Hi Taz
Did you find out anymore info from Milen???
Jim

Surely if they are really serious about getting our complex open, then why not meet with us at a venue in England, explain what is going on and all agree the best way forward. This would likely result in everyone paying something towards their maintenance and th eplace could finally open and function. The situation we are in is crazy and I think we will all lose out eventually.

I know that out of 23 owners who responded to a request for info I sent out ages ago, we had 10 people who are paying in full, 3 paying part of their bill and 10 paying nothing. Pretty much all of those who are not paying indicated a willingness to do this if the complex was completed and opened.

Can someone with good contacts in Balkanstroy put this to them?

Jonesy and Muffin wrote:


I agree with J&M, im not sure what the % of apartment owners would be in terms of their nationalities, but i would imagine a large number are British and Irish therefore if Balkanstroy have genuine intentions of completing the complex and opening it for business, surely they should try in some way to get all owners on board. Meet each other in the middle, come to an agreement. The only way for them to do this is by getting in touch with us, ideally face to face so a meeting somewhere in the UK may be the best option.

My own situation is this, I own two apartments in St Ivan, I have paid maintenance however i have not paid last years, as it stands i dont intend paying any more until the work has started again.
I have the money and i would gladly pay if Balkanstroy would only complete.

Also if its true that a Greek firm has bought a large number of apartments surely they must of asked the question about a completion date???

We met with Milen and he informed us that it is the bank that has taken ownership of the unsold apartments to release money to complete the facilities, contrary to what Kiril had told us about a greek company buying them. He told us that on release of the loan (which should be in the very near future) the facilities would be complete. However, he also said that if the apartments are not furnished and rented there will be insufficient visitors to St Ivan to justify opening the spa facilities due to lack of money generated by rental to pay for the operation of the spa area. We have in our contract a clause stating that we would not be paying maintenance until 2 years after the grand opening of the complex. However there is uncertainty what this actually means - Balkanstroy are of the opinion that this is the Art16 habitation license and the complex is open albeit the spa facilities are not operational - we disagree. However what Milen also advised was that unless owners pay the maintenance fee money is running out for the paying of bills and staff for St Ivan. This would leave us as owners in a worse situation than we are currently in as we would be unsble to access our apartment. Furthermore, for those owners who have not paid their maintenance fee, when the spa facilities are operational they will not have access to them or be able to sign up to the rental contract until all outstanding bills are paid. Therefore, having considered this catch 22 position we have decided that it is in our interests to meet balkanstroy half way and agree to pay the maintenance fee and sign up to the rental agreement in order to get St Ivan fully operational. We hope that other owners will do the same otherwise we are running a real risk that come the next ski season we will have no electricity or water and worse still unable to access our apartments if the company in charge of the key card access facility is not paid.

Hi Taz
Did Milen give any indication of % of owners who are not paying maintenance?(Out of all full"DEED HOLDING" owners).Do we know how many apts r actually sold? As i stated last week all 5 Northern Ireland owners i know,including myself,pay our fees.If it is the case that Balkanstroy have not enough apts sold to cover maintenance costs,it is not the fault of the owners!Surely if there is a problem with any owners not paying fees they are legally contracted to,Balkanstroy should have the clout to deal with it?As i stated on the old Talk Bansko forum i feel the maintenance fee's should be paid.They cover general upkeep(Security,Lighting,Gardening,Reception,Maintenance etc)24/7 all year round.This is separate to fees for-Restaurant,Pool,Spa,Shops etc.(Which if operational we will have to pay for the use of!)Balkanstroy are in the business of making money and have previously stated the costs involved in running Pool & Spa facilities.They are not going to open them until financially viable.Meanwhile we all need to do our best to use our apts and keep the upkeep continuing.We have the cheapest Maintenance fee's in Bansko,less than 1/2 of many complexes.

I paid all my maintenance in December when I was at St Ivan, oh and my council tax. Which turned out to be 3 years in arrears. Balkanstroy didn't give me the invoices for the first 2.

