News Update - April 2026

Hello from Las Coronas.

The main issue for this update is a progress report on the Pool Fencing Project. Ray Edwards has prepared a comprehensive report which is attached. Also included are the feedback comments received. Please have a look at these as both will help when the final decision is made – by you as owners not the OMC.

Damp/Humidity Issues

In Lanzarote they refer to ‘Humidity’, this is when paint flakes due to damp! What it actually means there is lack of ventilation. We are frequently approached with complaints of damp but when checked, it is clear that there is no leak, merely a closed apartment with no ventilation. Once the apartment is ventilated the damp disappears.

Many of us, where possible, leave a window open or also have ‘air vents’ fitted. When the apartment is properly ventilated, the damp/humidity disappears and the area can be repaired. Please approach the office and speak to maintenance if you need more information.

Pool Passes

I have often advised that Pool Passes must be produced when requested. Anyone using the pool, who is staying on the complex, must be provided with the appropriate pass. These are available from the office. Without the pass we will ask users to leave.

It is not possible to ‘gift/loan/permit’ anyone not staying on the complex the use of the pools. We have recently experienced people using the facilities who are not staying here and have no pass. Some accept they have to leave but others say ‘we have permission’ and can become aggressive and simply lie about where they are staying.

This is not being picky or awkward. We all pay a great deal of money to maintain the complex and the pools and it is annoying and frustrating to see our facilities being abused.

It must be clear that anyone being abusive or aggressive and refusing to leave – we will call the police!

Pool Fencing Project – Report by Ray Edwards and David Jones

Thank you to all the owners that have made the effort to offer suggestions and comments regarding the Pool Safety Fencing Project. Please keep them coming in! They are all considered carefully and some of your comments/suggestions have changed our mindset as to what we will propose for the owners to vote on.

The last thing as a Community we want is to spend money on something which is costly and detrimental aesthetically to our beautiful complex, however legislation is forcing us to comply. We aim to comply with the law with a balance between budget constraints and aesthetic considerations.

The legislation requiring private complexes such as ours to fence around pools to prevent children accidently accessing them has been in force for several years. Some complexes have complied; some a few years ago; some have plans in place, while others appear to be ignoring it at their peril.

If a child was to drown in an unsafe pool there would be serious sanctions for the Community and for the President.

The legislation is:

GUÍA DE APLICACIÓN DE LA NORMATIVA SANITARIA DE PISCINAS EN LA COMUNIDAD AUTÓNOMA DE CANARIAS

Fundamentalmente, el Decreto 212/2005, de 15 de noviembre por el que se aprueba el reglamento sanitario de piscinas de uso colectivo de la Comunidad Autónoma de Canarias, modificado por el Decreto 119/2010, de 2 de septiembre.

La entrada en vigor el pasado día 11 de diciembre de 2013 del Real Decreto 742/2013, de 27 de septiembre, por el que se establecen los criterios técnico-sanitarios de las piscinas, normativa estatal de carácter básico, ha modificado el marco jurídico de este tipo de establecimientos en nuestra Comunidad Autónoma.

Effectively, it states that our pools are considered to be not hotel or private, but are classed as being used “collectively”. Although we are exempt from the requirement of a having a lifeguard, the pools need be fenced off in such a way that they are inaccessible to unaccompanied minors.

This project has been considered by the OMC and President for over two years. We may be able to postpone it for another two years or so, but what we don't want is either a child to drown or for the authorities to enforce it suddenly, leaving us little chance to get the monies in place and/or for the limited amount of contractors to be unavailable due to their new workload.

As with most of our projects, we are limited on this small island as to the availability of materials: in this instance we are limited to either painted aluminium railings or glass.

Extensive enquiries have been made and it was found to be difficult even to find these options. Likewise, it has been very challenging to find contractors willing to even give a quote.

We are also restricted to using contractors that are registered with the Tax Authorities, have the required health and safety policies and adequate public liability insurance.

Some owners have commented about using lifeguards instead of providing the fencing. The legislation requires we protect children at all times so that would require one lifeguard per pool 24 hours a day, plus cover for holidays and breaks – so will not be viable or affordable.

