Electra and Tecnicil

Over the past few months you are surely aware that we have had our ups and downs when it comes to the power and water. Mainly downs, if we are to be honest.

The attitude we had was that it was best not to burden you with the constant and sometimes quite strange battles we had to try and get our resort connected to the national utility company.

However given the positive feedback we have had even with the sharing of not so positive informaiton I thought we would tell you where we are at the moment. Or at least, where We believe we are.

Electra did a follow up and final inspection on the resort. Here is in the communication we had:

Recepção Provisória ELECTRICIDADE pela Electra:
Em 21 Out.09 fez-se a vistoria final de Electricidade com a Electra.

No dia 23, o Engº Miranda (responsável Electra no Sal) enviou informação para a Electra (S. Vicente), sobre a vistoria, não havendo nada de relevante que obste à assinatura do Auto (informação colhida na vistoria).Os autos foram assinados pelos Empreiteiros, Fiscalização e Dono da Obra e enviados para Electra (S. Vicente).

This says that on the 23rd Engineer Miranda, the man responsible for electricity on Sal Island sent information to his HQ on the island of Sau Vicente that shows there is no relevant obstacle to the signing of the order [for connection]. The orders were signed by the contractors, the onsite management company and the owner of the works (That's us, at Tecnicil Imobiliaria) and sent to Electra in Sau Vicente.

Once Electra have signed this "Auto" then the electricity can be signed up.

The water situation is one step behind this. The communication we have internally is this:

Foi solicitado à Electra, há cerca de 2 semanas, vistoria da rede de águas (solicitado para dia 13 Out.).

O técnico responsável sobre quem recai a acção é o Engº Neves (Electra) que já recebeu orientações do Planeamento da Electra para proceder á vistoria.

Contudo, até ao presente ainda não conseguiu marcar data

Nearly two weeks ago I requested of Electra that they sign off on the water network (requested for October 13th).

The technician in charge of this, Engineer Neves (Electra) has already received instructions from Electra's Planning Department to carry out the inspection.

However, up to know he has not managed to give us a date.

So you can see that in theory we are right on the cusp of having electricity and a hair's breadth from the water. I say "In theory" because there could still be some delay on Electra's side. However there should be no other obstacles to having power and water.

As soon as we have more communication we will put it here for you all.

Dates for your diary

We have finally had some dates back from the different construction divisions on Sal Island. These are dates to which we have added a margin of safety so it is very likely that the units are finished earlier. However, we have accepted that we need to improve our communication and in the spirit of this have decided to post all of our dates. We will update them as we go along and will answer any many questions as possible.

Please bear in mind that there is no one "reason" for the delays. The Cape Verde Islands present a logistic challenge to us and indeed any other company and we are working as hard as we can.

Apartments

Phase One

C07 - SEDUM - COMPLETED
C04 - CANNA - COMPLETED
C05 - ALOE - COMPLETED
C11- COPROSMA -COMPLETED
C03 - ATRIPLEX - COMPLETED / Snagging Ongoing
C09 - PEPPER - COMPLETED / Snagging Ongoing
C08 – FICUS - February 28th
C06 - CALLISTEMON - January 30th
C10 - TASSEL - December 30th

Phase Two
C01- LANTANA - April 30th
C02 - CACTUS -May 30th
C12 - RAPHIS - May 30th
C13 - MELALEUCA - June 30th


Villas

A78/A89 - January 30th
A29/A40 - February 30th
A41/A51 - March 30th
A68/A77 - April 30th
A52/A67 - May 30th
A1/A28 - May 30th


Townhouses

B3-33 /37 – YUCCA - February 28th
B3-29 /32 - YUCCA - March 30th
B3-21 /28 -YUCCA - March 30th
B3-12 /20 - YUCCA - April 30th
B3-7 /11 - WASHINGTONIA - April 30th
B3-1 /6 - WASHINGTONIA -April 30th
B2-30 /34 - WASHINGTONIA -April 30th
B2-24 /29 - WASHINGTONIA - May 30th

As the building and completing goes on we will have more workers focused on a gradually reducing number of units so we do hope that these dates will not be accurate. But we do guarantee that they will kept updated if we do see any changes.

Once again, all comments welcome and if you have any questions about your particular unit or situation please write to us on info@tecnicil.com

Have a great weekend!

Furniture Installation

Some of you may know that a few months ago the furniture arrived on Sal. However, it was in the port for quite a while.

A couple of weeks ago we cleared the containers from the port and began the delivery and installation process. Not all of the furniture has been unpacked in the apartments, we are mainly just delivering and will be unpacking a little later. The important thing is that it is ALL there.

