Did PDI contact you and tell you what is happening? Or did you contact them and ask about progress? From what I can tell PDI/Seattle Ski are not being totally up front with investors in Summit Lodge and they are not telling anyone that further construction has been put on hold. Did they send you an email advising you of the situation, or did they wait for you to contact them?

Hi all, We've purchased an apartment in Whiteoaks and for several months now, we've tried to negotiate the maintenance contract on this development, but to date, we have just met with a brick wall. At this stage, we desperately need any help, or information any of you might have, on how we should proceed, because at this point and time, we just feel like giving up, locking up the apartment and leaving it to rot. We can't sign a maintenance contract unless we know what we've signing up for - is that so difficult for Platinum Developments to understand! We have always dealt with Platinum Developments - from the initial enquiry when we decided to buy an apartment in Bulgaria, right through to the purchase of it, and in recent months, they sent us the maintenance contract to sign. Since we received this contract, we have raised many questions about it, with the PDI reps. - we need to know these answers before we are willing to sign - fairly obvious you would think, but PDI will not answer any of our questions. They use lines like: "all the answers are in the contract"; "you need to speak with the Developer"; "you will get the answers once the management company is in place", etc. etc. It's impossible to get a proper answer and you can imagine how frustrating it is at this stage. The maintenance company is "Ski Property Management" - with Stanislav Stoilov Iordanov as its manager, but the address for this management company is the same as PDIs! I think PDI and these Ski companies are really one and the same. For instance, the "Ski" companies have been referred to as "Kerry Ski", "Kildare Ski", "Seattle Ski", and "Ski Property Management", depending on the development you're dealing with, eg. Whiteoaks, White Lodge, Summit Lodge, etc. Is that not really strange? Since PDI closed their offices in Dublin and the UK and moved everything to Bulgaria, it seems impossible to even determine who the directors are of PDI. At one stage, Aaron Tracey and Neil O'Reilly were known directors, are they still? It's also impossible to contact anyone other than the PDI reps. in Sofia and these agents seem to be well drilled with their responses. They either give the impression that they don't understand our questions or they reply like robots with standard answers. Is there anyone, who is high up in the hierarchy of PDI or Ski Property Management who will answer our queries? Does anyone have any relevant information on these companies, their directors, etc? Please help!

summit lodge
I assume others have had the letter to say construction on summit lodge has stopped as was apparent a few months ago. What are others doing?

Fireblade anyone else, we are in the same postion as yourself, Whiteoaks is being offered but only at 2006 prices. We are being bullied by PDI and are not going to give them anymore money. Has anyone reached any kind of settlement with them yet. Thx

Corolla have you tried contacting PDI's legal team directly and asking them to explain maintenace contract to you. Mariana@pdi.bg might be worth a go. Good luck, hope someone comes back with some answers to you as you sound desperate.

Hi Slogi - we've sent our questions by e-mail to PDI - and at this stage, we've set the questions out in a very direct, simple format so that they can no longer dodge the questions, or mis-interpret them, which has been their tactics so far! It appears that PDI's team are each assigned to a particular complex and with Whiteoaks I think there are two people dealing with it. Unfortunately Izabella has been assigned to our block so all our queries, etc. are passed onto her. We're now at the stage where we've refused to deal with her anymore. We have stalemate until they come up with someone else. Izabella will not negotiate any of the terms and will not give proper answers to our questions. We're not dodging a maintenance contract but we won't sign something that has vague terms, with unclear pricing structure, unclear costs, etc. We thought we were over the worst of it, when we paid up in full and got our deeds, but unfortunately the nightmare continues. What's really strange in all of this, is that the management company will be "Ski Management". I don't understand why PDI are so bullish or even involved with these negotiations in the first place. We, as owners have the right to choose the management / maintenance company - the complex after all, belongs to all of us! PDI are only the agents after all, or so we are led to believe! If there are other purchasers in Whiteoaks or Summit Lodge, please contribute to this thread - if we share our experiences, etc. we might be in a position to make more informed decisions in these difficult times! Many thanks for all the comments so far. Those of you in Summit Lodge are faced with some real difficult decisions and I wish you luck!

Corolla I feel your pain as we have to deal with Izabella regarding summit lodge and like you, she dodges every question we have. We are now trying to get answers through Mariana the Law solicitor for PDI. Who knows were this is goinf but the tactics the are using is absolutely terrible, we are all trying to be amicable with them but they won't give an inch, its like all rights have been taken away - terrible. We are having similar problems with Aheloy, regarding furniture packages and they went and took a pool out and built 8 villas in its place, so people who bought a view with pool in block M now have to look at these villa and again they are fobbing them off, were does it end......We all need a large amount of luck to get through this,. Come guys, there has to be others out there that can contribute or help?????

Corolla - seems to be a few whiteoaks owners on the thread enclosed Platinum delvelopers whiteoaks : further down the posts,, most recent Aug 28th. Good luck

Whitoaks
Whiteoaks, when finished will be a superb development, it has a better chance of being finished than a lot of other developments in Bansko.Yes PDI have handled this situation not well at all but we are in the middle of the worlds largest recession.The developer relies on people paying contracted payments on time and people haven`t been paying, hence to say cash flow problems and with the banks not willing to lend then both the developer and the client get stuck in no mans land. We are moving from Summit Lodge to Whiteoaks hopefully.We hear people saying they are not happy with the price of the swap because you can now allegedly get dirt cheap apartments for a similiar price.When we agreed to buy "off plan" not one of us complained at the price we signed upto,did we? We have been extremely unlucky but thats the risk you take when purchasing "off plan". People jumped on the bandwagon on making a quick buck by doing this and then the wheels fell off. We will continue with our purchase because at least we will have something to show for our money and i`m sure long term things will start to pick up.

You say you will have something to show for your money. Well PDI still haven't sent our deeds for Whitepeak Lodge even though we paid our final payment in May 08 and sent the notarised documents in a year ago. In fact, because we don't owe them money we no longer warrant any response from them at all - so, I wouldn't count your chickens!!

Newbie summit lodge buyer
Hi to all on this thread. I am one of the unlucky buyers in Summit Lodge and after receiving the infamous letter a few weeks ago I decided to visit Bansko and find out what the situation is and strike some kind of deal. To put it bluntly there are no deals to be had with PDI!!! The option of transferring into White Oaks is fraught with danger which I won't discuss here for obvious reasons. However, I do not believe that moving from one development to another within he PDI group is the best route at all! Especially when considering the comments made by Skinut Well PDI still haven't sent our deeds for Whitepeak Lodge even though we paid our final payment in May 08 and sent the notarised documents in a year ago. In fact, because we don't owe them money we no longer warrant any response from them at all - so, I wouldn't count your chickens!! I stayed in this development while I was over there and it is complete so why you haven't got the keys and deeds I do not know! Anyway - back to Summit Lodge. I have tried to be amicable with PDI without success and as such I am looking at alternative routes to settling this issue. However, I do not wish to discuss them here and for that reason I have set-up a private forum for summit lodge buyers. If you are interested please PM me for further details. Thanks Russell001

I am referring to an earlier development from PDI - WhitePeaks, not Whiteoaks. Yes, its complete - we've stayed over there in 'our' apartment in May 09 in fact! But still no deeds. From what I can gather, the people who bought the furniture packs seem to have had their deeds issued those who didn't, haven't - but this is only my amateur detective work figuring this out! The main point of my post is to let people know what its like to deal with PDI after you have paid all your money to them!