Ocean Symphony??

Hi Everyone,

Just a few lines to introduce ourselves - our names are Alan & Elaine and we have been reading posts on the forum for some time now and thought that this is a good time to get involved. We're buying a Tulipan apartment - this is the second San Jose property that we have bought since moving to Spain 5 years ago. when we first moved to Spain we bought one of these apartments on the coast. We lived there for  a couple of years and then decided to move inland (something that we always had planned to do). We now live in a place called La Umbria de la Zarza which is about a 15 min drive from the Santa Ana development. We are usually at the development most weeks as we have our own estate agency and have sold a number of properties on this development. If anyone wants any information, whether a buyer or prospective buyer just let us know and we will do our best to help!

Alan & Elaine

Welcome to the Forum.

Best regards

Darren & Michelle

Hi  Darren & Michelle

Good to hear from you again!

P.S. We have received messages from people who have logged onto our old website which we no longer use and so has  error codes on some pages. Please note our new site is http://www.simplymurcia.com

Alan & Elaine

Hi.

Welcome to the forum. It would be interesting to hear your views on San Jose the company, people and property standard. I assume if this is your second one, you are more then happy?

 

Cheers

Baz

Hi Baz

We bought our first off- plan San Jose property about 7 years ago.  We have always found them to be very professional and importantly they gave excellent back up once the property was completed. We have had no hesitation in buying a second property from them or recommending the company to other buyers.  The Santa Ana development is one of the best value for money resorts at this moment and its hard to see how you could lose in terms of investment potential.

All the best...

Alan & Elaine

Hi Alan & Elaine. Glad to hear that someone has found San Jose to be 'professional'. I do not regard any company that does not respond to several e mails as anywhere near professional. Perhaps you could give the forum the benefit of you dealings with San Jose and let us know, in your capacity as estate agents, when you expect San Jose to actually finish the first house on this development. We were hoping to be living there now and the longer that delays go on the more disillusioned we are and the more that we are beginning to wish that we had never got involved with San Jose. Cheers 

Hi Alan & Elaine,

Nice to hear from someone who has had dealings as both a buyer and as an estate agent however, I like roysrellies am not so sure that I would agree with all of your comments re San Jose professional dealings. If as you say you have been following the forums conected with Santa Ana you will know that there are any worrried and nervous people myself among them. While I remain postive that the development will proceed in some form or other the process has been much more stressful than it needed to be as in my particular case  San Jose outright lied to me. I can appreciate that things are done differently in Spain but lying to clients with false information is as bad as providing no information  and can never acceptable nor cannot be put down to different business practices or language barriers.

I keep being told that San Jose are a big and reputable company but how come according to our contract we are not buying from them but Herrada Del Tollo,S.l.  and, why do they not provide as supposed to by law the bank guarantees? which would at least give us some peace of mind that should things go completely adrift we would at least get our money back to enable us to pursue our dream of living in Spain.

I do think it is very honest and brave of you own up to having an interest as estate agents, am sure you will probably come in for some flak at times when people are frustrated with San Jose. Here's hoping you prove to be one of the good guys (the very fact that you are posting openly proves that). Despite all I still think that there are more pros than cons to buying of plan and am still looking forward to living in Jumilla.

Regards

Arlene

 

Hi Arlene & roysrellies

Hope you don't mind if we reply to you both as you make similar points re San Jose.  You will appreciate that we can't comment too much on individual cases as we havn't been involved in these. However, we can fully understand peoples frustrations when properties are not completed on time or when corresspondance isn't replied to.  As we have said previously, we have found San Jose to be one of the best developers we have ever had to deal with in Spain and we have delt with many during our time over here.  We think that its important at the outset to stress that we are not participating in the forum to act as defenders of  San Jose or any other developer for that matter but to offer our thoughts and opinions based upon our experiences.

To respond to your specific points:  We would anticipate that the first properties will be completed in the 1st quarter of 2008 this is based on what the developer is saying and also what our own eyes tell us.  As you will know, building work is well underway and significant progress is being made and we see changes to the site on a weekly basis. On the subject of bank guarantees San Jose are addressing this issue but it is complex and is linked to land values in other words the banks underwrite the development based on what its value is.   Because there has been serious delay in issuing building licences this has had a knock on effect to the issuing of bank guarantees.

On the subject of building licences it is the case  in Jumilla that not only San Jose but all other building project have been delayed due to the time it is taking the planning authority to finalise building permissions.  The Town Halls "thoroughness" would test the patience of Jobe but it would seem that we are now coming to the end of this process and the licencing problems should soon be resolved soon.

Hope this hels a bit,

All the best...