I have put some of them here, but you will all probably agree that this year's Pulitzer is probably not going to be awarded in Cape Verde.

Further Clarifications

Good afternoon.

As you know we are trying to unify communication via this Blog because it seems that it really does work quite fast and certainly proves more reliable than the email.

After receiving many clients emails and seeing the confusion and concerns that are clearly propagating we wish to make the following points very clear:


1. Clients that are NOT in the Tecnicil Rental Scheme ARE free to rent their apartments out themselves, both directly and also indirectly, via local agents. However, touristic services in their units, housekeeping, maintenance and such like can only be carried out by Tecnicil Hotels and Resorts (TH&R) which is the onsite management company designated by Tecnicil Real Estate to be the Sole Administrator of all the resort.

We will endeavour to provide the pricing for all services provided by TH&R as soon as we can and we are committed to ensuring that these prices are competitive within the market.

Also be aware that the resort management company will be audited externally by Price Waterhouse Coopers and that the accounts will be transparent an available to you, the owners, as ths resort will be yours.

2. Clients who have ALREADY completed and signed title deeds and ARE PART of the rental scheme, will receive the rental return from the date of the signing of the deeds - as long as they have fulfilled all requirements that ARE within their control: Deeds signed, final payment made, furniture payments up to date, rental contract signed.

3. The clients who have bought furniture via MRI or other companies will NOT be able to enter the rental scheme nor receive a guaranteed rental income. However, TH&R will be happy to enter into talks with these clients with a view to negotiate a contract for renting out these units. This is done to aid those clients who may have been left without the support they had originally expected from other parties.

If you have any doubts or concerns please do not hesitate to contact us at info@tecnicil.com



Have a good evening.

Furniture and MRI

We would be grateful if any clients who have purchased furniture via MRI would get in contact with us via info@tecnicil.com as soon as possible.

Thanks in advance!

Snagging for Pepper is now OPEN!

Today we are delighted to announce that we have notified all clients for Pepper Community (C09) that they can now snag their properties.

To this end we would ask that you make the relevant arrangements to do so. We would recommed the use of a third party snagging company as they often enjoy more flexibility being based on Sal as well as, if you have a snagger who speaks Portuguese, we can accommodate them more easily.

Another milestone reached!

Clarification of rental restrictions

Many of you have seen in the general rules and regulations, namely in clause 12 under "General Use and Management"that there is restriction on clients’ wishing to rent their properties. We would like to explain the reason for this restriction and clarify its application.

The most important thing that we want to look after is your investment in Vila Verde. For those of you who have not seen it, the resort is taking shape and is beginning to look very smart indeed. We know that, despite the annoying delays we have experienced to date, it will not disappoint anyone when it is completed.

However all the properties need to be maintained if they are to grow in value. Plus it is vital that we present the highest quality image in a sustainable way.

This is of utmost importance when you consider that the resort is practically 100% foreign owned and nearly all clients will not be in full time residence. Consequently we need to appoint a management company whose job it will be to run the resort after it is completed and to maintain all properties and facilities to the high standards that we all aspire to.

In line with the current practice for the management of tourist resorts, the commercial rental of properties is the responsibility of the onsite management company. This allows us to obtain the best possible terms and offer our clients a guaranteed income package that is stable in the long term.

But this does not mean that clients may not rent their properties privately in their country of residence whether through their own friends and contacts or the internet. To restrict the freedom of clients to rent their properties themselves would be unfair and was never Tecnicil’s intention. What it does mean is that clients may not rent their properties through an “entity” that is to say, a commercial company.

We do apologise for any misunderstandings and encourage you to write to us at info@tecnicil.com with any further questions.

Please be aware that we are working to clarify any worries and concerns you may have and that it is our intention to deliver a first class resort and maximise your confidence and investment in Tecnicil.

Atriplex Snagging and Deed notifications

We are extremely pleased to announce that today we have sent out notifications for title deeds for the community of ATRIPLEX.

This marks yet another milestone in the progression of the Vila Verde Santa Maria project.

While true that we have suffered delays, we are sure that you will be as happy as we are to see ATRIPLEX finished now. This now leaves us

Some clients have asked when we notified them for snagging. According to our records we sent out a mass email to clients on August 28th.

Just to avoid confusion. If you have not organised the snagging of your ATRIPLEX unit already, then we advise you arrange this immediately.

Here is a copy of the notification that was sent in August. If you click on it it should be legible.

Updated Photos on the Web Album

Good evening everyone.

Tonight we have uploaded some new photos. There is a sort of random selection here.

We hope you enjoy them!

http://picasaweb.google.com/VilaVerdeSantaMaria/October2009?feat=directlink