Quality of build

On our inspection visit we were sold the build quality and reliablility of their work.
We have now completed and have been out on Spain (las kalendas) for six months now.
We constantly have to remind them about our snags and progress is very slow.
So far we have had the monocap exterior of our villa replace due to excessive cracking.
The bathroom tiles were not as we requested.
Exterior patio tiles have been replaced. Looking at the box they come in they are not suitable for exterior use.
As the soil around the plot is largely infill, this has settled and paths have dropped away from the side of the house. One neighbours swimming pool has sunk on one side!
This and many smaller faults convince us that they are not quality builders.

What is the name of the builder?

We bought last winter a house in Las Kalendas.

Greetings,

Ruud Pellegrom

Eye on Spain member, brickwork, has sent you the following message:

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Ruud,

My son purchased from Promocassa (I think that is ho you spell it!

My answer;

Thanks, the name is Procumasa and as far as we know is this company doning their job as agreed.

Hi

I am about to complete with procumasa and theyt have forgotten to put stairs into the underbuild and sealed it also forgotten damp membrane to underbuild, they have built the illa in the wrong place by a metre and two of the bathrooms are wrong way round they have also finished the house in terracota and not in mustard colour that was agreed they have also forgotten to pre install the alarm and air conditioning, on bringing up the problems with the Agents Iberian International nothing seems to happen . Problems have been bought to attention over a year and  no one takes responsibility or elps the customer. It appears they are a second class outfit and i would not advise anyone to buy off them , the location is fantastic and the people moving on the urbanisation are as well.

  We are hoping to get a TV production company on site in the next week so let me know if anyone else would like to use the company. It is a shame that we have to revert to this and it does spoil the experience of buying abroad but the only way is to stand up to these companies, and the only thing that makes them notice is if they are hit in the pocket

This message was last edited by LAM1963 on 3/11/2007.

This message was last edited by LAM1963 on 3/11/2007.

Hi

Dated 16/03/2007 Today i have recieved a reply from my agent Iberian Internayional from the Deputy Director John Sawyer

This is what I recieved

we are writing to inform you that Iberian International will not be offering you and form of compensation, The decision was made after much deliberation and it was decided that Iberian International had no control over what has happened. It was agreed that AIB Technical and your builder Procumasa S.L. are solely responsible for this situation and we advise you to channel your request for compensation directly to them. We know that AIB technical are recommended to you by Iberian but they have their own policies and procedures in which we have no influence over. we understand that this information is dissapointing for you, but unfortunatly at no fault of iberian do you find yourself in this situation.  John Sawyer  Iberian International.

This letter as taken eight months to come the director never had the decency to contact me in person Please note this is all prior to completion. Would you complete?

What this means is that your agent will guide you through your purchase until completion and will take all the worries away from the pitfall of buying in Spain. Quote Iberian International sales brochure. AIB Technical are from the same group of companies as Iberian International and Atlas International all extras etc are put through this company you   have no choice what they are saying is we will take your money and when thay do not do as instructed we will pass you around our conmpany with the hope that you will back down. Today i asked for my money back they refused.

Iberian International , Procumasa and AIB Technical are second rate what do you think?

All the replies on here make interesting reading, our build is due to complete next Jan 08. Were buying through Atlas (a mistake) our dealings with ABI & Atlas have been a joke, it would make a good sitcom, but we are keeping on top of it, and popping over again in April, the only advise I can give is, detail all changes and have them signed by procamasa - the contractor, and make sure that ABI & your Agent have copies. Derek

Things have moved on at Las Kalendas since I started this thread.

We have had a meeting with Procumasa, the builders, and they have admitted that there is a problem with settlement on some of the properties. They claim to be working to sort it out.

Our sunken perimeter path was relaid, but it is now at a different level to all the adjoining paths! We now await the builders return to correct that.

We also had a meeting with the Sales Director from Euro Anglo Sur about the list of major outstanding snags on the property. He gave us a promise that all would be completed within a month. Well that month has passed and no builder has set foot on the property to even start them - what value does a promise have?

I know we are not the only dissatisfied customer on the Las Kalendas site, but I am rapidly coming to the opinion that once the builders/developers/agents have your money then we are on our own. They will get on and build for more unsuspecting purchasers.

