Till now a lot has been said and written on the internet by many different people, who all have their own opinion about that 'debt' and whether the budget should go up or not. Finally for all 'new' owners and specially for those, that for various reasons can not or do not want to come to the Extraordinary General Meeting on Friday 26th October 2007, we would like to add some explanatory words from the Administrator to have you informed completely.
First, everybody is entitled to have his own opinion and every one’s opinion should be respected. Finally the majority of votes will decide, which opinion should be accepted as being ‘ours’. The outcome should thus be respected by all of us.
When we at the beginning of this year became your new Administrator, we knew it would not be easy. It started for us having to wait for months before we had all paperwork handed over to us. Of course we were held responsible directly from the start for daily matters. We were continuously being asked questions and more questions. Posed by people, which we thought they would know more than we could know. We just came aboard, but the homo sapiens can be merciless. We have answered all questions at all times honestly and the best we could, realizing we had to grow fast in knowledge.
We all grow in our knowledge and understanding. Meaning you never can take one’s quotation made in some past to use it as proof for decisions you have to take today. Like the previous Administrator has said certain things, meanwhile her life was being made impossible by certain people, who are now quoting her as it is so convenient. Neither one can quote a mayor, who during his electoral tour visited an urbanization being build by a promoter whose political enemy he is and obviously not knowing what he was talking about said something that suited him best at that moment i.e. for his election.
Adding to that the most important thing, which is that we should be aware of the fact we’re living today looking forwards to be able to build up a nice future. Also therefore it is very desirable to put an end to certain matters from the past. That’s why we are having an EGM, so we could finally say goodbye to that past. We, as Administrator, have been confronted very strongly with an inheritance, which is not ours, but we will try on a legitimate way in an open dialogue with all owners for once and for all to have these things settled. So finally you can start enjoying the good life at MCC. Therefore we need and ask your full cooperation.
What has happened according to us:
When we came aboard there were still appointments dated from the time the CoO had been constituted. Those were definitely outdated and needed after 2 years must urgently being adjusted. That’s our job, that’s what we’ve been hired for. But we couldn’t get things done, because this Babylonian confusion was too big. In the EGM of last June hardly any decision could be made, meanwhile we had asked several 'suppliers' to have a little bit more patience and wait till this Meeting.
Impossible, contracts had to be revised, reason being a new Security Company and a new Gardening Company were being contracted. How had they been contracted before?
Firstly it appears strongly, that it all has been a painful history, of which we do not know the subtleties and do not need to know them. What matters is the essence and the essence is you should start a CoO someday, somehow and it should be able to keep up its own pants. You can’t rely on daddy all your life, you’ve got to stand on your own feet. When you look at MCC today you see a (almost) complete urbanization, where people fully live. It’s not a campground, where no facilities are available. They are available to all owners, so they should pay for it.
In the beginning of 2005 there has been inventoried, which services would be required or should logically be paid for by the CoO. Still some people discuss about these matters. But what do they know? We, as Administrator are running more than 50 Communities and we can tell you fees at MCC are relatively low (average in Spain is between 80 and 100 € a month, let alone in your own country). Specially when you take into account the MCC is to be considered a higher standard residency. It is a very nice urbanization indeed. But only the sun rises for nothing.
Anyway, one should once stop nagging about the past, use common sense, you can’t live on someone else’s money for the rest of your life. It stops somewhere. There isn’t any law that says you should pay what someone else uses, nor any law that says you can use whatever you want and someone else will have to pay for it. Law is simply text based on common sense written in juridical terms. There’s no more to it, you really don’t need any lawyer to explain that, would you.
So several services were listed. And a specifically set up company for this, Mazápolis, would have one overall contract with the CoO for one fixed total price and they would contract and deliver those services like: cleaning service (37,277.76), waste bags (11,923.20), diesel generators (64,800), Security Service (92,782.80) with a car (6,480), that neither run on water (2,400), gardening (68,622.72), water (16,000) and a complete sewerage system including a special for this urbanization made purifications installation (77,830). All figures to be found in the budget of 2005.
These services would be given or contracted by Mazápolis with various companies and as a whole charged for a fixed price to the CoO for 378,116.48 € per year. Thus passing on all risks of price changes charged to Mazápolis. A yearly contract with silent extension with only an index raise every January. Only the CoO had the right without having to give any reason to stop with the contract only having to give notice one month in advance.
This contract has been signed by the former President of the CoO and will be shown Friday. It's not a secret contract. The services have been used since the beginning till past summer only not all burdens have been satisfied. The very first time, Mazápolis has been paid by the CoO was one year later in June 2006. Then a few payments took place and the rest has been compensated with the monthly fees Huma was due to pay as contribution to the CoO.