Alan & Elaine

Hi again Alan & Elaine. I said on a much earlier post that I would not make any more posts on this forum and this will I promise most definitely be my last one. I am afraid I must really disagree with you. I believe that there is relatively little activity on the site in general based on the size of the project. This work is mainly concreting and laying cheap pipework, some of which was broken and covered up in parts when I was last there. I realise, of course, that there is likely to be very little activity over the month of August due to holidays and the heat.

This pipework could lead to similar 'smells' associated with other of their developments which have been commented about on various forums. I wonder, and I am not on my own in this conjecture, if San Jose have just a few 'cash flow' problems at the moment and I am in contact with the BBC about them doing an investigation of San Jose's activities in Murcia. One of their investigative reporters is on the case and she will be contacting me in due course. She has details of this and another forum about San Jose so keep your eyes and ears open for future developments.

In the meantime a lawyer is going to present a 'denounce' before the Town Hall of Torrevieja on behalf of several of their clients due to the non-fulfilment of the law 57/1968 of 27th July and the law 38/1999 of 5th November so we shall see what that brings.

 Adios. 

Hi roysrellies,

Sorry to hear your so upset about everything.  We can only report what we have actually seen (including today) that significant building work is taking place at the site and not just pipe laying etc. Properties are being built in large numbers. Of course building will take place phase by phase so it will be limited in relation to the overall project.

Dont have too much to say about the possible BBC investigations but by what  i can make out its only the television companies that benefit from these programms.  Unfortunately I cant comment on the prospective legal action but what I do know is that once lawyers are involved companies do tend to "put the shutters up" and correspondance is only entered into via respective lawyers.

Sorry cant be more helpful

All the best...

Alan & Elaine

Hi Alan and Elaine and welcome.  I am pleased to see other reasonably local residents contributing to the forum.

Like yourselves we have worked and lived in Jumilla  for quite some time.

 We have been with this development  for quite a few years.  When we bought the completion date given for the first phase was actually 2006 believe it or not.  I have since the onset of this forum been (for want of a better phrase) a champion for San Jose. However, as much as I realise that the obstacles and issues  SJ have had to overcome have been huge and I dont think for one minute SJ expected the issues that have arisen from the Ayuntamiento, particularly as they have crossed every i and dotted every t possible, I am perturbed in the extreme by their lack of communication to direct clients with even basic information.    SJ have recently rebranded and restructured their sales force.  In my opinion, this appears to have inhibited their communication rather than enhanced it.

On a completely different subject and as you mention the other developments around Jumilla.  The last time I  looked there were some 30 companies applying for approval and licences to build somwhere in the region  of  78,000 houses, 13 golf courses on around 45,500,00 M2.   Jumilla is a town of around 24,000 inhabitants and it cannot sustain that many new urbanisations in its present form.   Therefore they cannot possibly all succeed in gaining permissions to build one would have thought.

Hi Linda,

Fully agree with your sentiments re SJ it seems that poor communication is really letting them down .  It might have been  better if they had concentrated  on building rather than becoming involved in selling but anyway thats history now.

In terms of numbers of building applications in and around Jumilla there were 28 applications originally and all but 4 of these were turned down.

All the best...

Alan & Elaine

Hi All

I am glad so many were turned down as this developement alone will surely increase the town to almost double the inhabitants if all the buyers choose to live at SADM that is.

Even so if ALL of the buyers register on the pardon it will give much needed money to the town for future re-development of the infastructure

 By the way what are the laws Roy is talking about  can anyone tell the forum 

GAL

It sounds as if you had bought at El Pinet originally.  You were lucky to sell before building stopped, that is a big problem now.

Hi js

No, we bought our 1st SJ property on the coast in La Zenia - we we not  agents at the time but buyers just like eveyone else.   I was the secretary  (its Alan speaking) of the residents committee for a couple of years and ,other than routine issues, we did not have to address any serious building problems. The  issues the committee had to address, in relation to the properties, were quickly resolved by the SJ formen who were left on site for a year after the develoment was completed and this gave great peace of mind to property owners.

All the best...

Alan & Elaine

Hello everybody

 

It seems iv'e missed something, what's happened, i don't read all the posts, but somewhere along the lines people are beginning to sound as tho san jose are some dodgy cowboy builders and what's this about the bbc, i have read these posts and it says why don't san jose issue bank guarantees, we got one.  our solicitor got us one i will post the name of them later, can't remember what it is without looking in my inbox.  im one of those people if i hear something really negative i take it to heart which is my problem i know but if you can tell me what the beef is all of a sudden that wasn't there before id love to know. 

thanks

who is going there next for a visit and some pictures, am i right in thinking some people are already there on holiday and plan visiting the site???