El Andalous - First Owners' Group Meeting

New building going up beside El Andalous

As I believe I mentioned before, the drama over the water and electricity being cut back in September had the benefit of bringing the owners together. It was decided that it would be good to have a social group meeting every Thursday so that we could all get to know each other a bit better. For me, this was very good timing.

I hopped over with my plastered foot to the meeting place by the pool and there must have been about ten of us there. I’d met one guy already in the corridor as he stopped to talk to me when I was hobbling to my door and he'd asked what had happened. One good thing about the foot is that it is a good conversation starter!

Of course, the conversation was dominated by the ongoing situation with the management company’s continued threat to turn our water and electricity off again in January as well as by the various court cases against the management company. The Russian courtcase was to be on Sunday, so some people were planning to attend that, if it didn’t get postponed again.

I wasn’t too sure what the set up was, so I didn’t bring anything with me, although some people had provided soft drinks, beer, and crisps. I’m not sure whether it is acceptable to bring wine out into a public place and I’m not sure whether our poolside is regarded as private or public, either. I guess it is private, since I’m paying for it in my maintenance costs?

A couple of people even skyped into the meeting out of curiosity to see what was going on, believing it to be a more formal meeting than it actually was. I think I was the only person present who was actually living there rather than being there for a vacation, extended or otherwise.

Everything is still quite confused at the moment. The management company has written to ask whether we want them to continue next year or not; residents have different views and different approaches as to how to react – with many different nationalities and cultures to contend with, and with most communication happening only via facebook, which isn’t ideal, misunderstandings are easy and a lot of time is spent just clarifying intentions. Various sub-groups (not necessarily opposed) have formed.

This social group has become known as the “friendly” group – probably because we don’t have an agenda, anyone who is an owner can come along, and we are there just to get together and socialise a bit. At the moment, though, conversations about what is going to happen here with the management are pretty much unavoidable, even if it is just us venting about irritations, confusions, etc.

I am myself confused, but that’s nothing new. My electricity meter has broken due to an electricity surge, as far as I can see (they showed me the meter and it said VoltSurg; no-one else's was broken, only mine). I was asked to pay for its replacement, but I emailed the management company to argue that it was their responsibility. They still claim I should pay.

Then, a guy knocked on my door one evening and, to my surprise, handed me my electricity and water bill. I was a bit flummoxed. I looked at the bill and was confused as to how they got the electricity readings if the meter is broken. I guess it could be an estimated reading, but it’s not clear.

I also freaked a bit when I saw that water charges were 900 EGP for one month in August, I think. I asked the guy to wait while I checked, saying I wasn’t happy with the charges, but realised as I was half-way towards hobbling to my bedroom, which is where I've stored my financial folder, that I could just ask to pay him the next day after I’d checked. He seemed happy with that and left. But then I was puzzled as to whether I wasn’t even being asked to pay just now and the invoice was for information only. So many things at the moment happen to me about which I'm unclear. I will need to ask someone.

As it turned out, I worked out that the 900 EGP was from the previous tenants and they’d paid me the money, so at least that much is clear (and obviously I will now pay the money to the management company). Anyway, bottom line is that at the moment I am still very confused as to how these bills and payments work. L guess I will ask someone at the next friendly meeting.