I have just been sent a completion notice on my property at Las Kalendas for the end of the month. Within the same letter they have said they although complete they cannot complete for a further 3 months so i am not sure if this is usual.  On a matter of interest after reading about problems at Las Kalendas could anyone advise of any structural surveyors?

I really must give an update on my snags saga!

I heard from Euro Anglo Sur, our agents, today that the builders (procumasa) had told them that they had completed all or snags!!

Well I do believe in some miracles, but how can a builder claim to have done work without even coming onto your property? and then leave with the snags still in existence!

Someone somewhere is telling porkies! and our agents are so easily taken in by it all. Perhaps it's the feeling of having a big wad of our cash in their back pocket.

Hi Dennis are sure that it's not Procomasas' contracted builders or your agent Telling porkies?

Hi, we have just put a reservation deposit on a villa in Las Kalendas, due to pay the deposit first week of June.  Having just read thru this thread I am a little worried about whether we made a good choice.   Any words of advice??

Hi

My advice would be:

Take nothing for granted.

Check everything, then double check it.

Keep copies of all correspondence.

Keep in touch throughout the build process and check as often as possible.

Do not be surprised if you have problems.

 

What villa are you buying and where is it?

This message was last edited by dennismundy on 4/24/2007.

Hi,

The villa is the Jazmin 2 bedroom model, in the Minerva phase.  The concrete structure was already erected, the plot to the right already has a completed villa, the plot to the left is at the same stage as ours. 

How much correspondance can I expect regarding the progress of the build?  Obviuosly with the villa we made some choices to make in terms of tiles/ terracing / pool / air-con - is it standard process for them to communicate and confirm when stages are complete?  (I've got a feeling i know the answer to this), how often would you reccomend we go over to inspect the build?

Thx, Jo

Las kalendas developer designes beautiful villas but they change from what you will see as a show house

If you buy on this development insist on a full structural survey and use a good independant solicitor because you will need it.

Get everything in triplicate in English and Spanish and if they tell you it is Tuesday today check the calender, If they shake your hand check if your rings etc is still on your hands.

If you are using an agent do not trust them and if AIB technical is involved good luck

Otherwise a good location, good neighbours

Hi,parsojoa. we too are having a Jazmin Built and the build looks sturdy and well built so far, What we must remember is that 700-800 properties are going to be built, and you are bound to have problems and mistakes take place, also procomasa are the contractors, and sub-contract the work out to different Builders, personally I have found procomasa OK to work with and very helpful, as I understand it one set of builders they used were not upto scratch & have been replaced and procomasa paying the consequences to this day. Atlas the agent we used have proved absolutely useless and there AIB tech section worse, we involve them only when we have to. and remember to use a independent solicitor all the best Derek

Finally after much digging around I have found that it was the Procumasa site foreman who deemed our snags as complete!

He seems to have taken it upon himself to totally disregard customers concerns about the quality of their properties and take the line that they are not doing the work. What a good company man! he must be saving them loads!!

It would be nice to know how Procumasa are going to do deal with him, any suggestion?

Has anyone posted a missing persons report for Procumasa's site foreman who does the snagging

The foreman is still around - spreading his doom and gloom! But we have a cunning plan!! - avoid him as much as possible until an official complaint has been made.

Unfortunately he is the only one of them that can speak half decent English. He has a few stock excuses though.

Do not water your plants or it will crack the walls.

Do not put too much paper down the loo or it will block the drains.

The water has gone off because the solar panels that charge the pump batteries have not had enough sun.

I really do think he believes we brits leave our brains at the airport - just as well we came overland!

 

They started work on our solarium steps the other day.

One side of the tiles were ripped up and the underlaying brickwork removed to expose the black mastic stuff sealing the poured concrete. They then put on more mastic.

At the crack of dawn today they were back flushing down the stairs with water and .......... hey presto it still leaks - worse than before!!! We've not seen them since! I'm sure the foreman said we did not have a problem!!!

I'm off to get another bottle of whisky!

Dennis

Are you finding these are common complaints that you are having or have some people just given up and carrying on knowing procumasa will do nothing?