one a success, the other disaster!

How is it that Spain can be part of the same EU as Britain is?  I personally rather enjoy the laid back side of life, but even I am feeling a little tetchy today.

On one hand - a developer who seemingly rings our solicitor on a weekly basis with another 'enticing' (not) offer designed to get us to hand over the final payment on a property with a demolition order.  Is he trying to wrack up our legal fees?

Yet, al otro mano, when we ask the penalty for walking away from the deal, he suddenly loses the power of speech!  And we were only asking!  A friend who works in the financial services sector (yes, financial advisors can also have friends) mentioned that we might be able to recoup any loss of deposit by taking advantage of the exchange rate.  We got €1.55 to £1 when we took it out there in 2004.

So we wait . . . .for a response. . . . .for a test legal case . . . . .for the Junta to make a ruling . . . . . . and another summer slips away . . . 

W

Getting information from a Spanish solicitor can be, at times, like squeezing blood from a stone.  Despite an improving knowledge of the spanish language on this side, and having a very capable bi-lingual solicitor, the information flow is all one way.

I ask a question, send an email, leave a telephone message.  A week later I do the same again.  Eventually I strike gold.  I may, in return for my persistance, get a nugget of information - new to me but several weeks old in terms of status.

Our Palomares apartment, the one with the demolition order, is waiting for decisions from higher levels, but it seems unclear as to who is controlling the situation.  It is certainly not us.  I am absolutely certain it is not the solicitor, who seem of the reactive (although fairly active reactive) variety.  It may be the Junta of Andalucia (who needs to take a decision as to whether up to 100,000 properties have been built on land which has never been legally reclassified from rural to urban land).  Or it may be the first person who successfully gets our developer in front of the Courts and makes him bankrupt. 

No completion with First Licence of Habitation, but no payout on the Bank Guarantee without legal ruling as the apartment IS finished and the builder is solvent thereby negating the reasons for the Bank Guarantee to pay out.  There seems to be no precedent for properties built on land which was once, albeit briefly, classified as urban under a corrupt jurisdiction.

This is how I have been told the story . . . . but once upon a time I could make up my own dreams.  Now I am waiting for my happy ending.
W

after a great week at our apartment.  This is the second year we have been on holiday with my sis and her family, who had to rent the apartment downstairs because our second apartment has never materialised.

Our completed apartment, bought in 2004, completed exactly two years ago - and boy, is it great.  The site and area (Vera Playa) have matured beautifully.  We have met some great people and the apartment has rented out really well, although admittedly this year is harder due to xchange rate.  We have been overjoyed to get return bookings and also excited to read the lovely comments left in our 'visitor book'.

It was with trepidation, yesterday,  that we drove to Palomares to visit the other apartment, purchased on the same day in 2004, finished in October 2006, granted a FLO for a brief 10 days earlier this year, but now facing a possible demolition order.  The future rests on a decision to be made by the Junta of Andalucia, or a test court case . . . .

Two apartments, same cautious and well researched buyers, same solicitor, same area, different but well established developers, . . . .we didn't leave our brains at the airport!  Buying in Spain can be, perhaps, down to luck more than just judgement.

More to follow . . . 
W