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Playa Turchese Residence Newsletter #4 – How CRAZY!

 

Hello everyone.

Summary:
– Flooding
– Damage list
– The latter costs were not foreseen in the 2024 budget
– Work done recently
– Future work
– Insurance
– Accounting
– Pool renovation
– Reminders
– Conclusion

– Flooding

As you may have noticed from the various videos shared on the WhatsApp group. We’ve suffered repeated heavy downpours that have once again highlighted the residence’s shortcomings in terms of rainwater drainage.
The modification of the entrance to the parking lot and the fact that the swimming pool is under construction have prevented the worst from happening. We must therefore consider rectifying the situation so as not to suffer the same inconveniences in the future. Our current financial situation does not allow us to incur major expenses, so we have 2 solutions open to us. A “palliative” solution and a “definitive” solution.
– Palliative option: Creation of at least 2 holes, shallow but watertight, so that in a very short time we can insert the hose end of a water pump to rapidly evacuate water from the lowest areas of the residence (below unit U2 and behind the office). By gravity, all the stagnant water in the residence ends up in these areas. This cost has not yet been estimated, but it shouldn’t be very high.
– “definitive” solution: Creation of several registers in the residence, connected by pipes and pumps to send water to a new, large main register behind the office, and connect this register to the Inapa wastewater disposal system (slight increase in monthly Inapa fees). The only contribution I’ve received so far has been cancelled, as the person in question realized that it would take too long to agree and raise the funds, so he preferred to withdraw and start another project elsewhere. Today I’m supposed to be visited by other engineers to estimate the work and its cost (5.15pm).

– The latter costs were not foreseen in the 2024 budget:

In order to react as quickly as possible, we had to invest in new equipment:
– A submersible electric water pump
– A very powerful and noisy diesel-powered water pump.
– A new electric generator (nothing to do with flooding)
– 2-day rental of a gasoline-powered water pump
– Parts and labor

– Damage list:

The flooding caused a number of breakdowns and damage:
– Electrical failure of several septic tank pumps (one had to be replaced)
– Electrical failures in the office
– Garden lighting
– Automation of the office entrance gate
– Common internet connection
– Sensors on vehicle parking gate
– Several surveillance cameras
– Moisture marks on walls at building entrances.

– Work carried out recently.

Due to the amount of water on the ground, many repairs could not be carried out.
We’ve already taken care of:
– All septic tank problems.
– The problem of water pressure in the apartments. (Be sure to test your installations carefully, as many apartments have seen their pipes break due to age, so adjust your taps to get the pressure you want).
– Vehicle portal sensors

– Future work

– Repairs and improvements to the camera system
– Repairs to common internet connection
– Repairs to office gate automation and keypads. (I’ll have to reprogram all the tokens. Please return the tokens I gave you)
– Repair of the garden lighting (I’d like to reorganize the layout of the lights so that they’re no longer hanging from the palm trees, but given the urgency of the situation and our finances, I’ll try to go as economical as possible).
– Repair the electrical system in the office (there isn’t even a light bulb working…)
– Renovation of paintwork and anti-humidity treatment on the walls at the entrance to the buildings
– Connecting the electrical generator (Hopefully tomorrow …)
– etc ….

– Insurance

This week I have to provide an updated list of owners in order to bring the contract up to date. I’ll also be filing a claim for flood damage. Our current contract is supposed to cover us for this kind of catastrophe, but you should know that it also includes civil liability for each apartment. I therefore invite all owners who have suffered damage in their apartment to put together a file containing a precise description of the damage, invoices if you have already carried out repairs and/or contributions. Please attach photos and videos. Those who have additional insurance for their property should contact their insurer.
All the invoices I have already received concerning the costs inherent in the work already carried out will be duplicated and modified for the occasion in order to add a 20%. These invoices will be provided to the insurance company to try and get the best possible compensation.
I’m going to add future contributions. Let’s hope that the insurance will enable us to absorb a good part of the costs already paid and those to come.

– Accounting

To date, there is RD$ 888,438.69 in the bank account and RD$ -119,018.58 in the till.
You should know that the corporate bank account we have at Santa Cruz Bank does not allow us to have a debit card. This means that every time I need cash I have to go to the branch and write a check to get cash. I can’t afford to spend so much time in queues. So I use my personal card to make online payments (paying electricity bills, for example) and to make ATM withdrawals. I’m going to make a transfer from our account to mine to recover the money I advance every month.
So we currently have RD$769,420.11 available to finish the year! I still have a few October bills to pay and November and December bills to pay ….
Knowing that once the pool is finished, we’ll have to pay around RD$700,000 to the Pro Pool company. I spoke with the person in charge, who said he could arrange for payment in 3 instalments, free of charge (to be confirmed).
Some of you have generously offered to start paying 2025 so that we can finish the year and at least guarantee regular services until 2025.
Quick summary of monthly expenses: Garbage, Security, Internet, Salary, Water, Gas, Insurance, Electricity, Pool… (some bills are variable, but this represents close to RD$400,000/month)
You don’t need to be very good at math to understand that we can’t finish the year with what’s in the account.
So it’s obvious that we’ll start 2025 in debt.
My ambition was not to increase contributions, but we have to admit that we’re going to have no choice. We’re going to have to put everything back on an even keel and make good forecasts for the coming year. Once we’ve sorted out a lot of things, everything should be back in order and we’ll eventually be able to reduce contributions, but unfortunately 2025 will cost us more.
To date, there is a shortfall (between those who pay monthly and those who have not yet paid) of at least RD$378,792 in the account.

– Pool renovation

After a flying start, bad weather interrupted the work for too long. Work has now resumed. The next stage is the construction of the pool’s contour before tackling the sealing and installation of all connections to the new filters and pumps, as well as the light fittings. Then comes the final part for the application of the final marmoline coating. There’s no scheduled completion date, but we hope to have it all done by mid-December.
We’ll need to manage the connection with the garden by adding some lawn around the pool (budget not yet assessed).

– Reminders

I receive many (too many) messages concerning breaches of the house rules (behaviour of pets, laundry on terrace handrails, etc.). Please take a look at the rules and make the QR code clearly visible for those who rent out their apartment.
Remember to create your account on the website so that you can take part in discussions. Please contact me, as I’ve had to disable account creation because robots are automatically registering. I want to control who can access them.
Remember that I need to recover all tokens already distributed in order to reprogram them.
You can join the WhatsApp group by following this link: https://chat.whatsapp.com/HbeKBhYUk8FJiNHuJE4ssU
You can join the private Facebook group by following this link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/residencialplayaturchese
I’m still missing information from several landlords: https://www.playaturchese.com/owners-form/
If you have long-term tenants, please share some information with me so that I can add them to the list of tenants: fill in this form
Please continue to list things you’d like to see improved or changed by filling in this form:

– Conclusion

I’d like to thank you all for your support and participation. It’s a pleasure to see that we’re much more united than in the past, and thanks to this union we’ll be able to move forward faster and in better conditions.
The bad weather kept me busy day and night. Now that the bad weather has passed, I’ll be able to concentrate on other important tasks and prepare a very detailed balance sheet where you’ll be able to consult all the operations with the corresponding invoices, as well as prepare a forecast for 2025.

Thank you for your patience and trust. Please continue to send me your criticisms, proposals, suggestions and experiences.

You can comment on this newsletter by following this link: https://www.playaturchese.com/community/news/newsletter-4/

Alone I go faster, together we go further!
Administratively yours!
Felipe