The initial thoughts of the OMC was to use glass as a balustrade for aesthetic reasons even though its more expensive. However, after listening to comments from owners, particularly those with practical experience of glass balustrades, the problems with glass became evident, ie: children running into it even with the correct manifestation; breakages particularly the gates and constant need for cleaning. One local hotel cleans theirs twice a day! For these reasons the OMC is minded to go with white railings.

Other comments owners have made about the option of fencing directly around the pools is the separation of persons in the pool and on the sunbeds – including the safety aspect of reaching a person in the pool who is in trouble. Although the requirement for fencing is about children and Spanish law states that children should be directly supervised by an adult i.e. in the pool with them, it is evident that children are usually monitored by adults from the sunbeds. Also, comments have been made that owners on sunbeds do not want to have a view of a fence in front of them.

In light of these comments a further option has been developed to alleviate these concerns:

Provide a white painted railing fence around the pools with the sunbeds inside. Where there are walls, the fence will need to be 1m inside the wall. [Please see diagram.]

This option would require the relocation of around 25 sun shades. The approximate cost of this project will be €34,000 plus the cost of moving the sun shades. Another cost will be circa

€4000, for the technical architect to draw the plans up and submit them to the town hall for approval, this will be a cost whichever option we decide on.

Another option would be to use stainless steel fencing, similar to what's already in place between the two children's pools. Although more costly initially, it will last far longer and require minimal maintenance. The quote we have received for quality stainless steel for the above option is €68,000.

Thanks again, for all your comments, please keep them coming in!

Ray Edwards and David Jones

Feedback so far on Pool Fencing Project:

One owner asks that their whole email be included and this is attached.

All other comments/observations are listed below. As Ray asks, please continue to give your comments/ideas/observations via email to the office.

No. 1

Good afternoon,

Regarding the pool fencing, we recommend the white-painted aluminum fence solution. We have already seen this solution installed at another complex and believe that, in general, it is quite aesthetically pleasing.

We feel that the glass solution would be too difficult to keep clean, as it would undoubtedly look quite unsightly if neglected and dirty, in addition to creating a barrier that could obstruct ventilation for those using the pool area.

No. 2

Hi Cati, good morning.

I'm not a big fan of glass shower enclosures...they get dirtier than a window and you'll waste a lot of time cleaning them.

No. 3

Cati,

Many thanks for the update. Regarding the fences, honestly I'm shocked. They are ALL horrible. Our complex is so nice, let' s try to preserve it!!!!

I wonder if we cannot postpone this intervention, at least until when the authority will oblige us. It seems to me that we are over precautious. How many people have fallen into the swimming pools in the last 2-3 years? There is a white path in between the pedestrian area and

the swimming pool; this space serves as an effective protection to a (low probability) fall. Is it not enough?

Can we also ask the other complexes what they are doing regarding the fencing? (for example, Los Molinos and others.) What do you think?

Then we have the option to take a "socorrista" instead of making the ugly fences. The budget can be cheaper then, even if we would need the socorrista permanently... Can we consider this option too? (Thanks for the patience)

No. 5

Good morning,

In all the complexes where I've worked, the glass has always caused problems. It's always very dirty, especially with the climate we have here, and it breaks, and the children are constantly bumping into it. A nightmare. The builders, when talking about the glass, assure us that it doesn't break, but ours (most recently in the Celeste apartments, but in other complexes in the past as well) always had cracks, very dangerous. Regards.

20/03/26: Meeting with Owner, regarding the above comments. She used to work at Celeste apartments. They installed glass fencing in 2021. Problems all along with glass breaking and chipping, gates breaking together with hinges failing. They wished they had never done it.

She's also worked at other complexes with similar problems.

No 6

Thank you for including the Pool Fencing Update with the last newsletter and thank you to all the OMC members for all their hard work, in this case to present the owners with a document for discussion.

I am pleased that the "aim of this update is to inform owners of the progress and seek opinions, comments and questions. Hopefully we will be in a position for owners to be able to vote on this project at the 2026 AGM."

