Let me tell you our experience on Seaside.
Having been unhappy with previous maintenance companies we have taken control ourselves. All owner are in contact with each other & there are 49 properties so no mean feat. We now have a committe & major descions are voted on at our annual condo meeting. We control the bank account & the spend. We emplyee Prestige run by Ugur Etiman and I have nothing but good things to say about her.
She employees 3 staff (for Seaside) and she pays them a reasonable wage (above the min wage in Turkey) & their insurance ect. She gives us totally visability over her costs.
Our team are dedicated and look after the place as if it were there own - we see ourselves as a big family and as emplyers we take our responsibilities to our staff seriously. We do not scrimp on our complex use the best chemicals & time spent on the gardens keeps our complex looking at it's best. Our main pool is open from Easter to the end of Oct half term. We have 2 other communal pools and there are 5 private pools open May to Oct.
Our fees went up 10% this year & will go up 10% next year. Our aim is to build a contingency budget & fund improvements.
This year our well pump was replaced, fire extingishers were put in the central office area & the gardeners huts & under the pool area; thanks to an owner most properties now have a fire extingiher in (paid individuall) next year we want to improve the area around one of the smaller pools and add anti slip products around our main pool.
Prestige are responsible for keeping the site looking fantastic this includes painting woodwork & iron work) They also pay our very high electricity bills. I see the bills I know what is paid out. I also run the budget & am on the Seaside bank account. Obviously our fees to Prestige are our highest outgoings.
Our fees next year are £600 for 1 bed, £660 for 2 and 3 beds & £864 for the 4 bed detatched villas & £240 extra if you have a private pool. This allows us to pay Prestige & have a contingency in the bank. We do have some very slow payers & we are about to get tough. Even on these fees we can't afford bad debts. There is a core of hard working owners who work in partnership with Prestige & that's how we see it a partnership.
I will stipulate we pay decent wages to the team & we know Prestige pay all the correct taxes & insurances and for that we are happy to pay our fees. We employee staff all year round and are not seasonal employers, our gardener has been with us from day 1 (4 years)- in fact we have insisted that each maintenance company keeps him on and our security guard has been with us 2 years. We now have a yound apprentice gardner on the team who is doing very well.
Yep I am sure we could get some sort of service for 450 lira per year, but we would have to cut down on staff & security, remove light bulbs, not get our grass cut as often as we would like,close the pools earlier, not maintain the pools as often, not do the repair works ect.
Prestige make their money on the extra services, the property maintenance @£120 per year (much cheaper then most), cleaning, welcome packs ect. Seaside isn't a big money spinner for them & they have to put in a lot of hours.
We are delighted with our site - there are always somethings that can be improved. On the whole is looks fantastic!
