We are frequently asked how all of the problems arose at
Hacienda Riquelme Golf Resort and w
hilst we are not privy to all that has gone
on within the confidential committee meetings, we are aware of the communities
culture and substantial resort-wide material matters that exist today.
hilst we are not privy to all that has gone
on within the confidential committee meetings, we are aware of the communities
culture and substantial resort-wide material matters that exist today.
The presidents and the various members of the committee over
the last five years have predominately consisted of retired expats that have
very little to do having sold up or retired to the resort.
Back home in the UK, they would have had their own
properties and gardens to look after, jobs and a local community to interact
within. However, at Hacienda Riquelme it is really a ghost town apart from the
two busy summer months when the occupancy of the resort grows from less than
100 residents to over 4,000 holiday makers. This was recently commented on and
confirmed by a Telegraph Reporter from the UK.
In some parts of the resort it is so quite that even
spotting a car moving within the resort is commented upon in the winter months.
It can be days and days before anyone sees a new face or for that matter a
friendly face out by chance.
So we have a group of expats that are bored out of their
minds wanting to be within a committee to relive their boredom. That would be
all well if they were to listen to fellow owners suggestions, ideas and
problems but this is not an open, honest and transparent resort.
It would also be wise if they had the necessary skill sets to manage a
multi-million major operational site however, they do not and are lost
with the "keys to the sweet shop" attitude.
Time and time again the committee have been asked to live
within its means and not spend more than the cash it receives. To chase
aggressively each and every debtor and not leave this difficult issue to
Resortalia, a local small administration set-up that really does not have the
international or for that matter local breadth and knowledge to chase 1.2
million euros of debtors. A clear example is the polaris debt where upon local
sub communities were asked not to budget for these garage spaces in the 2015
community fees yet the general resort budgeted for the substantial town centre
community fees for polaris based upon the committee decisions!
For every penny spent the committee really need to
understand that it is not their money, their pockets but ours, each one of the
1,864 owners within Hacienda Riquelme. Time and time again they have signed
contracts with insufficient local expertise or local benchmarked costings
resulting in higher prices and profits to a select few companies
They really do need to engage and listen to the locally born
population of owners that do have valid opinions and expertise, they can always
help if they are ever called upon to be part of the decision making process.
Instead, their views are sidelined and material matters such as the empty
lakes, the gardening contract, the workers compound, polaris strips and local
costings are never considered.
We have previously called for a boycott of the Sub Community
president positions as taking part in thee elections when the sub community
presidents are never listened too or communicated too is really a complete
waste of time. It is encouraging to note that a substantial number of owners
took part in this boycott with the lowest level of attendance at the AGM in
March 2014.
As we move forward the committee will move somewhat in our
direction as can be seen by the implementation of the EUCC which we have called
for some 2007. Now that this is implemented then perchance the golf course may
start to pay their community fees having been a free loader for the past seven
years.
The polaris
lawsuit settlement was another clear example
where the committee took the first offer on the table at 10% of the
awards
required to correct the building defects. This award now looks to be
opportunist as the first instalment was not paid on time in Feb 2014.
How on earth each sub community will fix their buildings defects with
only 10% of the funds required beggers belief.
In closing, a lot
depends on the golf course company and their use of the water in the lakes to
irrigate the golf course.
Now that one of the major lakes is now bone dry then
it will only be a matter of time before all of the lakes are empty. Now is the
time to grap the bull by its horns and clearly challenge the status quo
otherwise we will end up with similar messes as other resorts.
Time
will tell……………….. But sadly not within the Presidents monthly
newsletters as these no longer appear, we wonder why no comments since
December 2013!
