zone and Al Kasar are both connected to and enjoy Telecomm’s from A2Z but neither of these plots contribute towards the maintenance costs.  La Isla is simply another level 2 under the master community, all common services of level 1 should be shared by quota amongst ALL level 2’s, this is not the case at present.

Only €30K has been allocated for painting, this will barely cover the cost to repairs to areas of flaking paint across the resort.  Mileniun stated that they were working on this and had received a number of estimates.  If this is so, then they should be able to determine a ballpark figure for the painting, so why not budget for that?

The budget makes no reference to the maintenance of the building book.  This is a legal requirement in the Murcia region and without which the 10 year builders warranty is as risk of being invalid. 

The current contract with A2Z expires at the end of the year.  In May it was proposed that from January 2013 the cost of the internet service should be shared amongst only those owners taking the service, the monthly cost would depend on the exact numbers signed up for the service.  It was agreed in June that the costs would be presented to the owners at the AGM for them to make a decision on it’s renewal.  Mileniun informed us that this decision would now be taken by the level 2 presidents.   How can the owners decide if they wish to continue with the service if they are not being informed of the possible cost?    If level 2 decide to extend the service but the owners, having been informed of the increased price, cancel the service then the community will be left with the shortfall.  Conversely if level 2 cancel the service it may turn out that the majority of owners would of been happy to pay the extra cost.  This is why the decision should be left for the owners to decide, once they had been given all the facts.

The budget was approved by the majority of gardens with the bank vote being used in Naranjos 1 and Naranjos 6 to pass the approval.   The new garden/penthouse presidents were then elected.

A new president for Naranjos 1 was voted in by Mileniun who used the 35 bank votes.  Mileniun also used the bank vote to appoint the bank president of Naranjos 6, outvoting an owner that wished to stand for the position.

Of all the 2012 presidents I believe that only the president of Naranjos 4 was re-elected, all the other garden/penthouse presidents were replaced.  I understand there is some controversy over the presidency of penthouse blocks 12 and 16 where the existing presidents stood for re-election and were voted for by their owners but failed to be given the position.  I understand these presidents have contacted Mileniun for an explanation. 

Naranjos 2 as a level 2 community will now be represented by the elected garden president of Naranjos 4. 
Mileniun then informed us that all the remaining points on the agenda were for information only and would be decided by the new level 2 presidents.

End......

Debt is the major concern for the community and the odd accounting practices that ML employs in order to make a debt into an asset !!

The painting budget is non existent and one wonders if the contracts for the ground services have not been re-negotiated how we can be sure we have the funds to cover these costs into 2013 and beyond.

Despite my multiple requests to ML for an explanation they have been unable or unwilling to confirm who  was elected president for Penthouse Block 16.  At the AGM I was -re-elected in the room with a number of proxy votes  - however I have since heard from another owner in our block, who tells me that ML have confirmed that he was elected - ML have said nothing to me and its all rather strange as all the existing presidents have been removed one way or another.