Cowboy builders abroad-reactions?

I expected to see many comments on this!

True, the builder was a wrong 'un, but the gullibility of the victims was unbelieveable!

No lawyers, plans, licences, trusting a builder because he was British!

It worked out well for the couple, as C5 put the major faults in their house right, but after all the TV programmes, holiday homes from hell, etc, you think they'd know better!

The man who was a millionaire when he came to Spain, and ended up shelf stacking, marriage ruined etc, what a bitter lesson he learned, and it could all have been avoided.

I think it will be repeated in the week. Next week's is about Cyprus.

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I caught a bit of it and what struck me was that it's hardly a scandal to have an uninsulated house in Spain. It would be more unusual to find an insulated one. Also, it was clear from the number of solar panels on the roof that not much electricity would be generated from them, along with the generator. I suppose it's just that in Britain we're so used to better-constructed houses and take things like sufficient electricity for granted, that it wouldn't occur to the average buyer, buying outside of winter that houses could get so cold and the energy supply be so rubbish. People who come to Spain are often positive and determined to believe that everything will turn out rosy.

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I agree about the insulation.
However, what did you think about the programme itself, and the plight the couple found themselves in?

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I didn't see the first half about tge millionaire buying the "hotel" that looked like a disused farm yard but I did see the 2nd half about the poor couple with there shoddy house, when was this filmed and when did they purchase? With all the publicity around over tge past 5 years about country property one would have thought the couple would have taken greater care in looking properly at what they were buying. I dont pretend to know the ins and outs but I have taken some ribbibg around the bar in the uk since I purchased a year ago with comments like do you have enough electric, do you have habitation certificate or is your house legal etc. All this program has done is further tarnish the image of spain and make out all foreign purchasers are dim and being ripped off by ther own.

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I think it was filmed in February this year; The house is only a year or two old.How did they get left with a sewage system of an above ground pipe balanced on a plastic chair, emptying all the waste onto the ground-should there have been an inspection by the Town hall? That's why I wonder if there were correct licences to begin with!
 

This message was last edited by camposol on 19/04/2014.

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