Property Leaks/flooding - Please read...

annemarie.walker@mac.com

Rob

I think the latest is that the surveyor is doing a report to present to the developer's lawyer. Anna-Marie had him visit on Friday afternoon.

Good news for you is you have no sign of damp! The persistant rain is now coming to the end thank God.

Alan

Hi Alan

Yes Anne-Marie sent an update..  see below

Hi everyone,

Campbell Ferguson from Survey Spain came this morning and spent a
couple of hours going over the property from top to bottom with his
colleague. They have assessed the damp, ventilation and structural
defects including scanning over the various insurance documents.
Although he didn't charge us for his visit or his advice today we have
authorized him to complete the written report at a cost of €300 plus
the cost of having it translated by the officials concerned for it to
be accepted for legal proceedings. I have now got an appointment to go
over where we stand legally with a solicitor later in the week.

Summary so far,
The 10 yr guarantee doesn't cover anything to do with rain damage,
including badly fitted terraces.
The terrace lining has not been fitted correctly.
All of the white marks around the urbanization are due to badly
planned drainage from the terraces and will only get worse regardless
of how often they are re-rendered and painted.
The air conditioning pipes have again been badly installed and not
sealed allowing rain to freely flow through the building.
The windows are poorly fitted.
We also have no vents in our property either for the stench pipes or
for the kitchen extractor.

The general con-census was that the building has been very poorly
built and finished. He thinks that we do have a case against the
builders and or the architect and the solicitor will tell us how we go
about getting them to sort it.

We do however have substantial structural movement in our area and
that is clearly seen through the cracks around the property, the
stairs and basement area and this subsidence should be covered by the
10yr warranty..

His advice, get as many people together to claim on these faults as
possible, as only as a group will we have the chance of getting the
faults repaired, that one of the first things we should do is call an
EAGM to discuss:
the position of the Costa Galera Explotaciones Turisticas S.L. who
were appointed by Labaro as the management company, again the legal
status of instructing a new management company will be confirmed by
the solicitor when I meet with them. His advice is to start looking
for a replacement company asap, they will also offer advice on what
our next steps are with regards to the community officers position and
how to replace them. Once his report has been completed, we can then
use that to try and get Labaro through the management company to sort
out the defects. He also thinks we have a case against the original
architects who will have liability insurance as they have signed off,
on defective works.

Unfortunately it is still a game of wait and see and hopefully the
solicitor can now fill in the gaps as it were, as to our next step.

As usual, if you know of anyone else who's having these problems,
please forward them my details, and I will keep you informed as to our
next step.

Anne-Marie

Cheers

Rob

Rob

On your apartment the kitchen extractor hood vent is above the door in your utility. The stench pipe out let is what all the chimney looking things are on the roofs.

In my opinion the white marks are eflorecence which is salt from the earth natrally in building material and these are common in all new builds (even in Britain) and just take time to come out and painting over them all the time just delays the process.

The window on this urb are no different to anywhere else in Spain. Granted most do need adjusting but this is mininal.

Vents are a good idea in each room as it allows the building to breath.

It will be interesting to see where this all goes but I really dont think YOU have any worries and I still think this is one of the best developments in this area.

Rgds Alan

Hi Alan

You are right the white marks are from the salt, its a shame as it looks so bad, Labaro did paint over many after filling in the cracks..

Most of my windows are fine, some need extra draft excluder as they were bent a bit.

I agree i think its one of the best in area...

I see you posted on Valle Romaro site, did you by there too...

Cheers

Rob

Hi Rob

I purchased a 2 bed back in March '07 and fingers crossed will be getting my money back shortly! I also owned a villa up that way once.

Did you buy there?

Alan

Hi Alan

No i only have Costa Galera...

Fingers crossed you get your money back,  VR was all over UK papers once as Blackburn ( i think ) players were buying there etc etc

Google now shows estepona,  i can even see my front door, from road,  VR site is huge from above, not 100% sure how long google snaps were taken as Gregs sign is still on my apt but from what i could see there is still loads to do there,  its amazing just how many complexes have sprung up from VR to Duquesa to Minillva.

cheers

Rob

Deleted
 

Has anybody got an update to this thread re- the damp. I have had a builder friend inspect my apartment and all seems to be ok. Is anyone still experiencing damp problems/damage and any ongoing build problems?

This message was last edited by nicky1 on 04/02/2010.

Hi

I have water leaking in via roof aircon system,  just had another email saying its leaking again due to heavy rain,  i had hoped work was being done this week but builder said its booked for next week..

Just happened as new tenants moved in too, dam timing..

I had leaks in same place 3 years ago, looks like Labaro never fixed them properly.

My builder advised that they are swamped with work for leaks all over area

cheers

Rob

Thanks Rob, I did have a minor damp problem few years ago but Labaro fixed it and everything has been ok since. Hope they get all your problems resolved.

Good job Rob hope the new tenant works out for you this time.

Cheers Dogs

Me too, well they drove from UK, so hopefully they will stay a while  :-)

fingers crossed...

 We're going down next couple of weeks for first time since summer. Wonder what we'll find!  Does anyone have a contact number for the Costa Advice people mentioned at the start of this thread? (We are still chasing our legal case with developers to years after survey). Lovely to hear you all still love the area thought. We do. There's talk on your other forum for Costa Galera about chasing up a blue bridge. I think it would help repeat rentals.  Best to you all. Liz

 Just back and what rain! Half of Andalucia flooded. You all may well know of the landslip of the bank of earth  on the left as you drive up to the Albayt. It covered the left hand carriageway (from about halfway between the junction to Akua's and the Albayt to in front of the Albayt) . Left hand still closed but they have half bulldozed it clear and are placing great slabs of rock to try to stop it slipping across the road more. It slipped right from the top so there are broken lamp posts and the walkway on the top of the slope has broken.  There was a big and little digger and a bulldozer at work on Friday.  But more rain anticipated this weekend.

The Albayt has changed itself around a bit. No sofas in front of TV. All dining tables that end now. Wi-fiers and interneters are asked to sit at the bar tables (so they can ask if you want a drink). Fair enough.

Heard about this and all the rain. still I guess the reservoirs should be full up.

 so full they had to open one to let out some water!!

has anyone got an update to the damp situation, i.e. Anyone started tackling their problem?

Hi anyone been over lately to Galera. How's the clean up operation going/gone. Has the land slip been cleared?

 When I went back at Easter they were clearing it again after a worse landslip. A whole chunk of the footpath  to the children's play area opposite Albayt had come away and slid down to the road.  It was about clear and shored up with big boulders when I left and there hasn't been torrential rain since.