Before and After pictures of the major Oroklini Hills upgrade

Dear OH5 Owners,

Warm Greetings from Cyprus!

As promised by email, please see below the Before and After pictures which demonstrate the extent of the major upgrade of OH5. 

We trust you will all view the Gardens to be quite impressive now, especially compared to what they were. Note that this came at no cost to OH5, as KSL made the investment. 

Before 

 

After 

Final urgent call for funds - Demorilo to finish at end of contract

Dear OH5 Owners

We take this opportunity to inform you that Demorilo will cease all services at the end of the current contract (end of September 2013).  According to Demorilo’s own accounts the OH5 debt reached just over 2,900 euro and they feel that it’s unsustainable to manage the complex, as so many owners were not paying.

While some owners in our complex have taken issue with Demorilo in the past, they remain popular locally and manage 11 complexes. We have spoken to the Committees of many and they are satisfied. The facts of the matter means that in the current economic crisis with Demorilo out of the picture, it will be very hard to find another professional management company willing to take on the complex and even individuals will show caution. Moreover, individuals either demand money up front or paying exactly on time, which is something we have not been able to do until now due to the volume of non-payers.

As the debt is mounting we are forced to start limiting services. Demorilo have been financing our complex for the past few months, so to avoid more mounting debt, we negotiated cheaper prices for August / September 2013 at 800+ euro per month (including sewage, pool maintenance, gardening, basic admin and cleaning) instead of 1480+.  Considering that the cost of the sewage disposal is now 400 euro per month alone due to the forced new system involving an increased frequency of disposing sewage we had to adopt, which includes stamps from Nicosia, the rest of the services are in reality being subsidized. The temporary fee will however mean we will receive limited and reduced services.

As a Committee, we gave strong warnings to all owners on the Blog and by email in July. Moreover, a number of owners were contacted individually and sadly the response was not as good as we hoped for regarding payments. We did however get a positive response from the usual core of responsible paying owners, but this was unfortunately not enough to pay the debts. Apart from a list of regular persistent non-payers, which has always caused the maintenance challenges (Quality, Palm View, Absolute all in debt), a new set of owners started not to pay (some are even resident in the complex) and this has of course caused the extra damage, which may affect all of us. This lack of funds in turn also meant that we could not start the sewage repairs that were voted on at the AGM in May 2013.

At this juncture, all Committee members will discuss this new development as a matter of urgency. Owners should be aware that services might well be affected as a result. There are only limited funds to work with at present, however all incoming funds will be used to cater for critical services such as the sewage (now more expensive than before) and the Swimming Pool. The last Electricity Bill was paid by Grant Holmes and we still have a few weeks before the next one.

We welcome the individual input from fully paid owners that have supported the OH5 community until now, as we are in a critical situation and they have the right to influence what happens from here on.

We advise all owners not to pay any money into the Demorilo Account any more.

Currently we have no funds and debts to Demorilo (mentioned above), Insurance and water Irrigation. Utility bills will come in soon and we risk even Demorilo stopping services sooner if we cannot pay at least something towards the debt.

Despite what may have passed, this is an opportunity to clear the decks, let bygones be bygones and come together as a community of caring owners. All owners with outstanding debts now have an opportunity to show their good will to the community by depositing into the Committee Account (details attached) by 1st of September 2013. As bank transfers take a few days, simply send details of your deposit to this email address. For owners with large debts a minimum deposit of 500 euro is expected, thereafter we can create a payment plan. Owners with lower outstanding payments, we just ask to bring your account up to date until the end of August. If you are experiencing financial difficulty please make contact with us and we will arrange something, however in all cases we need to see a token of good will.

Owners that do not show a token good will and have outstanding debts, will be placed on a list of non-payers, then contacted by someone from the Committee or a Credit Agency. The list will be shared with all fully paid owners owners, as everyone paying regularly has the right to know who is causing such harm to our complex.

In closing, please act quickly, as this is a matter of urgency.

OH5 Committee

Crisis in Cyprus and Bank Account update

Dear OH5 Owners

No doubt you have all seen the international news and read about the economic crisis in Cyprus, which is still unfolding.

