Suppliers

TO ARMS!!!????

Hi to all that read this and are purchasing at casares del sol. I am due to complete at the end of November and am wary of the forthcoming processes as I will be doing this only once, have no prior experience and have concerns given the previous comments and criticisms on the message boards.

These messages seem to conflict - some appear to have completed and are content whilst others are not. Since completion is so final I would welcome any stats on satisfaction as, if everyone thus far is (dis)content, then I believe that I am likel;y to end up feeling the same.

Obviously if most are content then there is no problem but if more are discontented and there seems to have been no improvement over time in purchaser satisfaction i.e. the developer cannot or will not learn then I am extremely concerned.

What further concerns me if prospects are that bleak - the power rests with the developer as we are disjointed / individuals and thus far do not appear to have been able (willing? as not enough consensus exists) to make any form of combined effort. I would rather pay Euro10,000 to "fight the b...." that waste it in a failed investment.

There was talk previously of an action group - what ever happened to it. Do we know how many apartments have completed?

I think there needs to be a decision to abort or proceed - either tack predicated on sound financial / legal / consumer advice. Surely others before us have faced the same situation - what course of action have been identifed, taken and with what success?

Regards

As a buyer who is going to complete in November I have anxieties & concerns.  These regard:-

1) How do I know snagging will be diligent, in my interest & will not leave problems for future?

2) Will the final product be a luxury product as promoted?

3) How easy will rental be?

4) How much money will be attempted to be squeezed out from us the buyers? 

However, having been a regular reader of the site & looked at recent photos (site looks well) I think that it is natural that if a group of any house purchasers got on the net & gave vent to their concerns the result would be the same as our CDS site.  I think what we have to do change what we can change & accept what we cant change but work in a concerted way to achieve our aims.  That is value for money & to purchase an excellent product.  Trouble is as a group we have not really set out aims we wish to achieve, objectives or methods.  People give diverse & welcome advice

Gus ,

It boils down to what you think of the product you have been sold and does this match what you were told when agreeing to buy. Most buyers thoughts are on the website but it is your decision.

From my point of view I was sold off plan, a luxury apartment in Tropical gardens. I have got a pokey apartment with the lowest grade appliances and finishes possible.

I could not of imagined that the washing machine would be situated outside and the kitchen would have no workspace.

There are problems with the water system for the gardens. It is not powerful enough to feed the gardens and all the flats. Why is ours a brown site and the golf courses lush?

Is your deposit in an escrow account or do the developers have it?

The decision is yours. I have completed and can tell you of my experience if you want to contact me.

Good luck

ithink when all furnished and gardens matured it will seem much better.

mlh have a responsibity to provide something fit for its purpose, obviously the apartments are but they are small and the bathroom midget sized.the watering system needs addressing and not left until it becomes our responsibity.

unfortunately when we dont live there we have no say which is a pity because we could make life awkward for the sales staff.

on a positive side i think in 5 years it will appear a good buy, but for those investing to sell now its not so rosy.

i feel the building of the commercial centre more important than sports centre

the size of the units at duquesa arenal are smaller!

noddy

i am over 20 -22 nov to check whether ready, i gave my snagging list in april, and gave a more detailed one in august.

fingers crossed!

noddy

I note your comments relating to the sudden appearance of a new block next to block 8.

We are in the process of purchasing an apartment in Block 8 and were very concerned when the new block suddenly appeared on the MLH web site in September 05.  We took this matter up with our solicitors who, after carrying out local searches confirmed that planning permission had been obtained for the new block some considerable time before we paid our initial deposit.  We were not advised at anytime that the new block was to be built and MLH allowed us to sign a contract to purchase the property in June 2004 in complete ignorence of the change in site plan.  Moreover our contract includes a copy of the original site plan, initialled by an MLH Director indicating that one block only was to be built on that part of the site.   In order to accommodate the additional block, Block B8 was resited some distance to the side of the new Block B8A and access to their garages and store rooms is the same as for B8.

Our solicitors thought that a strong case existed for a breach of contract claim.

We were also advised that the additional block was never transferred to MLH and had been retained by Interlaken for the benefit of Directors/Shareholders.  Another example of blatant profiteering by this developer.

Been to Carsares today to measure up...

What I thought was going to be a 80.2 metre squared apartment turns out to be 66 sq metres. They have included 4 square metres outside the front door and it seems to me that they have included the lock-up in the garage as the other 10 metres.

The place is nowhere near finished, and will be well over 3 years by the time it is, so I´m totally and utterly pissed off!  If I could get my money back today I would.

