Parco Meridiana, Petrosa, Scalea

[red devil]

Hi, It's Tony from Calabria Property Consultants (Scalea Property Services). I've received a number of emails over the last couple of months from people who have purchased property in Parco Meridiana regarding the state of play on the park. I decided it would be best to have a meeting with Pino (the builder) rather than go through each individual request and we discussed the issues that had been brought up over the last few months.

Firstly Pino has asked if you can bear with him for the next 4-6 weeks, his team are in Catenzaro finishing a project then will be returning to Scalea and concentrating on finishing off Parco Meridiana. He anticipates that all the snagging and car parking areas should be complete by Easter (I assumed he meant 2009) lol. His team will be at your disposal should you require anything in terms of small jobs on your apartments.

With regards to the council utilities and ENEL (electricity supplier) connections he hopes you will understand his position, which is as follows:- He still has 18 apartments to sell and to switch from the park supply to other providers would cost him because the council and ENEL will switch all the park (74 apartments in total) and he would pick up the bill for the unsold apartments. This would also be the case for the condominium fees which include costs for the swimming pool. It's a hefty bill and he hopes you all understand that he would like to sell a few more apartments before switching to the council and ENEL supply. This will not effect you using your apartments, you will still have all the utilities functioning.

In March Pino will be looking for a park warden who will be responsible for the maintenence of the grounds and swimming pool between April and end of September each year. This year however the swimming pool will be open at the beginning of May until end of September.

I hope this helps with many if not all the issues that I have received recently.

[Hev&Steve]

Hi Tony

Thanks for the info, sounds just about right to me. On the face of it, I'm quite happy to go along that. Any news on the pedestrian key we asked about? ( Heather has no chance of jumping the fence)

You mentioned the Condo fees, does that mean we will not be paying them until Pino has sold more apartments?

Just scraped a 1-0 win, see you at Wembley for the final!!!!

My son who had my ticket said it was a really good game and great atmosphere.

cheers
Steve

[brynithel3]

Thanks Tony for that information, very encouraging. Your efforts are much appreciated.

No Rooney, no Tevez, no Berbatov, no VDS, no Vidic, no Scholes, no Carrick, no Brown, no Neville, no Hargreaves, no Anderson no problem - what a squad.

Quadruple here we come.

Ciao

John

[hallphoto]

Hi all

Missed meeting Hev & Steve but just got back last Saturday after a few days, its great any time of year, bit of a cold wind but we had some sun. Thanks Tony for the update. The power is a bit of an issue there were 4 of us out in December and the power kept tripping, when we arrived last week we put our heaters and water heaters on and the power tripped again, we were the only ones there apart from the "Resident Italians", Easter could be a big problem if there are a few of us out there and we are still not on full electric - Pino's solution last time was for us to switch off our water heater and he suggested not using electric during the day! (When it trips, it's not just a case of popping the breaker down in the appartment but having to go across to the main gate where the site power comes in). It's not going to be very practical when there are more of us there. In January it was something as simple as switching an electric kettle on or a hairdryer that did it.

Will we be able to stipulate any terms within the condo set-up such as when the paintwork is to be redone (we had heard that Pino was going to do this on completion as some of the units are in need of tidying up already but we aren't so sure- has anyone else heard anything), pool opening months etc (it seems a shame not to be able to use the pool for the 1/2 term holidays in October when the weather is still likely to be good enough for the children to use it) - plus for anyone renting out it's a good selling tool. Or is it a question of just having a contract drawn up without any input by us? When we bought we were told that we would all have some say providing it was with a majority "vote"- is this still the case? Obviously, it's a bit of a nightmare for anyone trying to co-ordinate a list of everyone's general requirements as presumably the only person who has list of everyone who has bought on the complex is .......Pino .........?

Kevin & Jayne

[brynithel3]

Hi All

Perhaps members of other complexes could tell us how their system works.

I think that at Parco Roma there are no meetings as such they just get an annual bill. I don't know how any issues are dealt with. But their condo fees are quite low and the site seems well established.

Ciao

John

[Italy4me]

Originally Posted by hallphoto

The power is a bit of an issue there were 4 of us out in December and the power kept tripping, when we arrived last week we put our heaters and water heaters on and the power tripped again, we were the only ones there apart from the "Resident Italians", Easter could be a big problem if there are a few of us out there and we are still not on full electric - Pino's solution last time was for us to switch off our water heater and he suggested not using electric during the day! (When it trips, it's not just a case of popping the breaker down in the appartment but having to go across to the main gate where the site power comes in). It's not going to be very practical when there are more of us there. In January it was something as simple as switching an electric kettle on or a hairdryer that did it.
Kevin & Jayne

Well I'm not sure if this will be helpful but ......if we were to put on a heater or two and then also use a kettle or hairdryer then our electricity would most certainly trip out - absolutely no doubt about it.
The supply that we have to our house is only 3kw (which is the norm in Italy) and it doesn't take many appliances to exceed that supply (our kettle for instance is 2.2kw on its own).
As we have chosen to have an electric kettle - rather than one that you put on the gas hob - we have to juggle with the other electrical equipment we use at the same time.
There is most certainly a need to keep an eye on what is being used together and I don't think the fact that you are using the site supply is necessarily the issue here, although I'm sure it is a pain to have to trot across to the main gate when your electricity trips out.
Best wishes, Lesley

[uakelly]

In Parco Roma at the moment. Its been lovely weather for the past few days with a cold breeze!
We agree it is probably not just a snagging problem with Parco Meridana. We have to juggle our heavy electricity users (anything that heats water, hair, air etc) but we were prepared for this as it is information given in guide books etc! Two heavy users is our maximum too and we have to go outside to our main supply when we trip! Fortunately its just down one flight of stairs (As long as we remember our gate key as the electric gate won't be working!) We see the positive side as well as it makes us more careful in our use especially when we have had people to stay. Tourist rate ectricity is said to be very expensive.
Yes Parco Roma is well kept, especially the gardens and is good to be in all year round, but we have no information on repainting etc. New building is still going on. We understand there is a condominium meeting in August, we saw the notices but weren't there for it. Not that we'd have been able to contribute anything!
It's just great to be here this week and the two! Heaters are keeping the cold at bay at night!

p.s it's the rubbish around the bins that gets to us!

