Las Torres Update March 04, 2010
Dear Coco Tores owners,
thank you for your quick and positive response received in the last couple of days. I want to bring to everyone attention some of the questions and suggestions that have come up and i will try to respond to them with best of my knowledge.
First of all;
After many attempts to contact Mr. Rick Hockenberry (the owner of unit #24) i finally succeeded yesterday and also spoke with his accountant Chris. Both Mr. Rick and Chris are in agreement with what we are trying to get accomplish and Mr. Chris assured me that he will make it possible for the balance of Mr. Rick's unit to be paid in full and the additional $1000 in order to complete all the necessary work. After the balance will be paid Mr. Rick will receive a certificate of ownership just like the rest of us did.
Mr Serguei the owner of one unit (nr?), originally owner of 6, writes the following:
We were all promised by Mapache, that the complex will be completely finished by the middle of October 2009, when they asked for a balance payment in August 2009 and that they needed that money to pay off the creditors and to finish the project by the middle of October 2009.
Since then the money has been spent on paying off the creditors and supposedly on the project.
When we asked Mapache in November 2009 what was going on and why the project was still not finished, the answer was that Coopeguanacaste demanded to install 4 transformers instead of 1 as originally planned. Then it turned out that all wiring from the units to the meters needed a re-wiring as obviously Mapache and/or their sub-contractors did not do it properly in the first place.
I personally never liked the "hush-hush" maner of doing business and I think that all major issues should be discussed among the owners before making any decission.
By defenition, the holding company for Las Torres shares is still in control of Mapache or their representatives.
Mr. Serguei, i could not agree with you more about how misleading Mapache has been throughout this whole time, they have made promise after promise and never they were able to fulfill their obligations, i am only not disappointed but infuriated with the amount of disregard that they have towards our investments, time and trust. But let's remove our personal feelings for a moment and let's keep focusing on what needs to be done.
"i personally never liked the hush-hush" way of doing things either and for the first time owners of Torres del Coco are getting accurate and trustworthy information, and indeed we need to talk and make decisions - i think that the major decision that everyone needs to take now is whether we want to finish this project or not. If yes, here is what i propose we do:
1. We must send the additional $1000 per unit is a secure trust account that already has been establish by the lawyer that we all know by now, Manuel Arias and whose information i have send on my previous email. Those funds will not be released to anyone unless we (owners)all are in agreement on what and how it will be spent.
2. Receipts and contract information will be available to all owners for review and personal records.
3. Get the most recent and accurate request from COOPEGUANACASTE along with a proposal and full description of what needs to be done. I believe that Mapache already has that but additional due diligence must be done.
4. Hire the adequate company for the concrete bases where the transformers will be installed and supervise the work of the concrete job and the transformers installation.
5. If outside rewiring needs to be done we must have a full understanding of what is involved and beware of potential pathways and landscape damage.
6. We must obtain guarantee from the installers for the maximum time possible.
6. We must make sure that the job is done neat and in a timely manner.
7. Additional parking area should not be overlooked as it needs major repairs as well.
8. We also must get different proposals from management companies, review the proposals and hire a competent team to manage the property. As of now we have no security guard on duty.
Mr. Serguei also suggested that we should have a Homeowners Associations with elected officials to act on our behalf.
I think at this point WE should act on our own behalves and there is no need to pay any extra association fees or unwanted delays that this process may cause (who the officials are?, at what expense they will represent us?, voting, etc...) We are on the last hundred meters of this long marathon and i believe that we can do this on our own.
When we have a manageable asset that we can get revenues from than we should definitely have someone taking care of the daily and monthly necessary services and association fees will then be collected.
All the 48 shares that the initial company used for building these units, we indorsed and signed over to the lawyer Manuel Arias and then new shares were issued with everyone name on them as prove of ownership. Not one member form Mapache's company owns one unit and i don't see how they would have any control over this project. I will talk with Manuel Arias and get clarification whether we are at any kind of risk at the present time.
As of today i have the commitment of 28 owners and 19000.00 will be wire in the account from my group in the next 3-5 business days along with my 5000.00 for the 5 units I have. Others have emailed me in support and also said that they will send their money. I look forward to everyone cooperation and of course let's all join forces so we can finally enjoy our investments.
I will copy this email to the blog provided by Mr Serguei where you can post your comments but i don't mind responding to individual emails as well
http://www.1costarica.net/blogs/las_torres_owners/archive/2010/03/03/current-status-of-the-las-torres-del-coco-project.aspx#comments
Best regards
Sorin Costache and Anatoli Barsukov