22 Jun 2007 1:14 PM:

I have used both the private and public health systems.  I believe that the public health system is more advanced and up to date.   The Spanish government pour a great deal of money into the system.  The private system is dependent on how many clients they have and in some of the private clinics they seem to do things the old fashioned way, like taking blood with a syringe and not with the vacuum systems. The only difference with the private system is that it is quick.  The Social Seguridad is by far quicker than anything in the UK but does take time if you are not considered an emergancy.  The treatment of patients with cancer through the social seguridad in Spain is fabulous and they treat the illness with the up most urgency. 

I am on long term medication and privately a box would cost me nearly 100€ per month where as on the NHS it is heavily subsidised and only costs me 5€ a box, so there is a vast difference.

But, as previously stated, you can only use the Spanish NHS for two years if you are under 65 years of age or do not have an E121 form (permantly disabled or pensioners are entitled to these), alternatively you start paying Spanish taxes either through contracted work or through a gestoria based on your income.  You can understand the way it is set up really.  If you are not supporting the system then you are not entitled to use it.  If the UK was the same you might find there would be less people using forums such as these and choosing to remain in the UK.

 

Thread: Community

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22 Jun 2007 12:46 PM:

My friend's dog has the same problem and she used to put garlic in his food which seemed to help the flea problem but not his breath, so be warned... Also we have two house cats that never go outside and despite treating them for over 6 months with Frontline and the house with pesticides, they still have fleas (Where do they come from??????).  Try using another brand of drops or alternatively take the dog to the vet and they might be able to prescribe a strong shampoo or alternative. The vet gave us a shampoo when we took the cats in...but trying to bath cats is somewhat of a challenge to say the least so we haven't done it yet (I value my skin), you'll be alright with your dog though.

Thread: My Dog Needs Urgent Help!!!!!!

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19 Jun 2007 1:48 PM:

Hi Laury,

You have two options to increase your supply.  You can do it legally through Iberdrola or erhm* illegally. If you do it legally (which you should espcially if you are the first occupant of your property), it will cost you around 200 - 300€.  The engineer from Iberdrola will come out and fit a new fuse in your fuse box.  If you choose a less legal option it will cost you "whatever" the electrician charges you.  Use a Spanish electrician through as they are much cheaper and really know what they are doing.

If going the legal route, you will need to go to the Iberdrola offices in your local town and request that the supply is upped.  Take a translator or a Spanish speaking friend if you are not fluent in the language just to save time, effort and crossed wires (exuse the pun).

Thread: Increasing supply

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19 Jun 2007 1:32 PM:

Hi Ste 1,

i will explain Paradors procedures (as an insider who no longer works for them).  Once their Progress department have seen that the property appears essentially completed they inform the Client Liaison Team (these are the ones you have been speaking to since you paid your 10%). They then send you a letter letting you know that the property is completed.  It should say in the letter that you should not book your flights.  The client liaison Team will then pass a "completions authorisation" form to the completions dept. It is then the completions departments responsibility to contact the builder and confirm that the "obra nueva" (new build certificate), "seguro decenal" (10 year building guarantee) and the "celdula de Habitabilidad" (habitation certificate) are in place. This can take absolutely AGES, depending on your constructor. The builders are desperate to complete and sometimes lie.  Which is a huge problem because if you have a mortgage, and the builder cannot prove to the bank that everything is in place, then you will NOT sign, the bank will veto it. 

Once the completions department confirm that all the documents are ready they will tell the Client Liaision Team who will then send you another letter asking you to book your flights and come out for the signing.  You should not have received this letter if the documents are not in place unless the builder lied to Parador about what documents they actually had.  But once this letter is received this is when you need to give the four weeks notice.  The completions department only have 11 aftersales reps on the road and in high seasons, the diaries they use get booked up extremely quickly and as Parador are understaffed at the mo, you may even be double booked (be warned.)  You are entitled to two days with a rep...usually the day before and the day of the signing. You will get no more help after this no matter how much you complain, they will wash their hands of you.

