Luckily the move into our new home had gone smoothly, however not many people moved into the building initially, which meant workmen were going in and out while neighbours were having furniture delivered etc. This didn´t worry us too much, as we go out for coffee several times a week with our new friends in Jumilla so the noise wasn´t much of a problem, however we had an upsetting experience which may have been connected with the constant comings and goings and resulting lack of security.
John had gone down to our trastero (store-room), which was near the underground parking area, and discovered that we had had a break-in. He went to the site office to report this and Toñi ,who worked in the office at that time, rang the Guardia Civil on our behalf. Isabel, one of our new neighbours, then offered to drive us down the road to make a "denuncia" and was willing to wait with us, however we assured her we would be happy to walk back as we expected a long wait. The actual process didn´t take too long, in spite of our limited Spanish. The only time we struggled was when the officer asked for what sounded like our "nee - eh". We gave him a blank look, until he said something about tarjete and we realised that he was referring to our N.I.E numbers!
Later that day another neighbour, who we only knew by sight, knocked on our door. José said how sorry he was to hear about the break-in and asked if we would like to move our remaining belongings into his trastero until the door had been replaced. Such kindness from our neighbours helped to reconcile us to the thefts, and the fact that the insurance company would only cover items where we could produce a receipt.
Our solicitors were also proving a problem. We were unhappy with the fact that they had never advised us on the legal requirement to have a bank guarantee, which meant we were likely to lose all of the deposit we had paid for our off-plan property at Residential Santa Ana del Monte. We were also unhappy with the lack of information from them about what was happening in the courts - we were grateful for the forum on Eye on Spain where we received far more updates than we did from our solicitor. We were even more unhappy when we received a demand from our solicitor for 2,000 euros, in spite of not having been given any estimate in the first place, no updates, and no bill telling us how this amount had been calculated! We replied to them saying we needed a proper bill and that we held them responsible for the financial problems we were now facing, so were unlikely to be able to pay them until we had our money back! At the time of writing, with no possibility of any refund in the foreseeable future, especially as Herrada del Tollo are still in administration and still haven´t found financial backing, we are not in a position to make any payment to our solicitor, who seem to be totally ignoring us now!
Anybody else who is contemplating buying a property in Spain, please remember these golden rules:
1. Don´t use any solicitor that either the developer or your estate agent has recommended.
2. Don´t part with any money until you have a bank guarantee, and get your solicitor to ensure that the bank guarantee is valid and that your money is paid into a secure account.