15 January 2021
The Truth, the Whole Truth, and nothing but the Truth
Dear Club Member,
I now have in my possession a letter from Sr. Castro, CEO of Onagrup. This is dated 17 December 2020. Myself and others were not included in the distribution and explains why I have only recently received this letter third hand. The Sr. Castro letter is an attempt to justify ONA WimPen’s continued presence on the Resort and includes financial information to assist in this justification.
As a reminder to what I have previously advised:
ONA WimPen have been ordered to return all property to the Club Committee. This includes all financial records, the Register of Members, money collected and held in the bank accounts operated by ONA WimPen but belonging to the Club. Property also includes the keys to the Club owned apartments.
How can anyone trust Sr. Castro, WimPen and Onagrup when they flagrantly disobey the rule of law? ONA WimPen have no contract to be involved in the affairs of the Club but rub salt into the wounds by issuing accounts of a dubious nature. Sr. Castro signs the letter “Acting as Manager for Los Claveles DOA” knowing that no such position exists and has been made up to mislead everyone that he has authority to perform the duties he has invented. You have been advised previously that Mr Roger Barrow is the President of the Development Owners Association (DOA). If this were the case then Mr Barrow is the only person that can act on behalf of the DOA. However, you will know that when the DOA annual general meeting took place that elected Mr Barrow the Club was not allowed to vote. For those Club members who go back as far as myself you will recall that at joint annual general meetings, the Club was allowed to cast its block vote. In reality this meant that the Club controlled the DOA having a majority membership of around 85%. Mr Barrow needs to explain in what authority he has appointed Sr. Castro as Manager.
I am not able to comment on the figures produced in detail in the accounts presented as I have not been given access to the financial information held by ONA WimPen, but some things do stand out.
As ONA WimPen have no contract they are not entitled to pay themselves €183,070 in 2019 and the same again in 2020.
As FNTC (Trustee) have been dismissed by the Club they are not entitled to receive a payment of €22,309 in 2019 and the same again in 2020.
In relation to income. There is no explanation as to what the “Blocked Weeks” are. Which weeks (owners) have had their weeks blocked? By what authority have those weeks been blocked? The “Club Weeks Rental Income”: Which weeks are those and by what authority have they been rented?
By ONA WimPen’s own admission they allocated 1200 weeks to 9 companies. These companies are registered in ways that are difficult, if not impossible to check their validity. I have evidence that shows that the Club owns many of these weeks. Where is the information that shows the income from the sale of these weeks (albeit transferred to the companies illegally)?
Finally, ONA WimPen have admitted that Ernst and Young have compiled a financial report that shows how the joint account(s) should be divided up. This Ernst and Young is a Spanish subsidiary and will advise on Spanish rules and regulations. I have written to Ernst and Young and they have replied to me stating that they can only release the report to me with ONA WimPen’s permission as they have commissioned it. (The Ernst and Young correspondence is available here.)
I call upon Sr. Castro to openly publish the Ernst and Young Report and to allow the Club’s forensic accountant access to all financial information held by them. I also call upon Mr Roger Barrow to instruct ONA WimPen to release this information.
The truth, as always,
Albert Fletcher
Chairman, Club Los Claveles
NOTE:
Payment by members of their annual maintenance fees to the Club are made to the limited company, Club Los Claveles Ltd., and not to the Committee or myself. This company is registered at Companies House and complies fully with all of its legal requirements. The Company is owned by the Club.
It is undisputed that the Club’s Contract with ONA WimPen ended on 2 May 2017. For this reason, it was illegal for ONA WimPen to continue to invoice and collect maintenance fees for villa occupation after that date, but this has not stopped ONA WimPen from doing so. Hence, the Club Committee, as instructed by Club Members, has been pursuing all legal avenues, both in the UK and Spain, since the 2016 Club AGM to force ONA WimPen out of Club Administration.
At that 2016 AGM, Club Members approved the appointment of Hiro Bulchand as the Club’s Administrator from 3 May 2017. A limited company, Club Los Claveles Ltd., was set up to send out invoices and collect annual maintenance fees from Club Members on behalf of the Club Administrator. The Solicitors for the Club wrote to ONA WimPen advising them of this, but ONA WimPen ignored this and continued, illegally, to issue invoices to Club Members. This led to confusion and resulted in some members paying the invoices they received from ONA WimPen as they had always done, some paying Club Los Claveles Ltd., and some paying neither.
ONA WimPen has ignored the law and continues to illegally invoice Club Members directly for the full annual maintenance fee, which includes the common areas service charge. (This legal restriction on ONA WimPen was clearly stated in the Spanish Appeal Court ruling of 30 January 2020 which is available to view on the owners’ website.) As Club Chairman, I have repeatedly written to ONA WimPen, year after year, requesting annual invoices for the Club’s share of the common areas service charge. All my letters were ignored because ONA WimPen refuses to accept that they are no longer the Club’s Administrator.
Club Members have also repeatedly instructed the Club Committee not to publish the Club’s accounts while ONA WimPen continues to act illegally as the Club’s Administrator.
Club Members should also bear in mind while reading Sr Castro’s letter that they had no say in the €780,000 that he states has been spent on the common areas. This was approved solely by Escritura owners representing less than 2% of the owners at Los Claveles, including Onagrup and WimPen as owners. The financial risks that they have taken in committing such huge sums of owners’ money, at a time of major uncertainty caused by the Coronavirus pandemic, are massive. This is not a time to be taking such risks. However, it is clear that ONA WimPen are intent on continuing to take further financial risks in spending the Resort’s reserves on villa refurbishment. Club Members should have a say in this and that is why legal action was taken on their behalf to impugn the 2018 and 2019 DOA AGMs, and force ONA WimPen to include Club Members in the process of approving annual budgets.
Sr. Castro makes a wild, unsubstantiated claim that €600,000 has been spent by the Club Committee and myself as Chairman on legal expenses to remove ONA WimPen from Club Administration. This is completely unfounded. Furthermore, ONA WimPen, a company whose contract with the Club expired on 2 May 2017, and FNTC, a trustee that Club Members voted to replace 8 years ago, have taken €1m in administration fees out of the Resort’s funds since the dispute began in 2015, as documented in successive annual accounts since then.
It is accepted that this, and other communications from me, may not reach all Club Members. This is because ONA WimPen continue to disobey the law by not returning the Register of Members to the Club Committee.