Also in repsect of the maintenance arrears maybe people have not paid because balkanstroy have not been able to contact some of them. I changed my e-mail address a few years back and never got an invoice. I checked with Balkanstroy, they had been sending it to my old e-mail address.

Tight gits could have posted them, I haven't moved house.

I have also paid the full maintenance for the last 3 years but this year Balkanstroy never sent me an invoice saying how much was due so its realy down to the owners to chase them up. Even if you do pay it do not expect them to answer your emails. They don't !. Like Paul I have never paid any council tax and am trying to find out how much I owe. Perhaps Paul could tell me how he paid to give me an idea. Thanks.

your council tax has to be paid in person at the municipality offices on the square. Someone can do it for you but they need a copy of your Bulstat card. It is due in March for the following year. There is a small fine if you are late. They don't chase although the new mayor is looking to change this. They will catch up with you if you ever are lucky enough to sell ! It doesn't cost much (About £30 per year) so you might as well arrange to get it paid. lot's of people will do it for you. Milen will if you ask

I took up the offer of a 3 year handover for all bookings on the basis the my property is fitted with furniture having lost the complete amount paid via MRI. As part of this I paid my maintenance in full to allow this to move forward. We as a group really need accurate information relating to our properties and the complex as a whole. The last thing I personally want is for the complex to start looking un kept and operating in a limited way. The basics need to be paid for and the sooner all outstanding monies are collected the less reasons there are for it to grind along with little or no accurate information. A little investment now will hopefully be a positive one but it will only be effective if all funds outstanding are paid up.It cannot just drag on until its to late................

triton50, I believe your are moving along the right path. However, all depends on the management of the place. While it's none of my business I STRONGLY advise, owners have to take control. Like it happened at my place, Pirin Lodge. It's not an easy process because it takes involvement from all the owners. And as many have bought for the big increase in property prices and a load of rental income in between few are prepared to deal with nowadays reality. But reality is what it takes. For everyone maybe not to be a winner but to master the crisis in the best possible way and to have a vision for the future. I suppose it was "Balkandestroy" (as I called them from the very beginning) that built your complex, but in the end it does not matter. NOBODY Bulgarian will give a sh.t about you. It is YOU, the owners, that will have to look after yourself. Don't rely on, don't trust any Bulgarian developer. They will do anything, now that times are bad and there are no other opportunities, to extract more money from you without delivering. Sorry to say that. I love Bulgaria and Bansko (Balkanstroy are not from Bansko, by the way, they just used Bansko to fill their pockets). Owners have to unite - and together they can be strong and drive matters.

Your attitude is absolutely right. No maintenance, no future for your investment. But you owners have to be in control. Unite them!...

I am one of the owners that has paid in full since completion and as jjtj says I am also happy to do so knowing that it covers the basics. There was an e-mail group od owners set up some time ago but all has gone quiet on that front - Cov Kids and Pete the feet were involved in this amongst others. We as owners need to coordinate our efforts to get things moving - the last thing I want is to have hassle accessing the apartment which I spent extras on having been badly let down by MRI. Anyone out there who is on the e-mail list willing to get it going again??

Bill

I have got the details of all 23 owners that were part of that group. I feel as though I have let people down a bit though as I just do not get the time to drive this forward. I have emailed Milen from our group hotmail account to ask about a meeting in England. I did this on Saturday but have not heard anything.

Is there anyone out there who would like to take this up and preferably someone who is better connected with Balkanstroy than I am. Frank is absolutely right that we need to act together to move forward. I am accepting of the reality that I now need to start paying maintenance to cover the basics despite what my contract states. However, I do not want to do this in isolation and I don't think any of us should other we will continue to get nowhere and with no progress made.

I want to contribute in whatever way I can to moving this forward but I am not sure that I am the right person to do the liaison between us all and Balkanstroy

Thanks Jonesy/Muffin - It is quite understandable that normal life gets in the way of these things - if it were not for pressures of work I also would be happy to help push this forward in whatever way I can. I agree with you and Frank that we need to act together as owners to get anywhere with Balkanstroy.

