Buying propery Mojon

Hello All you sun lovers

Flying over this weekend to review property in Mojon hills 2 Bed Apartment 80K , has any body got any good advise re this seemingly lovely area or buying propery in general on this complex

Ian

Hi. We have just bought an apartment on 4C. So pleased and a very smooth transaction. Bought through Blue Med.

Just come across this thread, whilst reviewing what to do about the latest issue I need to deal with re Mojon Hills, and thought maybe my experience / that of many others might be of interest.

Blue Med are kosher is mentioned by someone above.  I suggest you disattach yourself from whoever of Blue Med is showing you around, and speak to some of the current owners about their experiences.  You are likely to hear a very very different story.  The Brits working in the area are likely to be able to enlighten you also.  

Try searching for Mojon Hills Julio - if you've not yet had the background to the Atlantia story, I'd suggest it's worth bringing yourselves up to speed. 

If you've just bought, and think that you understand the situation you're in, best wait a year or two until you've seen the full picture..... unless you've taken lots of extra advice, and have brilliant Spanish skills or have had everything professionaly translated, together with a full understanding of how things work in Spain, you may be in for a few choice surprises. 

The area is lovely.  But, if you're up for being treated fairly through your purchase, and for things being as you've understood them, you may not enjoy the area as much as you'd thought you might.  If you have the resources to not mind the vast sums which will be regularly seen exiting your bank account, seemingly at a whim, then you may well love the area and the whole experience. (And if your bank account is as yet fairly static, that may be because demands have been presented and have bounced - but not shown up, which is the way that banks operate in Spain - in which case they may well catch up with you two, three or ten years down the line, along with the accompanying fines and credit card rates of interest which are invariably present).  

Hope this helps - I thought we'd done due dilligence before buying, but compared to the whole UK system, this is a whole different beast.  

If you're considering Mojon Hills as an investment, you might like to think about a career on the comedy circuit.  (In the words of one of the letting agents 'the supply is way in excess fo the demand').  

QUOTE If you have the resources to not mind the vast sums which will be regularly seen exiting your bank account, seemingly at a whim, then you may well love the area and the whole experience. (And if your bank account is as yet fairly static, that may be because demands have been presented and have bounced -UNQUOTE

What are you on about mate? Is this a beef about service charges or the way your mortgage was set up? In my opinion service charges are reasonable, the resort is fabulous and we have no beef with our bank. If you are going to be negative kindly be more specific about your gripe.

Saludos

Juan

Glad you're happy with your service charges Juan.  Personally when we were led to believe that service charges for the community would be in the region of 15E per month, and actually they're about 100E per month, it's been a big difference to budget for - particularly taken with about 70+E per month for water and electric in months when it's unoccupied).  A greater than expected service charge is a fairly common experience amongst owners that I've spoken with - along with lots of other shared unfortunate experiences.  Oh, and there is a debate in the community about whether the builder is to be taken to court for various issues..... one of the little gems recently reported apparently involves the electric connections not having been done correctly /legally/ whatever - with ensuing massive costs to the community.  Also there seems to be some debate as to whether the bank will pay service charges for the properties they've repossessed.  There is a long list of issues which are unanticipated / costly / a pain in the backside to deal with.

And yes there were issues with the way the mortgage was set up and no it's not possible to be more specific about that gripe as legal advice is being taken at the moment. 

If you've had a good experience, then that's great.  I just suggest that anyone interested in the area find an owner or two on their visit, and ask them to talk them through how everything works / what actual costs are / how things might work differently to the system in whatever country they're used to dealing with things in (and by system I mean community stuff, how their bank works etc).  Otherwise I'm afraid people flick through these forums as a way of doing due dilligence, see positive comments about a lovely area etc and given that their experience of the area is that it is lovely they think it all is positive, and unfortunately it's at least a year down the line that the reality of how it all works will catch up with you...... and it would be worth putting money on whether someone asking around a couple of people (either property owners or tradesfolk) would find some very enlightening and problematic stories........ speaking from personal experience the main issue is a lack of honest description (with the service charge example above being just one of many) issues which have arisen. 

