Hola,
we have just returned to UK after a great week in Murcia, we completed the deal on our apartment, met some lovely Spanish people, spent 11 hours in Ikea hell (staff were really helpful but delivery is a bit hit and miss!) and even more hours in furniture assembly hell, but it was well worth it, we saved a huge amount of money and had some fun, Rich from Palm properties was amazingly helpful, as was the representative from Mar y Casas who sorted the things on our snagging list within 24 hour and by Friday we were able to check out of hotel in Aguilas and have 2 nights in our new home.
We were not given any information about the community or charges and the attitude of everyone we spoke to about this was very laid back so we decided to chase up Gesisurs by email when we got home.
Our lawyer told us it is legal for developers to backdate community charges to the date of hand over i.e August 2006, and some do this and some don't - looks like Mar y Casas do! Also discovered that our development could be on "builders" electricity and water for up to a year.(keeps the bills down I suppose and offsets the cost of backdated community charges!)
At present there are no dustbins and builders skips are overflowing and smelly - we will be getting onto Gesisurs about this. Apart from the bins everything else seemed in good shape.
Things to watch out for:
1. the sliding doors to the balcony and laundry area cannot be opened from the outside - if you shut the windows to clean them etc. you get locked out (experiential learning is soo much fun!)
2. All supermarkets and shops appear to be closed on Sundays
3. Cam bank is great, they offer on-line banking (English pages)
We will be back in Murcia 1st to 7th Jan - Anyone else there then?
Hasta Luego
Amanda & Dave