[annetigano]

Hi
We are at present in Condominio Adely - just down from Parco Roma (Petrosa). As everyone has said you just have to be careful how many appliances you use at any one time. You can have your electricity upgraded to something like 10Kw but it is very very expensive to change it. We have opted for a whistling gas kettle which is especially useful when we have visitors as they can't seem to grasp the fact that we cannot just switch things on at will. We are lucky that our re-set switch is in our kitchen.

Enjoying the bright sunny days but could do with it being a little warmer in the evenings and at night.

Not met anyone in the area from the Forum yet even though we have had our house for two years. If anyone is around do let us know so that we can say hello. We come out for a month at a time 5/6 times a year.

Anne & Tony

[hallphoto]

Many thanks to everyone for the information - it's good to hear from fellow appartment owners and their own experiences. We know that we have to be careful with the use of electrical appliances within our appartment but were concerned that with all 72 appartments feeding off one single incoming supply there may be problems. Last time our electric tripped when we only had a low energy lamp on and nothing else (I know - it conjures up quite an image) just because someone across the complex switched their hairdryer on in their own appartment (we know this is so as we met up when we both dashed across to the main switch outside!). Happily, we too have a whistling kettle on our gas hob so we can still make a good old fashioned cuppa when we need to - some of our neighbours aren't so fortunate. Still you live and learn and we do need the exercise!!!!!!!

It has made us aware of how much we take for granted in the UK - always having our energies available whenever we need them at the flick of a switch and we have switched to as many low energy versions of appliances/bulbs etc as possible both home and away.

Kevin & Jayne

[uakelly]

Annetigano

Sent you a private message!

[Caroline]

Hi everyone,
Thanks to Tony for his posting. I do remember hearing that the electricity supply was less powerful in Europe. If this is the case then surely it is not an acceptable short term measure to run the whole site off one supply as there is no way of knowing how much energy your neighbours are using. If we are being asked to wait to be connected to the main grid perhaps a better short term solution to this problem can be found. Our festive break was made a lot less enjoyable as we sat in a cold flat frightend to switch on any appliances in case we plunged the whole site into darkness.
We were intending to have hot/cold air conditioning installed so the place would be cool in summer but warm in the winter. I am now wondering if the supply will be strong enough for us do that! Does anyone know?
Also I wonder if perhaps it is not so horribly expensive to have a 10kw supplied fitted at this point, before we are actually connected to the national grid, or if all the cables are already in place and its too late. I would really appreciate it if anyone has a bit of local knowledge and has any answers.
Cheers Caroline

[Hev&Steve]

Hi to all
We have just recently returned from P. Meridiana and we had no problem with the electricity supply, we were running an electric outdoor barbecue, electric kettle, and a 1KW heater in evening, along with the boiler on constantly. Although the only person on the complex was the "resident italian". Perhaps we were lucky!!

We are back out Easter week, when there should be more on the complex, we'll have to see how it goes then.

Cheers

Steve

[gweis60@optonline.net]

Originally Posted by annetigano

Hi
We are at present in Condominio Adely - just down from Parco Roma (Petrosa). As everyone has said you just have to be careful how many appliances you use at any one time. You can have your electricity upgraded to something like 10Kw but it is very very expensive to change it. We have opted for a whistling gas kettle which is especially useful when we have visitors as they can't seem to grasp the fact that we cannot just switch things on at will. We are lucky that our re-set switch is in our kitchen.

Enjoying the bright sunny days but could do with it being a little warmer in the evenings and at night.

Not met anyone in the area from the Forum yet even though we have had our house for two years. If anyone is around do let us know so that we can say hello. We come out for a month at a time 5/6 times a year.

Anne & Tony

Hello, we plan on coming to the Scalea area in July. We are planning to move to Calabria permanently within 2 years and we plan on finding a place this July. I am reading allthis about electricity usage. I cannot see things being easy for one living full time there. Is it just the apartment complexes like Meridiana, Roma or do all residents of the area have this problem. What if I got an independent home? Or a semi detached villa?
Thanks.
MaryAnn

[Doug]

Hi Again MaryAnn,

An American to American response to your electricity question is that you are limited to the amount of service available in ANY house there whether free standing or in a complex. For something around 600 euro you can get it boosted to 6Kw which (I think) is the max and amounts to roughly 25 AMP service. Quite different from the standard 200 AMP service in American homes and apartments. Just a matter of adjusting to when you run certain high energy applicances like ovens, water heaters, AC, hair dryers and portable heaters. The power there is 220 volts as you know, so I'm not completely sure how that relates to a 200 AMP 110/220 service in the states. The 50/60 cycle change in power is critical too. I fried a brand new expensive coffee maker even after using a converter from the 220 to 110 because European circuits are in 50 cycles alternating current.

If your husband had an electric arc welder in his shop, it might take special wiring and some type of extra commercial hookup that has not been discussed in this forum. Certainly the Italian restaurants and businesses are running more than 25 amps.

We're adjusting to it and it should help us be less consumptive than we are in the states where we take too much for granted. I see passive solar units on homes there that must pre-heat water. There might be other solar opportunities, but I've not had time to check over there.

Good luck, doug