Hi everyone. New member here. Thank God I found this website. Just to introduce myself, my name is Pearce, I am 37, my wifes name is Marie, and we have a 3 year old boy Ciaran. I have spent the last couple of days reading all of the previous message boards for Don Juan going back to October 2004. There is a clear pattern of false promises and lies from the developer from day one.
We bought an apartment in Phase 1, Block 1, garden level ( UK ground floor ) back in 2003, when it was just a bare hill. We too have been told a pack of lies. Just to add another one to your list, we were told that the land where Phase 3 is now being built was going to be a 9 hole golf course.
Anyway, thats the end of my moan, hopefully I can provide you with some helpful information.
Some of you were asking about where to get furniture. We bought a sofa about a year ago from a shopping complex just outside of Malaga and they are holding it in storage free of charge. I will get back to you with the name of the complex. There were other stores there similar to Argos, and also a huge DIY store. Also in some of the stores you have to wait 2 or 3 months for the sofas to be made. There is an Ikea being built just outside of Malaga. It should have been open by now, but the builders built the roof line too high, so the council has told them to put their plans back through the planning process which will take months. In the meantime there are rumours that Ikea are looking to build a store in Fuengirola, which would be ready before the Malaga one. The nearest one at the moment is Seville. This info may be no use to us in Phase 1, but may help those in Phases 2 and 3. Does anyone know any good shops to get curtains/blinds?I saw a previous message from Davmunster mentioning the British bed store in Mijas. Maybe like the discussions about the air con, we could buy our beds as a group and get a discount, and also shower doors, as all we get is the shower tray in the second bathroom. I am a member of Makro in the UK, they are a wholesalers, they sell everything eg: food/clothes/furniture/crockery/wine/beer/beds/bed linen/garden furniture all at wholesale price, Very Very cheap. There is a store near Malaga Airport. You can use a UK card there. You have to have a certain job to get membership, not neccesarily having your own shop etc. Give them a ring, their website is
www.makro.co.uk You could also use a friends card if you can not get one, as they never check for your identity. In some stores you just scribble any old signature on a clip board as you go in. You then buy your goods and hand your card in at the till. It may be worth remembering you friends address just in case, though I have been with them for years and have never been asked for ID. Anytime I am out in Malaga, I would be more than willing to take fellow members to the Makro in Malaga.
Regarding the air con, I would also be interested in doing a group purchase, my only concerns are how do we know the noise levels of the units, and where would they be fitted externally, would it be on your terrace/bacony side, or the rear of the apartment, and would we have to do any internal repairs after installation. Also count me in on the group snagging.
I last visited Don Juan in late August 2006. I spoke with one of the builders working on the new road that goes up towards the A-7 motorway. He told me that this new road was going to be one way only, linking with the motorway. The direction I would presume if he is correct would be one way going up the hill, as if it was down the hill to the railway line, it would cause a huge bottleneck going under the railway bridge. A friend of mine lives in a villa up above in Torreblanca, and he was telling me a new road linking to the motorway was being built below him. Maybe this is the other new one way route. If you want to go and see it for yourselves, come out of Don Juan, you are forced right onto the N340 towards Fuengirola. At the first roundabout where the Gardenia Park Hotel is, turn right and stay on the main road going up the hill. After a few minutes drive you come to a bad bend that sort of u turns on itself. On that bend there is an opening between the hillside, and you can see the new road has been completed, but not yet linked to the road you are on, so maybe the builder is right about a one way system, who knows?I was also speaking to the Indian security guard in the portakabin at the top of the hill. He told me there would be on going development for another 8 years, as they were building another 1,400 to 1,600 apartments up on the hill. If you go up there, beware of the dog, he nearly had my fingers for breakfast. As for the dirt track/road that runs parallel with the railway line, this section of road apparently belongs to the council, and wont be tarmaced until all of the machinery on site has stopped using it. As for the mysterious tunnel to the beach, I forgot to look for it the last time I was there, but I have just pulled out a set of plans I got when we purchased our apartment. It shows the tunnel to the beach. Looking out from the terrace area of block 6, looking towards the train line/sea, the swimming pool is to your left, the tunnel is to your right. If the plan is to scale, the tunnel is about 150/200 metres away from Block 6. As for the train line itself, I was watching the OverseasProperty channel 287 on Sky TV. They have a nightly Overseasproperty news. A few weeks ago they mentioned the railway line expansion, saying it was a year behind schedule but was due for completion of Spring 2007. Its a great channel to watch for info. They have seminars on the pitfalls of buying property abroad, also programmes on working/retiring in Spain, Ask the property expert and numerous other programmes. Talking of Sky tv, there has been discussions on Communal dishes. There is an English guy that has a satelite shop on the roundabout opposite the Gardenia Park Hotel. He was doing a package for a personal sky dish with a card that had all UK terestrial channels and numerous other English channels including kids channels, but no Sky football for €299. Maybe someone could make an enquiry to see how much it would be for communal dishes and would he do a group discount for those of us that want to buy one of his packages.
With the developers final completion date for Phase 1 being November 2006, they are allowed by law 3 months extra to take into account bad weather etc. After this there are penalties of 6% interest. I was reading this in an article that is on the EyeonSpain website. The problem is when the final date is. Is it the date the developer hands over the key and says its finished, or is it the date that all of the snagging has been completed. Would be interested to know the answer. If the handover is late, I think we should all push for compensation, especially after the way we have all been messed around. It may be a good idea NOT to mention this website to the developers/estate agents/solicitors. It seems to be the only bit of power we have at the moment. On completion we all need to have building insurance in place. Has anyone made any enquiries into having a community/block building insurance rather than our own individual building insurance. Would a community policy be cheaper, with the costs being within our monthly community fees, and then just get individual contents cover. An article on the EyeonSpain site said 30% of all burglaries happen on a new complex within one month of it being completed. The reason being, that some dodgy builders get duplicate keys cut and make a return visit to clear out your apartment, so we are advised to get all of our locks changed as soon as possible. Maybe a group deal again. We have been advised not to takeover our apartment, until the Habitation Licence has been granted which usually takes 3 months or longer, as to do so could cause you a lot of problems.
We have also been advised to draw up a Spanish will. There are huge tax advantages inheritance wise, if the will is drawn up properly. Ask your solicitors for info, and maybe put it on the message board to help others. We will be renting out our apartment, so we will be looking for a local cleaner. Does anybody know anyone available, and what the going rate would be for a 2 bed apartment to be cleaned and bed linen washed and changed etc. Do any members know anyone selling a 2 or 3 bed apartment on the Don Juan. I have a friend who may be interested. Hopefully some of this info my be of some use. We live in London, and would love to meet face to face with any other buyers to discuss the on going saga of Don Juan. Just reply on the message board and I will get back to you.
Keep up the good work everyone.
Pearce & Marie