Mascara22

Does anyone know the details of the new property management that has taken over from Gesproseur please? Anyone on Marina Esuri?
Or how I can get in touch with Barbara Trayer M4 please?
Many Thanks

MikeJ

Where did this come from? There have been no announcements.

MikeCol

Our property is on ME and we have had nothing to say that the management company has changed.

Mascara22

I've been told that it's Manzana 3 and one other. Went into see Gesproseur yesterday as had a query. They said they were surprised and it was voted in AGM in August and we would be notified soon, but I've had no notification. So confusing.

Mascara22

Dear owner,

During the last AGM the owners decided to change the administrator of your community. Now, the administrator will be one of your neighbours whose office is located in Huelva. He will contact all owners next week.

Best regards,
Mateusz

This is the email I received

MikeJ

For the sake of clarification does this only apply to M3 and not to the Marina Esuri Intercommunity?
(I was at the Intercommunity AGM and Gesprosur were confirmed for this year)

Mascara22

Looks like it's only some Manzana, not all. Definitely M3, but not sure which other .

MikeJ

M2 have never been Gesprosur

keithBT

Whilst Gesprosur seemed to do an efficient job, I'm assuming they contract the gardeners etc. Speaking for M3 ONLY we are charged 1000 euros a month for the garden maintenance -( Labour). Fair enough - in summer he needs to test the pool water/ clean filters and keep it all tidy, but there still never seems to be enough work for him. I see him trim three or four inches off the tops of the hedges making one hell of a racket with a petrol trimmer. I see him mow ONE inch off the grass. Last Spring he built a mini wall along one side of the garden which IMO was totally unnecessary. In winter we only need a gardener once a week. Last winter he seemed to turn up for an hour or two every other day. Don't know why we pay 1000 euros for that.
THEREFORE, with my optimistic hat on, I'm hoping the new company will do a better and cheaper job. M3 is also the only manzana that has never been totally repainted. Just bodged up by Fadesa. Our fees were increased by 25% last year to afford a fund for it, but again IMO any savings wasted on the garden maintce could be put towards this costly repaint job - Circa 40K I think.
I would welcome comments from all other owners to see if they think similarly. PS. I'm not really a grumpy old sod!!!!!!

bitmanev

i see the same at Vista Esuri; cutting grass over and over again while there isn't any thing to cut and using those noisy blowers almost every day blowing leafs around to play with

MikeJ

I’ll try not to be contentious but you have asked for opinions and I assume you mean ‘warts and all’

Not quite sure what you are blaming on Gesprosur – they administer the Manzana on behalf of the owners; directed on a day-to-day basis by the community President. If you are paying €1000 pm to your gardener then that is because the community decided to do that (by agreeing to the budget presented at the AGM). If you wanted to pay more or less then that is when it should have been raised and changed. IMHO €1000 is not a great wage when you take out social security payments, tax etc.

In our Manzana, we pay a bit more than that for a dedicated concierge service. Our concierge has been with us for a number of years and has proved himself invaluable. He does an awful lot more than just gardening.
[BTW if you mow much more than an inch off the Spanish grass type you will expose the tender shoots to the hot sun which will burn them and kill them off and very soon you will have a waste ground. Little and often is the best bet. You cannot expect a bowling green lawn]

At one time there was a movement towards getting a cheaper solution. Some residents proposed (a friend from Huelva) to take over the management. On further inquiries, it transpired that the services would be provided by ad-hoc contractors on what we in the UK would recognise as a zero hours contracts. The implication was that we would have a series of nameless people having intimate access to the Manzana. Many of us thought that this was a severe security risk and had doubts about the quality of service we would actually get. We were happier with the continuity of a well-known and trusted employee on a decent contract which provides him with a living wage and a degree of loyalty in return. The work he does keeping the environment maintained is protecting our investment (who wants to buy a beautiful apartment if it is set in the middle of a waste land).

In the early days and in the period around the collapse of Fedesa the community charge was set at a level needed to support the community based on the number of owners. A little while later it became technically feasible to reduce the charge. At that time it was decided by the majority to keep the charge more or less as it was. This incremental amount which nobody really missed has allowed a contingency fund to be built up. The parable of the ant and the grasshopper springs to mind . This fund has allowed us to commission a number of improvements to the Manzana, including the complete repaint; relining of the pool; improvement of the pool filtration which will improve hygiene and reduce running costs in the longer term; landscaping and new planting which generally improves the attractiveness – and our enjoyment – of our Manzana, Next year we will be installing improved guttering and drainage. All this without having to make extraordinary increases in the community charge.

ISTM that Gesprosur is being blamed for the management failures of the community or bad or short term decisions in the past. You may be throwing the baby out with the bath water. I have no particular brief for Gesprosur but our Manzana has experience of the main management protagonists and effectively carried out a competitive tender to choose Gesprosur (based on value, not just cost) and they have performed well since then. It is telling that 5 of the 7 Manzanas and the Intercommunity are administered by Gesprosur. You may get cheaper but I suspect you are unlikely to get better - simple economics says that you get what you pay for (as long as you manage it !)

keithBT

Mike, I agree that a lot of what you say makes sense in that I would not want to see any part of ME deteriorate. The gardens are well maintained but my point was that they are manicured unnecessarily. The noise levels from hedge cutters and blowers are horrendous when you just want your breakfast on the terrace in peace. I just don't see the point of trimming 3 or 4 inches off hedges. The grass is so short it is full of moss. I have only owned the apartment since early 2014 and I have no idea who decided the frequency / specification of the maintenance, but I do see a gardener ( usually a different one) turn up scratching around trying to find something to do. It really needs reviewing. Whilst I have usually found Gesprosur very helpful I am hoping that the change might bring some improvements. Regarding the gutters - you need to avoid them at all costs. They have been a total failure !! On M4 many of the duplex and 1st floor apts suffered flooding during heavy storms soon after installation, caused by the guttering. Gesprosur - not the insurers - paid for repairs & redecorations. The gutters creak a lot and they drip like echo chambers after rain. Moreover the rain in Spain is invariably heavy not soft and hence the volume of water off the roofs overshoots the gutters rendering them useless. A less extensive network of downpipes from the terrace outlets would solve the problem of the ground floor apts having their patios dripping with water which was the original complaint. The installations to date have been overkill.

Strangely, the choice of management was not on the agenda received for the AGM. I am more than surprised to hear we have fired gesprosur.

MikeJ

Hi Keith
Thanks for your info re the gutters. Our AGM to discuss this is next month so the info is very timely and I have passed it on, hope you don't mind.

Sounds like you have been victims of a mini-coup. It was attempted here. I think you will find that a mandatory item on every agenda is "re-election of officers and administration", Shows the importance of getting your proxies to the right person.

One of the things that is done with our concierge is to give him specific terms of reference. This avoids the possibility of makey-work tasks which give the impression of industry. Mind you our President is Spanish and lives on the Manzana and so is there to make sure we get VFM.

keithBT

To Mike J, I sent you an email via this system with info regarding the gutters.

......Keith BT.

MikeJ

No email received. Try a pm
Mike J