Hi Laurdan
Didn't mean to alarm anyone, rather to point out some of the scam practices perpertrated by just about every one in the property chain that have been allowed to flourish and expand over the past few decades, so much so that it's now considered normal business practice to fleece every single cento at every opportunity.
Even our own Developer at Coto Real, Ros y Falcon, reputably one of the better ones, heavily advertised many features and facilities that have never appeared, and have, (so far), refused to answer emails from a number of Owners.
We even have in our possession an arial photograph taken of Coto Real that was doctored to show that one bloque had pools (which it hasn't) The bloque names had been altered ! On the strength of this one of our Owners purchased two apartments and when he found out much later he was totally ignored.
We had also been promised tennis courts, sports centre, swimming pools, children's play area, linked cascading waterfalls, commercial centre and hotel. None of this has materialised yet the majority of Owners who had purchased was on the basis of this. This was featured on all their sales brochures and web sites, and just to show how arrogant this developer is, it's still on their current sales material !
We have formed our own RyF Action Group, with new legal representation (the old one resigned in mysterious circumstances giving no plausible explanation) and we are following this all up. We have our own web site http://www.rosyfalconactiongroup.cotorealcommunityspain.com/ where you can see all the gory details. Don't forget this is supossed to be one of the better developers.
It then follows on to the actual purchase. I'm willing to bet money that no-one was told about the Rental Tax. This is another Spanish tax scam (they're at it as well) where you have to pay a Rental Tax - even though you may not rent out your apartment. Doesn't matter - pay up !
When completing our purchase at Coto Real we had to pay two sets of property registration fees, two sets of Notary fees, simply because we had a mortgage (due to Arenal not paying our Refund), 1% mortgage commission fee, and a host of other Fees that suddenly sprung out of no-where.
When I'm feeling a bit braver I will re-look at my solictors statement...........
Even our dealings with Arenal has been fraught - despite them being 3 years late in completing our original apartment they simply refuse to refund our 30% money, and we then had to find €5,000 to pay our solicitors to commence legal proceedings.
The whole system is entirely geared to suit the developer, not the poor bugger who bought in the first place in entirely good faith. The whole system stinks. Developers rely on the fact that 99% of purchasers will not have the money to sue and there's little to touch them. If one or two gets through, so what ? Cheap at the price.
Even look at our Town Hall, corruption is rampant, the Port is a disgrace, yet more and more taxes are coming in. Where's the money going ?
A case in mind is our own Penoncillo Road, which we both share. Both Ros y Falcon and Arenal paid €3 million up front to the Town Hall to have this finished. At the last count Town Hall was seen leaving Malaga Airport heading for sunnier climates and one hell of a party. Reminded me of a scene from Hustlers.
The fact is it's probably safer to buy property in Morocco or even Zambabwi even though Spain is supossed to be in the EU. It might as well be in some African despot state.
I have raised this at Government level with the Spanish Ambassador to the UK.
Regarding your Community Fees I would budget about €100 per month - it may be less but likely to be a bit more. This is another area that not only raises eyebrows but causes jaws to drop.
There used to be the joke about the $1 washer that by the time it reached NASA became the $10,000 washer, and Spain has the same system here except they then buy it from Nasa and then charge us €100,000.
No doubt brothers, sisters, nephews, third cousins and every other relative are all taking a rake, and this is another avenue to extract even more money from these rich foreigners. Er, that's supposed to be us, folks.
Some of the contract prices we are paying as a Community would make your eyes weep - we all know a dodgy quote and invoice when we see one except we seem to be the only ones. Our own Urbanisation management company simply seem to pay whatever is set in front of them. I mean, two gardeners, €15,000 for a month's work, oh, that sounds reasonable. Let's make it twelve months. Yeah, right.
Going off on a tangent, my big worry for all Urbanisations this year will be the dramatic rise of Delinquent Debtors unless all Urbanisations make significant reductions to their Community fees.
I submitted an Alternative Budget to them (by the way they never respond to my emails) where we reduced the Community Fee by 25% and still managed several big improvements to the Urbanisation. Have I heard anything ? Nah.
The penny has simply not dropped here yet. Whilst money was in supply, Spain could, and did, get away with it, but times have changed.
The rich foreigner is now the poor foreigner (and we were never rich to begin with) but to Spain it must have appeared that way, and it obviously still does.
Every bill here is now 25% dearer in real terms taking the sterling/euro exchange rate into account and unless everyone here wakes up to this and demands changes, the Costas are going to be a lot poorer in terms of finance and numbers visiting.
Numbers are well down already, Owners just don't have the money they once had and 2009 has just started.
Going to lie down now in a darkened room (again)...............