Thanks for the PMs and David re the life insurance issue. I wrote to the mortgage provider by email attaching a PDF signed official letter requesting cancellation. I also copied my solicitor on the correspondence. It looks like this has worked which is better than throwing away 400 euro per year in unwanted excessive premiums...

Regards Andy 

Does anyone know why the pool has been closed? We have had some renters in and they mentioned it.

Just spoke to my daughter who is back from Spain this afternoon and both pools were open yesterday!

Could have been the phase 2 pool they were trying to get into.

 Hi the pool at block  8/ 10 has been closed  in august 2 for 3 days at a time Irene

Hi janet yes the pool at block 8 and 10 was shut for 3 days in the middle of august and for 3 days at the end of august just ask our president who closed it as it needed to be closed  Irene

Irene is right. We did have to close the block 8\10 pool twice due to a malfunctioning chlorine dispenser. It is unfortunate that this occured in peak season but the block 6\7 pool was open when the other one was closed.

 This is an old subject but has anyone successfully cancelled their life Insurance that’s linked to the developers mortgage? It appears that the premiums are not fixed i.e. level term assurance. my premiums based on cover 0f 60,000 euros rose from 259 euro to 309 euro in 2008 then to 369 euro in 2009, if the premiums keep increasing at this rate the cost will be in the 1000s at some stage during the 15 year term of the mortgage.  

For those people that completed in Sept 2007 (like me) the new insurance payments are due next month but Caixa Galicia cannot confirm the increase until they have charged it to the account......

any comments/suggestions

Regards Andy  

Hi Andy, 

I just refused to take on the life insurance at completion while I have the developers mortgage. So that saved a lot of money.

  @Wesport:

the rise of Euribor is only interesting if you´re on a Euribor mortgage without floors and ceilings. F.i. the developers mortgage and lots of others state a floor of 3,5% as a minimum. So if you are on Euribor + 0,75% nothing changes until Euribor rises above the 2,75% mark. 

I renegotiated mine to get rid of the floor (but also the ceiling at 9%) but the processing takes so long that if this goes on I won´t win as much as I thought :(

Max

 The pool situation has been a great concern this summer (as usual I must say). Tiles have disappeared again, hygienics were not up to any standard and the repeated failing of pumps and the patchwork repairs have forced us to refund renters for the inconvenience. It was unacceptable to most people that the only pool open had no childrens pool.

I keep saying that preventive maintenance in April would make sure we don´t face these issues in high season. The children with bleeding toes and the upset parents were at our door as is now common practice for the last two years. 

Phase II has a childrens pools but ´we´ have in our wisdom put up notices that phase II owners are not allowed in. The owners already disliked us because we confiscated land and put them to higher monthly costs but this was really the limit. So they now take pleasure in finding out who is from phase I and kick him out of their pool. You get what you asked for....

I find it all disgusting as I live in one community, have friends in every phase, want my child to play with others and not be marked with a tattoe inscription stating to which phase she belongs so which children she can play with at the pool. 

Max.

Do phase 2 parents with children not allow and/or welcome their children's friends (whichever phase these friends come from) to play in their pool? Weird.......................

The main pool used by the children is between block 8 and 10 - you can see the people come from the bottom block all the way up the hill to use this pool, therefore it is the most used pool and will get dirtier than the other.  Lucky for you Max that either you or your child can use all pools.  Perhaps if the pool down the bottom of the hill had an adjacent baby pool it would take the pressure of the pool between block 8 and 10 and ease the problem for all.

kirjim2

 Hi Kirjim,

I think that´s an excellent suggestion depending on the costs. 

However as we already have a second pool on the area I am still in favour of sharing that in a large umbrella community where we work together instead of replicating all facilities. 

We are just a small community and we could have easily shared the water pump with all households as it was intended. Now we ´own´ it due to some land grabbing and all we won by that action that we now have the maintenance costs for a 600 household installation to be payed by just the phase I owners. And a very negative feeling as phase II now have small, cheap water pumps at extra costs in every block. Didn´t work well for our relations with our neighbours just like putting up the signs excluding them. 

If we would share maintenance staff, cleaning staff, improvements, administration and of course the pools we would do a lot better and all pay a lot less than we now do. 

Max.

it would be great to hear comments from anyone thats used the new underground station. Rgds Andy  

Andy,

The new station is very close to the new terminal but not actually underneath it. You currently access it by crossing the road in front of arrivals but a new walkway is being built from departure level. You have to buy your ticket before passing through barriers and down an escalator to the 1 open platform. It is big enough for high speed  AVE trains which it is planned will use it in  the future and the little C1 trains only use a small part of the platform.

Anyone who has dashed from the airport only to watch the train pulling away while you queue behind someone who doesn't know how to use the ticket machine will welcome the planned every 20 minute service. There is considerable engineering work still to be done to get the necessary twin tracks finished. The current timetable is valid until 31st December. I do not know if we can expect the higher frequency from then but expect it will be operational before next summer.

DavMunster describes the current situation better than I could have done.

I have however a slightly different view on the future. As the problems at the main river are still not solved nor are the tunnel problems sorted out in full I can´t imagine the railway to be ready before summer 2011. I would be pleasantly surprised of course but I wouldn´t reckon on it. The economic climate doesn´t help as well.

And a slight tip if you´re in a hurry: just jump in that train if some silly foreigner (pardon, people like me and you :)) is blocking the machine for ages as is quite common just go to the ticket controller on the train, jump in and point at the machine. Changes are very high that you get a ´fine´ identical to the normal ticket.

If you can´t find the guy do the same and be open about it. The worst that can happen is that he, with lots of excuses, will fine you for the full trip possible, meaning you have to pay 50 cents or something like that more as you´re are then considered to be aboard from Malaga Centre instead of Airport.

Max.

can anyone help,  I am about to go through the process of upgrading my electric supply in my 2 bed apt, hopefully to stop the electric "popping" when I put my kettle on...ect.... Has anyone already gone through this process recently , is it easy to do? what is our current supply rating and what does it get improved to ? does it take a quick visit from Endesa to do the work? what is the difference in fixed charges /consumption?  

Any info will be of great help.

Thanks Andy