I thought I was coming to a finished apartment, not a building site.  A 3 page snagging list.  I´ll be seeing the solicitor this week and hopefully will get some joy out of it (even though I know I won´t). I just feel I´ve been mugged. 

For anybody who has come over in the past couple of weeks I would like to hear your thoughts?

We have already completed in Phase 1.  The apartment has turned out well, though there are snags which we identified when we moved in. Have a look at recent photos under 'Shared Photos'.

Unfortunately the bedrooms are small and you may wish to consider 80cm wide beds to create the illusion of more space.  However, it is hard to get headboards, and pillowcases for that size of bed.  14 sq m more would  have been very good.

Regarding break in's sorry to hear about this but do you all realize that even if the main road in has security gates and is manned one can still gain access by the side roads from the other developments so unless the main access to these have security gates then the whole thing becomes a joke

I am a buyer on PRG and was very concerned to read the measurements were different to what you thought your apartment would be. (Nicholas 1) I spoke to our sales people and they told me the measurements (on our contracts) are the construction size (The shell of the apartments) and that all internal walls & stairs (If you have them) would come into the actual size. So, all wall thicknesses should be taken into consideration when measuring.

Has anyone else come across this problem , different size apartment to whats on the contract ? 

The reality is a very sobering one I'm afraid. There is an enormous difference in what you buy as 'built size' and what you end up with as 'usable space'. I have learnt the hard way as have all the purchasers at Casares del Sol. The motto is 'Buyer Beware'

The reality is this. Say you buy an apartment of 80 sq. mts.This is what the developer calls 'Built size' and is what is stated in your contract. It includes:

1) an element of communal space which is your proportion of the area OUTSIDE your apartment and can be as much as 10%  or more of you property size of 80 sq.mts

2) the surface area that the walls, both external and internal rest on. This can be as much as 4 to 5 sq. mts.

3) the developer is allowed by law, by that I mean that you would not be able to mount a successful legal challenge, to under build by up to 5% of the built size.

So, this means that you could end up, quite legally,  with an apartment of about 60sq.mts of usable internal space.

Of course no Spaniard would ever buy a property 'Off Plan' without requesting the 'usable space' size. It's only us stupid foreigners that don't even know the right questions to ask.

Similarly no developer in his right mind will advise the prospective purchaser of this fact because they would never sell their pokey apartments.

Also it seem that no lawyers on the Costa del Sol wish to inform their foreign clients of this fact, despite earning a good living from the foreigners who have been buying property in this area for about 40 years or more.

We don't even get a translation of the initial private contract that binds us to the sale unless we want to pay an exhorbitant price for one. There are 527 apartments on CDS. Do you not think that Interlaken could have provided a free translation as standard? No, of course not because they don't want their buyers to fully understand what they are buying.

Well, most of these foreigners are you and I, and of course we've been suckered into this like lambs to the slaughter, while Cooper of MLH and his pals at Interlaken are laughing all the way to El Banco.

So, what do we do - well of course we'll be terribly British about it, we'll take it on the chin and focus our minds on the more pressing matters of preventing the break ins to our under secured apartments and accommodating all the other shortcomings these bastards have left us to resolve.

About 20cm Front and 20cm back with two 10cm walls inside. Then Side to side you have two 15cm wall on the out side and one 10cm wall insde the apartment is about 11metres long and 6.5metres wide so you have total including outside walls of 11X 6.5=71.5 minus all the wall thicknesses. which a total of 6.8m2

So if anybody thought they were getting a 80m2  apartment end up with a useable area of 64.7m2 so this is it folks no wonder you cannot get two 90cm beds in the 2nd bedroom.

We measured out apartment our self and it worked out as 62 mt of usable interanl space plus terreace  - and manages to get hold of an architects copy of wall thickness .WE then calculated this and hey presto our apartment is 66. 5 ms wow. I thought I had bought a 81 mts apartment .WE have a full survery including measurement for a mortgage and it was measured at 66m also . Apparently i have also purchased over 10mt of communil space .Allowing a % error inthe building  it was not worthy pursing through cours for a potential of 2 mt of actual living space. THe biggest con ever.

Guess what MLH  are advertising CDS suites as 89 ms squared and not advertising  that this indludes 15 mt of communal space  - they will be info a shock as well  !!

Contract are written in such a way that it covers the develop by saying an element of communal space!

URGGGHHH

I have paid 460 euros for a architect to go and measure up in hope that I might have got them on the size but i have a feeling it's all in vain It's all so sad.

Still waiting for the result! so if your thinking of doing the same hold on and I will post the result when I get it.