Our current funds are around 1000 euro and as such not affected by any haircut. We do feel however that it’s better to close the current account and ask Demorilo to collect funds on our behalf as before. The reasons for this are as follows:

1. As a Company Demorilo will be able to collect funds in a variety of ways Bank Transfer, Cash and PayPal. Due to the crisis, we need to collect funds using different ways facilitated through a professional administration Company, which can be held accountable. 
2. As Committee members we have never collected any cash personally (except for Fund raising) or PayPal payments, as we thought it unwise to do so. In light of all the heated conversation about accounts, this proved to be the right choice. 
3. Individual Accounts have a spending limit of 300 euro per day, which is limiting. Moreover, as a Committee, we only ever-used Cheques for payments (except when one of us or Demorilo paid personally if there was no funds available), so it could be recorded, now cheques are more difficult to use for suppliers. 
4. Clearly company Accounts have more flexibility; hence it’s in the best interests of the complex to take advantage of a Demorilo bank account. 
5. As Demorilo complete the accounts, it also makes the process faster, to ensure accounts are updated more speedily, as a couple of owners have requested this of late (before we received no requests). 
6. As there is an AGM in May, we should close the Committee account before then. This will facilitate an orderly transition. 

For any owners with a direct debit, we kindly ask you to cancel it. We will close the account over the period of one month to allow for any direct debits that may come in.

Meanwhile, Alison from Demorilo will be in touch soon to request payments. We ask all owners to cooperate with Alison and bring their accounts fully up to date.

Grant, Brian and Costas

Letter to Owners

Dear OH5 Owners

Further to my last communication, I would like to report that with the support of committee members, we met with Absolute on a number of occasions to resolve all remaining issues. Here below is a summary of all points... 

Overview

Despite making great strides into the collections of funds, which at one point was over 50% of owners not paying on time, the total debt is now currently around 6,000 euro, which is mostly down to 6 serial non payers. Click the link below to see the 6 apartments that refuse to pay, as you have a right to know and I promised to inform you.

6 apartment non payers

Whilst we have kept all operations going including massively increased Electricity Bills, Pool maintenance (including a major repair last year), complex cleaning, Gardening (we have a new plan to optimize for the summer) and convinced Absolute to cover all of our extra sewage costs within the existing agreement (value of around 3,500 euro per year) due to sewage issues which we cannot afford to rectify (8,000+ euro cost), the reality of the debt and the non payers means that we cannot afford to execute necessary work on the complex to our mutual benefit. 

Absolute would very much like to raise the monthly cost, so that we can tend to the necessary repairs. The reason behind this is that our cost is going up and the contingency fund of 15% is completely swallowed up by the following...

• Vastly increased Electricity costs.
• Increase in VAT by 2%.
• Non payers as reported above. 
• Additional Sewage costs. 

As a Committee we are reluctant to do this, as our intention was to actually decrease the cost, however the above realities is making the situation nigh impossible. Regardless, we still think that raising the monthly is not the right move at this time, so the only solution we can come up with is a combination of the following...

1. To create a one off payment to execute emergency repairs. 
2. To additionally hold a Fund Raising Event.

Emergency Repairs

Following an inspection of OH5, we detailed the most pressing matters in this document: OH5 Complex Repairs. 

With the summer coming we need to take this action with immediate effect. 

One off payment

The goal will be to create a one off payment to cover the cost of the repairs detailed in the link above.

To organize a Fund Raising Event

We have the good fortune of Committee member Costas Costa living in our Complex. He is actually a well known Magician / Comedian in Cyprus. 

Lithos Bar agreed to give us a FREE venue and to charge 10 euro for entrance to experience the following... 

• Costa Costa LIVE
• A Magic Act
• DJ with Retro Music for dancing. 

All entrance fee proceeds will go to OH5 to conduct repairs. Our Goal is 100 people = to 1000 euro + income from a Raffle. 

The Event will take place on Saturday 12th of May and we ask all members to actively promote it. Here is an link to view the promotion: http://www.oroklininews.info/2012/05/costas-costa-performs-at-lithos-bar.html

Conclusions

• The monthly fee will remain the same for the rest of 2012 until February 2013 at which time we will re-access. Please ensure that you account is paid up to date.
• All owners will be asked to pay a one-off fee for repairs. If any full paying member wishes to object, we ask for this in writing. 
• The Fund raising Event will occur on the Sat 12th of May in Lithos Bar - we kindly ask you to support us and spread the word as much as possible (Tickets available from Lithos direct).

Thanking you in advance for your support and we welcome your feedback. 