I do not believe many things balkanstroy say, if they had any interest in St Ivan they would have pushed on their own for completion and been completely transparent with all owners on the situation. My belief is that they are broke, they blew all their cash on the golf course and slowly they are losing their assets to service the money they borrowed.

I think that it is important that as many owners as possible do meet and agree a way forward and perhaps Balkanstroy, (preferably Milen) can discuss with the group via web link / skype if they do not agree to attend in person. It is also important that we do this sooner rather than later as the longer it is left the greater the risk that bills will not be paid and the complex will not be operational for the next ski season.

I have had some communication with Milen via the owners email address which I have sent to people. In essence a meeting in England attended by Balkanstroy is not going to happen. Milen
suggests that there will be some new money from a bank (who own 150 apartments) but he does not know why this is taking so long. He is asking what individual owners are able to do to move things along and saying that people paying maintenance will enable them to hire more staff and enhance services.

I think that all non-paying owners should start paying their fees (including me!) in a coordinated way so that it is clear that we are all working together. Doing this in a way with all those currently paying (at least 24 of us in total) means that we should be able to negotiate outcomes that we expect to see for that money.

Milen suggests that there are 100 UK owners of apartments in St Ivan. Where are they all?? It would be great to try and connect as a much larger group

Just to confirm I am currently up to date with all my maintenance payments although I have not received any bill for 2012 yet but as I am signed up to their rental contract they will probably deduct any rent received from my 2012 bill. This is what happened last year and then I paid the outstanding balance.

It would be fantastic to start to see a bit of life in the complex and it would be great if everyone concerned could start paying their maintenance fees. It appears to be the only way forward. Like somebody said previously, if you don't pay up now, you will only be presented with a very large bill in the future. I do understand, however, people's reluctance when Balkanstroy keep promising things but never deliver.

I am visiting again in June and really really want things to be operational!!! Please please please start rolling the money in!!

J & M Would it be a good idea to email the "Talk Bansko forum" details to milen,to pass on to owners that are not aware of this communication facility???Looking at present & previous discussions on Talk Bansko we have about 35 UK/Irish owners who use this forum?The more owners in discussions the better.Could we organise a group visit for later this year,a date that would be economical for flights & would suit the most owners at once???(MAY/JUNE LONDON-SOFIA return flights about £100)It would be great to get to meet owners & Milen may be able to get restaurant running for the stay.As i posted on the old forum i believe if Balkanstroy would finish the remaining spa/pool building work(they said it would be inexpensive to do this)this would encourage apt sales & usage.They would be "ready" to staff the spa & pool at short notice when apt rentals eventually increase.
anyone any thoughts on the above??

I have asked Milen to provide contact details for the other uk owners so that we can work together better. I have also asked what guarantees Balkanstroy could give with regards to improving the service and number of staff if all 24 owners (in our owners group) paid their fees. If you have not received the email I sent from our group email address it means that you are not currently included. If you want to be included, please email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it with your name, apartment number, whether you currently pay maintenance and if not, whether you are willing to pay if done as part of a coordinated effort

Thanks

Chris

I agree that action on mass is now the only way forward. As owners this year we must agree with balkanstoy to come to some arrangement and understand their position on St Ivan, will they still own it at the end of this year? or will it become the next on their list to be taken off them. I do not believe that they have not had the chance to complete the remaining areas, I can not understand why they have not completed the remaining areas as the cost in comparison to the build is relatively inexpensive. They are missing the trick, there are enough apartments sold to make it a going concern ( as there was in may 2009 185 units were already sold at this point to uk buyers alone ) , which facilities do we now use if we want to.
My position is that I have not paid them any maintenance fees, I considered it last year, but too many things do not add up. If they are prepared to re evaluate the contract I think this would be fair. Alternatively, finish the job I will pay my fees immediately and on time every year, I will even mop the corridor outside my apartment every time I stay there!!!!