EXTRAORDINARY GENERAL MEETING - 12/09/2009

An Extraordinary General Meeting of the OVBC Owners’ Association was held in Santarem on 12 September 2009, starting at 3 p.m.
The agenda was as follows:
1. To approve the decision taken by the Executive Committee on 30 January 2008 [this should actually have read 30 January 2009, see below], namely: “To propose legal action to contest the decisions taken by the Owners’ AGM on 6 December 2008”.
2. To endorse all the actions so far taken in respect of the above legal case.
3. To approve the decision of the Executive Committee of 4 August 2009, namely: “To seek a fresh injunction suspending implementation of the decisions taken by the Owners’ AGM on 6 December 2008”
4. To endorse all the actions so far taken in respect of the above injunction.
5. Any other business.
After opening the EGM, the chairman of the meeting pointed out that item 1 on the agenda should actually have said 30 January 2009 (and not 30 January 2008). The agenda was corrected accordingly, and then the chairman thanked everyone for coming.
Then the Chairman of the Executive Committee, Patricia Boavida, explained the background to agenda item 1. She read out the text of document 14 from the Committee’s official minute book, which includes the decision taken by the Committee on 30 Jan. 2009.
Then Maria Noémia Teixeira gave her views on the way in which Petchey Leisure had been managing the Beach Club.
After various explanations had been asked for and given, Item 1 was approved unanimously.
Item 2 was similarly approved unanimously.
On Item 3, Patricia again explained the background, by reading out document 17 from the Committee’s official minute book, which includes the decision taken by the Committee on 4 August 2009.
Manuel Casinhas asked for some information about the previous injunction, which had been taken out on 16 December 2008, and Patricia explained the legal reasons why the Association had embarked on this course.
Eng. Augusto Martins asked whether it was true that the law limited owners of timeshare to a maximum of 4 weeks, and Carlos Moço questioned whether the owner who appeared at the last AGM with 400 weeks was able to produce documentary proof of her ownership.
When these questions had been satisfactorily answered, Item 3 was also approved unanimously.
Item 4 was put to the vote, and similarly approved unanimously.
Discussion then turned to Item 5 (A.O.B.) and Patricia explained the situation regarding INFINITI points, which had been marketed on the Beach Club premises. She stated that the Committee had sent a series of questions to the Beach Club management about this issue, but as usual, the management had refused to reply.
Manuel Casinhas spoke of the failures of the resort management, notably the absence of proper guarantees and the question of legalizing title-deeds.
Abílio Pires spoke about the attempts made while he was staying at the resort; Rogério Silva gave examples of cases in the resort that had been reported; and Diogo Silva spoke about the behavior of the management in its running of the resort and of all the irregular practices that had been going on.
Vítor Coelho then made the following proposals:
a) Authorise the Committee to proceed with the legal actions already begun, and grant the Committee all necessary powers to carry them into effect
b) Authorize the Committee to take legal action so as to inspect the resorts Account books from the day it was purchased by the Petchey Group
c) Authorize the Committee to take legal action so as to prohibit forthwith the sale of apartments outside the framework of timeshare rights, and to demand that all contracts without timeshare rights that have been entered into in the meantime be declared null and void.
d) Authorize the Committee to lodge a criminal complaint with the Ministry of Justice about the marketing of INFINITI points on the Beach Club premises and all those other illegal or irregular practices which have been reported already or which may be reported in future.
e) Authorize the Committee to organize an online petition, requesting the Portuguese government to intervene in this case and other similar cases.
f) Authorize the Committee to take legal action with a view to evicting the present Management of the Beach Club for violation of their administrative responsibilities, and for continuing to exercise their functions without having had their mandate formally renewed at an owners’ AGM.
g) Authorize the Committee to take all necessary steps to implement the above Proposal.
The proposal was put to the vote, and passed unanimously.
Manuel Lucena introduced a motion that priority should be given to auditing the Beach Club’s accounts.
Manuel Casinhas reported that the Beach Club management was promising to legalize the apartments under the rules of timeshare, but that it was unclear what was actually happening in this regard. He suggested keeping a dossier of all illegal acts committed by the management, to present to various authorities. His proposal was to make a list of all these questions, and present them to the Committee, after which a working group could be formed to analyze all the illegal acts perpetrated by the management and by the owners. He also raised the question of limiting the number of votes at AGMs, faced with the practice of concentrating large numbers of weeks in the hands of a single organization.
This concluded the day’s business, and as no-one else had expressed a wish to speak, the chairman declared the meeting closed at 6 p.m. These minutes will be signed by the chairman of the meeting and the secretary, namely:
Chairman - João Manuel Fernandes dos Santos
Secretary - Deolinda da Silva Pombas Moreira Ribeiro de Almeida