apsspain it would seem to me that the issues that you have are with the company that sold you your property and the issues are with them and to perhaps just paint all agents with the same comments is unfair, as you quite rightly say you should do your own due diligence

Most of the issues that your community is experiencing are VERY COMMON in Spain at the moment because of the empty properties that are either owned by the banks or the developers and them not paying the community fees

There is possibly no community in Spain, where you have the type of facilities pool etc, where you would pay €15 a month, even if all of the properties were occupied, not possible and around €300 a quarter is much more normal but in my own area the owners have also paid another €860 this year to make up the shortfall to keep the place going

If you want to take a builder to court normally you the owners nave to finance this and it is a lengthy process so not an easy decision

If you are talking about the €70 a month then I am asuming that you are taliking about standing charge, which youy also pay in the UK even if there is no consumption, but you may be able to reduce the electricity charge by changing the Potencia rate that you were originally adjusting this to your actual consumption

As far as the due community fees are concerned there is no grey area, the bank legally are required to pay the outstanding fees for properties that they reposses and you just need a strong enough Adminstrator to enforce this, on one resort for example I know that some owners threatened not to pay the mortgages until the bank payed uo the fees, it worked

Sorry but agian problems with ilegal or building specifcation not being correvt but that is why the developer has to have insurance, agian am issue for your administrator to deal with

Mortgages again owners must have been legally advised

Really what is comes down to is yes be aware of everything, ask the right questions, but judge the development on the quality, value and of course potential for the future, not necessaily history

If I sound a little vexed it is not because of you, but the fact I just typed a whole page then lost it, so here we go again!

By way of background we bought on MH about five years ago on one of the third phases. We spend about six months a year there and know lots of people, both resident and non-resident, foreign and Spanish. Let’s try and deal with your issues bit by bit.

1. Utilities – Unfortunately this is not just a Spanish phenomen, but a European one. Standing charges are unfortunately the order of the day. We watch our water meter monitor in the UK click on 35 pence per day even if we are not there. So yes as you will  have seen on various Spanish forums, unless you have your supply disconnected you will be charged. But, let us also not forget that the water bills also include refuse collection, sanitation project charges  etc. so yes 60/70 Euros per month is quite normal. But nothing to do with Mojon Hills.

2. Service charges. On our 60 apartment phase we pay around 38 Euros monthly to cover garden maintenance, community insurance, electricity for street lighting, full year pool maintenance (our residents insisted on the pool being kept open), and our administrators. In my opinion that is cheap. I don’t know of any other phase charging significantly more. Perhaps you can enlighten us on that, but I compare this to house we had in London with charges of over £3000 per annum, and with no pool. I have no idea which phase you are on but is does not sound right..

With regards to builders defects I would suspect trying to sue a now liquidated company is a bit pointless. Besides, I cannot understand why the local authority would issue a licence for first occupation if indeed the buildings were not compliant. Nor would Iberdrola connect to them. Have you checked how many local Urbs are fully compliant?

Our adminstrators are Pargada and they seem fairly competent at chasing debtors, but again this a problem endemic to Spain at present. Of course the “owners” of each property are liable community charges and it will all catch up. It is not a matter of debate.

3. I make the assumption that you bought with the assistance of Caja Murcia. We do know of instances where initial terms were confused between Interest only and Interest plus capital repayment. In such instances the local bank manager was able to resolve this. Have you spoken with him?

I would ask that you do not single out Mohon Hills because of your own view/experience of Spain to vent your frustration. Overall it is a lovely resort with a location second to none. What can beat sitting at the social club in Isla Plana watching the sunset? We were also advised that we should not consider it as an investment as the season is quite short, having said that we know of people letting through October/November and now booking February.

I am sorry you are not happy, but I think unfortunately you are among a limited minority.

Regards