My very best regards

Grant Holmes

On behalf of the OH5 Committee

Barrier entrance repaired

The Committee is pleased to inform all OH5 Owners that the Barrier to the Car Park Entrance (which was hanging on with 2 bolts only) was repaired.

the actual fact the Barrier pole was bent due to an impact from the inside or some kind of vandalism(we cannot be sure).

The barrier has been repaired and is now fully operational.

The OH5 Committee

Urgent issue with the Swimming Pool

Dear OH5 Owners

In the past weeks we have have experienced some challenges with the Swimming Pool.On a number of occasions we observed that the Pool was turning Green quickly.

As a Committee we kept reporting the matter to Absolute and the correct Chlorine levels re-balanced the water, however the issue kept re-occurring. We understood that the problem was created as a result of a combination of frequent electricity cuts affecting the pumps, extreme hot weather and filtration issues.

Out of concern, we then asked Absolute to make a thorough investigation into the matter and here below is the diagnosis and suggested solution:

QUOTE
Simon Tunnah our qualified pool manager visited Hills 5 pool again this morning to take a Cyanuric Acid reading and as suspected it was well over the norm.Cyanuric Acid (Stabiliser, or Cyanuric Acid, is a compound which protects the chlorine from the negative effects of UV and heat. It not only ensures that our pool remains clean and safe for the swimmers throughout the day, but it also reduces the amount of chlorine we need to add in order to maintain these levels of disinfection). The actual test reading today was 119ppm(parts per million)which is too high as the ideal is between 30ppm min - 80ppm max. Whilst the pool is reading high cyanuric Acid levels, we are wasting time, money and frustrating all involved as the chlorine that we are regularly have to add is not being regulated/stabilised properly. The pool needs to be drained fully and then fresh water applied, followed by all of the chemicals then being rebalanced. The only way to lower the Cyanuric Acid levels in a pool is to replace the old water with new water. Remember Cyanuric Acid is the chlorine stabiliser and the chlorine cannot do its job properly if the Cyanuric Acid is too high and this is the issue with the Hills 5 pool.

The aforementioned issue is being compounded by poor filtration. The filter size is not relative to the size of pool and the water has to travel a long distance to and from the pool which is not ideal also. To ensure that we can maintain this pool properly we at least need to replace the dead water and we will probably manage then to work around the filtration issues.

The pool will require 114,000 litres of replacement water or 25,000 gallons = 25 metric tonnes.

The estimated cost to remove and refill the swimming pool will be in the region of €600.00 plus vat.
UNQUOTE

Unless we hear objections from any OH5 Owners reading this message, we are taking the above suggested action, as sanitation issues such as thee cannot be taken lightly.

 Meanwhile, we urge all OH5 Owners and their Tenants to express extreme caution when using the Pool and not to use the facility until the above-mentioned action has been taken. 

Meeting 1st of August 2011

Dear Owners


The Meeting below took place and the key minutes will be uploaded after our vacation which finishes 17th of August. If we have the opportunity to update before this time we certainly will.


The Committee


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Dear Owners 

Please be advised that on the 1st August 2011 the Committee will be meeting with Absolute Property Management ,should you wish us to address any points please put these forward before the meeting date allowing us to add to the agenda accordingly.

Meeting Notes will be provided by Absolute and will posted on the Blog as soon as received.

Message to all Owners concerning communal rules

A number of people living (mostly renting apartments) in the complex are unfortunately not abiding by the set rules. The main issues are:

• Dogs are being let loose in the garden areas (making mess) and around the Pool area. Subsequently we will can no longer permit Dogs to be anywhere around the Pool or Garden areas (on a lead or otherwise). In all other areas Dogs must be on a lead. The Council supports this action and any breach will be reported to the Council. Moreover, we are preparing signs to support this move. We ask all Owners to inform the people they rent to and to be vigilant in enforcing the rule.
• We observed that some residents outside the complex using our Pool and shower facilities. We are already creating signs to prevent this happening and again ask all owners to be vigilant to enforce the rule.
• A number of residents mostly renting in the complex are placing unauthorized Satellites directly outside their balconies. This tarnishes the image of the complex and is against the original communal agreement. All satellites should be on the roof. We ask that all Owners speak with the people they rent to enforce the rule. 

We thank all Owners for their cooperation.

OH5 Committee