You state that the legislation is "in order to minimise risk of drowning or injury of minors." However, the risk of drowning or injury can equally apply to any pool user regardless of age.

If I am reading illustration 4 correctly, I am concerned that placing the fence (regardless of design) so close to the pool side and thereby putting a barrier between those on the sunbeds and those in the pool may in fact increase the risk of drowning or injury as a result of the extra time taken to get to a gate, open it and access the pool in order to give aid to anyone struggling in the pool. It might be preferable to position the fence so that the sunbeds are inside the fence.

I would welcome the opportunity to discuss these concerns and understand better the statement in the update "One option was to provide the fence 1m inside the existing wall around the pools but that will mean relocating approximately 25 sun shades which is not viable." Would David or Ray be available to set up a meeting for a chat?

Ray Edwards: On 25 March, I had a meeting with the above owner. His main concern with a fence directly around the pool increased the time to reach a casualty in the water. I stated that in my opinion, the extra travel time to reach a casualty in the water didn't form any additional hazard as the first things a member of the public should do is to throw a lifebuoy and call 112 before attempting a rescue.

However, I did say I would look again at arranging any fence on the outside of the sunbeds as a number of people have stated they will not be happy with a fence separating the pool from the sunbeds.

No. 8

FAO President, OMC and all Owners

With reference to February Update and Pool Fencing Project we have some observations to share.

While there is some legislation in place to have pools enclosed does this apply to residential complexes or directed at tourist complexes? By using one of our maintenance staff as a lifeguard…Jake did this last year…cover the legalities of Health and Safety? By demonstrating our awareness of Health and Safety and discussing enclosure could we not defer this financial debt as we just do not currently have this kind of capital.

There are other complexes that are not rushing into this due to lack of funds. Perhaps we are being somewhat premature by leaping into another major project at this time since we are currently under huge financial commitment with the Stairwell Project?

Budgeting for the stairwell project is being funded by an 8% rise in the fees this year and another proposed 8% rise next year. The rate of inflation in UK is currently around 3% while other EU countries enjoy a slightly lower rate but we are subjected to over double the rate of inflation on our monthly fees!

This year Phase 2 of the Stairwell Project was unable to complete the proposed work due to lack of money which meant Apartments 30 & 31 were not included in Phase 2 as was planned. The “additional remedial work” of levelling stairs and making them the same height wasn’t successful!!

We measured them and they are visibly seen to be uneven and off the level. Does the law of all steps to be the same height not just apply to New Builds as opposed to Refurbishments?

The estimates for the Pool Enclosures are possibly beyond our financial capabilities at this time and this project could surely be put off until we are required to commit to it by law?

The update appeared to have a leaning towards glass panels but who is going to clean and maintain these? The amount of glass will put us in a position of having to engage another maintenance staff…..another expense!!

As an NHBC registered builder I have used toughened glass and railing enclosures. I attach photographs taken in March 2026 of 2 developments I owned, built and sold. Both are coastal

locations in Northern Ireland and have been subjected to North Atlantic weather for 25 & 30 years.

They are both Luxury Apartment developments and 1 with a Bar/ Restaurant and Library. One is enclosed with Chrome and Glass ….the Chrome is just beginning to pitt… the other is enclosed with Galvanised Steel.

The latter was the cheaper and continues to withstand time and weather. No maintenance has been required to date. We feel this project requires much more consideration and not rushed into at the AGM this November. We would urge all owners to consider the impact and implications of a rushed decision on this project and not simply pass on their vote as a proxy. Make your opinion count!!

Apartment 52, S & E Lyle

The Lyles also provided several photos of railings on properties in Northern Ireland, not considered relevant as they are balcony railings in materials not available in Lanzarote.

Letters from Owners

As per Community Rule No. 11, if you write a letter or email to Cati by the 15th of the month, it will be published in the following Monthly Update.

To reassure owners and for clarification, no correspondence is published unless the owner gives permission or specifically requests publication.

Christine Taylor

President