Parador will help you do a snag list with the builder (they should go back to the property 6weeks later to see if the snags have been done, but you will have to chase their completions department on this as this is not often done as a few of the aftersales reps are pretty lazy, I could name names but I won't) Once these 6 weeks are up and you still have snagging to be done...guess what you get to the privilage of speaking to the builder yourself.

I would suggest that you contact you client liaison advisor to ask why you were sent a letter requesting you to come out to sign and book flights (make sure you didn't receive the letter telling you not to book any flights because Parador will tell you that it is your own fault that you lost flights, hang up the phone and then laugh at you.) But if you were told to book flights then kick up a fuss, demand to speak to a manager and then you might get some form of compensation, btw don't expect a manager to call you back, thats unlikely to happen, either send a recorded delivery letter, go to the office or just refuse to get off the phone till you speak to a manager.  Btw, any compensation will usually be in the form of a furniture voucher from Linea Torrehogar (pretty cr*ppy quality furniture).

Good luck.

Thread: Habitation licence

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19 Jun 2007 11:33 AM:

The Aftersales staff at Parador Properties are extremely dedicated and work very hard.  The problem they suffer from is extemely terrible Management.  Almost all their managers cannot speak a word of Spanish (other than to order their "ceravezas"), so how do you expect them to fight your corner when they cannot even converse in the language of the country.  Infact the majority of the staff cannot speak Spanish and they use those who can to do all the negotiation.  But none of the major builders take any notice of the lowbies in the office.

The majority of the Aftersales work with one hand tied behind their back...with the so called office manageress being the person holding those hands back. Of course the sales men/women treat you like royalty.  Their paycheck depends on whether you buy a house and they will do everything they can, including lying (and trust me Parador Salesmen are the worst, of course this is all included in the property is one of their favorites), in order to get you to buy.  On top of this, Parador is suffering from a down turn in Sales and the sales department are trying to strong arm all their clients into purchasing properties.  It has gotton so bad that Graham Martindale and Mr. Hamilton have taken the decision to make almost half their Aftersales work force redundant in order to cut costs (surprisingly it is their Spanish speaking staff who their are making redundant, so now Parador Owners Club clients are even worse off, just ask your client liaison person in the Aftersales if they speak fluent Spanish, I can assure you none of them do.)  So now your 700€ - 950€ worth of aftersales fee isn't worth the paper it was writtian on because there is not enough staff to cover all the work load.  This is why you do not hear from them and you won't, they are just too busy.

I would suggest that you demand your aftersales fee back and you are entitled to it and it is not worth the money for what they do.  Even the staff think the new increase of 950€ is ridiculous and the clients are being robbed. In all honesty, if you have any queries concerning legal matters (signing, documents, final liquidations), Parador will only act as a go between you and their solicitors (yes...if Aldea or Aniortes are your solicitors...guess what...they are part of Parador Properties too, and both solicitors suffer from a regular turn around of staff as the pay is so poor).  In fact most of the time, Parador properties will tell you to just call your legal advisor directly.  After that the only thing that they will do is fetch and carry you and help you do your NIE number.  But in all honestly your legal advisor can do all this for you (except Aniortes) for a much lower price or you can request that Parador help you with the NIE and all you pay is 50€, as a non Owners club client, to collect you from one of their hotels at 4am in the morning and take you to Alicante.  Once you have signed...Parador will basically wash their hands of you.  Sure they will give you advice over the phone, but they won't do anything else and they certainly won't translate or run around with you.  And Snags...after the second all important review of snagging on your new property (which is rarely done), you are completely on your own to get the builder to complete the outstanding snagging.

I just want to warn any future purchasers with Parador to be extemely careful about purchasing through this company at the moment and especially getting their Owners Club. It appear that it might only be a matter of time before this company goes belly up...and when does, under Spanish Law you will loose any money that has been paid to them, and you will receive no help.  Get a good independent solicitor, look things up on the internet, get yourself a translator and do it yourself, its much easier than you think.

Thread: Parador Problems (I mean Property's)

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