Totally Huma has thus until today paid just over 470,000 € as contribution for mainly pieces of land, where no lighting, no park service, no surveillance or sewerage system is needed. Meanwhile they paid precisely like anybody else according to the participation coefficient of what they owe for services meant mostly for the rest of the owners. Meanwhile also having paid all extra bills they received but could contractually not pass on to the CoO and they paid Mazápolis, the people who work(ed) there, who satisfied most owners as we recall from the EGM of June. The rests of all owners have paid until today something more than half a million Euros. The exact amount will be made known in the Assembly.
There just wasn’t enough money on the account of the CoO, because too many owners did not fulfil their payment obligation. There are always many people who just go with the flow abusing the disorder. Eventually they will all pay, for good or for bad, for Spanish Legislation is very clear about this matter. Again, it’s only common sense.
Altogether there’s a debt of the first 12 months of the existence of the CoO of almost 150,000 € that went up till the end of 2006 to over 200,000 €. In 2007 the present Administrator, without knowing about any dispute, paid the monthly bills, so we’re only talking about the period before him. The present Administrator has recalculated everything accurately and according to him the total debt is some 195,000 €.
How can it be, that we were able to make all payments in 2007? Because especially before the AGM of January lots of people paid and the present Administrator summoned all debtors quite soon after that to pay their debt to the CoO. At the moment, end of October 2007, the total amount of non received contribution is still some 220,000 €. Once again, the exact sum will be made known Friday in the assembly, because at the moment many people (suddenly) pay.
All services past years have been consumed by the owners/urbanization and did cost Mazápolis and Huma more than the contractual agreed fixed price. Meanwhile we hear people ask, where has all that money gone? Meaning the received contribution? As if money disappears. Nothing disappears, we are paying bills monthly of around 40,000 € according to a budget we have to live by. We’re doing our job. Nothing has disappeared, we consider this a very severe and not justifiable mistrust. We pay for services knowing they haven’t been paid before yet, while they have proofed to be more expensive.
We’re just facing the fact that not fulfilling the counterpart, being a contractually agreed upon payment of which still is unpaid 195,000 € downright is breech of contract. We consider it thus very probable, that when this matter will make us end up in court, we will be forced to pay all of this debt, and the rest. It doesn’t matter to us as Administrator, this is not a plead trying to justify any irregularity of the past. We only think it's the easiest, smoothest and smartest way. We are doing our job, using common sense and helping you to make the better choice. Nobody has to pay anthing more than the fees he already is obligated to pay for. It doesn't cost anybody anything more. Unless we vote for not paying the actual debt and then we might have to pay more.
When we, the Administrador and the President, finally thought, that we understood, we went to Huma and agreed upon monthly payments of 10,000 €. We only paid once early in September.
The ‘mutiny’ that arose about this so-called Gentlemen’s Agreement has made us finally decide to have owners themselves decide about this ‘tricky’ point. Naturally we communicated to Huma we were not able to continue paying and they from their side haven’t paid any contribution lately. First we’ll have an EGM. Huma will not vote, it’s completely up to YOU.
Resumé we will show attendants at the EGM the yearly budget is just over 480,000 € (of which almost 380.000 € is Mazápolis). Monthly budget is ± 40,000 €. We’re now in October so 30 months after constitution. 30 x 40,000 is 1.2 million. Huma has until now paid 470,000 € and all remaining owners together totally a 510,000 €. Perhaps that this Friday meanwhile it will be 520,000 €. Remains that altogether a 200,000 € of non received contribution fees is still due, so are our payments to Mazápolis. Reason being we call again everyone’s cooperation to help to minimize this sum. Once we start paying we’ll really need it.
So far the debt, the new budget:
We consider it being unnecessary to explain why we as Administrator have proposed a small raise of the budget. We just want to mention not every one is able to affect the value of his property that easy as who owns a property part of a Community.
Have it run with a minimum of budget, you pretty soon will taste an atmosphere of poverty.
Or you simply invest some tens of Euros a month more and it will become a prosperous place, which anyone would envy. Then you’ll notice properties rise more in value or getting faster sold than elsewhere, because people will know. This is not just any place, this is the Mazarrón Country Club! Something to be proud of !
We, being your present Administrator, know, we can manage this urbanization optimally. We only depend very strongly on the financial elbowroom made available to us. The present proposal means for the average house on MCC a raising of 6 € a month.
We want to wish everyone lots of wisdom at the moment of voting. Might you have not send us your proxy yet, please do not forget to do so. The more votes, the better the outcome of the voting reflects the real opinion of most owners. Do not leave it to the (relatively) few who do come to the Meeting. Same for candidates, who will be the future Board of Directors and thus decision makers, up till now we only received 2 nominations. It’s your Mazarrón Country Club, nourish it.
Kindest regards,
Emil J. Böttcher