10 July 2020 

Double Standards

In a remarkable display of double standards, Mr Barrow, the purported President of the Development Owners Association (DOA), has dismissed the 185-strong owners’ petition protesting at his, and ONA WimPen’s, cavalier attitude to statutory rules and procedures governing the approval of major capital expenditure at the resort, and the conduct of annual general meetings of the DOA.

185 owners of 443 weeks (and votes) petitioned against Mr Barrow and ONA WimPen which is twice as many as got them elected at the disputed 2018 DOA AGM with 225 Escritura votes, and four times as many when ONA WimPen employees and associates’ conflict of interest votes are discounted, as they should be.  Yet 185 Club and Escritura owners protesting at the way he and ONA WimPen are now doing the job is not enough for Mr Barrow to respect their feelings and address their concerns.

How can this ever be justified? And is this attitude indicative of things to come whereby the legitimate concerns of a sizeable group of owners are sneeringly dismissed as being “…a poor show”.  It certainly appears so, judging by the reports from owners at other Onagrup controlled resorts such Ogisaka Gardens, Ona Campanario de Calahonda and Club Cala De Mar to name a few.  Resorts in which Onagrup has ridden roughshod over their respective constitutions and owner wishes.  A situation illustrated by, for example, hiking up owners’ annual maintenance charges, implementing ad hoc charges on owners and chasing owners via debt collectors (all excluding itself, of course, given that no evidence is available to owners showing that it pays maintenance charges on the apartments it claims to own) in order to fund infrastructure changes deemed “necessary” by Onagrup (as against owners) to allow it to offer these resorts as ‘Premium Aparthotel’ on the rental market with a view to acquiring increased profits for itself.

The 185 petitioners clearly don’t matter to Mr Barrow who has chosen not to reply to the Club Chairman’s letter sent to him by email and by post on their behalf, but instead has derisorily snubbed them on his DOA website https://www.losclaveles.eu and vowed to carry on disrespecting their established rules and procedures.

He makes unsubstantiated claims on his website that owners have been phoned up to get them to sign the petition which is not true.  In order to have any credibility he needs to back up his claim with the names and signatures of the owners who have been contacted by any of the committee and asked to sign the petition. 

On a much more important level it is fundamental to acknowledge why owners may be reluctant to sign the petition and that is fear of possible repercussions – for their continued ownership rights, their relationships, their reputation, and their access to information, e.g. the DOA website.  In essence, fear of being targeted if it is found that they have signed the petition.

Mr Barrow can remove owners’ fears by issuing a statement promising that no owner wishing to comment on his actions will suffer any kind of retribution if they sign a petition.

In the interest of free speech he needs to state that none of their legal rights under the constitution will be removed if they oppose his or Onagrup’s actions.

In the meantime, the petition will remain open on the owners’ website to give owners who have not yet had time to take part the opportunity to give Mr Barrow and ONA WimPen an even clearer message that they must respect the wishes of the majority of owners at Los Claveles and abide by the long standing legal rules and procedures that are in place to protect owners’ interests both now and in the future.

Signatories to the petition will be protected.  Their names will not be revealed under any circumstances.  With this guarantee owners who have not yet signed the petition are urged to do so to defend their rights against the attacks that they are currently under from Mr Barrow and ONA WimPen.  If you wish to have a thriving independent resort in the future, free from the control of 3rd parties with their own commercial agendas, then you must step up now to protect your resort.

Do not be misled by Mr Barrow’s propaganda – this petition is not about obstructing improvements being made to the resort as he would have you believe. It is about holding him and ONA WimPen to account for the cavalier way that they are making unauthorised major expenditure decisions and excluding the majority of owners from having any say in their resort that they have funded with their money.

Yours sincerely,

Albert Fletcher

Chairman, Club Los Claveles