michael

I guess you're right. Or a journo looking for a story. I bet what he said was a lie; he was fishing for someone who did have a problem to help hold up a story with the unhappy ending already written.
If you have a property problem, see a solicitor, not a journalist. As Mark Twain said: "If you don't read a newspaper you are uninformed. If you do read a newspaper, you are misinformed.'

anis

I must be getting very cynical because I immediately suspected the first poster was a journalist.

Agree with Zilly, the only time I have ever been ripped off here is by fellow Brits but that's not newsworthy is it ?

What about some good bits ? I called my water provider on Monday, Agua Lauro, because a leak had sprung in our road and they were here, drilling it up within an hour. Pretty good service to me and the rates I pay on the two meters are cheap.

Carolina Moon

Moving to Spain: Crikey - just trawled through the above. I bought on an Urbanisation (7 years ago) my apartment was already there - well, a shell and we waited a year for it. I did ask at the Lawyers about the Builders credentials and was assured they had a substantial Bond deposited at a Bank. I had heard of Land Grab although others hadn't - even Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffiths are having problems with their €11M villa on Costa Del Sol because some Developer wants to build through it and wants them to pay for the road and infrastructure!!! Research needs to be done well - does anyone have a good word for Lawyers? Good luck.

michael

I do - occasionally. Lawyers are like builders, journalists, estate agents, forums; you get some good and some bad. Being in property for ten years I have got to know the good, the bad, and the ugly.
My local clients, friends and family use one with offices in Alicante / Villa Martin. If we need one in the Costa del Sol, there's a firm in Malaga. Each have lots of good words said about them so yes, there are good ones.

adesson

Hi ..

Reading the posts here i have to agree with some of you when you say its the few brits that rip off other brits..

Myself and my family moved to Spain in 2005 and thanks to being ripped off and lied to by fellow Brits we had to move back to UK..
We never had a problem with any of the spanish..


Regards Ade

baldilocks

1. I think from reading through these posts that there may be more than a grain of truth in the suggestion that the originator could be a journalist or someone out to start a story.
2. Most of the permanent residents (n.b. permanent) agree that the Spanish, on the whole, are a long way from the money-grabbing-chiselers that some paint them as.
3. We have bought for a permanent life in a lovely village with fabulous neighbours who have taken us to their bosoms (!) and have treated us as long lost friends/relatives.
4. For our transactions we used local agents and legal representatives with not the slightest of problems.
5. For builders we have used a local firm and we have been well-served, true there were some delays while the obreros were involved with their olives, etc. but that was expected, living in a rural area. One thing we will say very much in their favour is they work! They start every day at 8 or 8.30 (always at the time they have said they will be here or before) and apart from a break for lunch of about an hour they work right through until 7.30 - 8 pm. Others who have used Brit builders have had lousy jobs done, poor timekeeping and plenty of shirking.

So Don't knock the Spanish - they are the reason a lot of us are here.

lynne

I have to agree with most of you when we were scammed out of a lot of money, it wasn't the tenerifians but welsh and eastern european who engineered it, it was a lovely northern tenerifian who has helped us out of the mess.

CDThader

It seems strange, as Jawg says that Paul hasn't replied to the other posts. He didn't mention where this commmunty is, and I thought we may have heard from our local press, if a complete community was going to be demolished.!!!!!

There are a few horror stories, but most of us enoy our lives her. I have bought three Spanish properties without any problems.

CD

dunmovin

CD I think the OP wandered off when he realised that we don't hate the Spanish, which I am happy about. It was a small minded rant, attacking a whole nationality, when (if it was Spanish people responsible) it was the act of a few people.

I tried to follow-up on this story and found zilch. You can take your own conclusion from this, but my opinion is thaty the story is false or blown out of proportion by someone who managed to sound like a child.

Willie

Cheetah

My experience of using Brits is that they are not working in their normal field. Some arrive here can't get work they're familiar with so start doing things they only did in a DIY capacity - for which they charge exhorbitant rates. When commenting on one such job the reply was that he had to pay his mortgage somehow...... I called a Spaniard out to my oven - no callout charge - he arrived at 7pm took 5 minutes to sort it out - no charge - and I hadn't even bought the oven from the shop he worked for. Would that happen in the UK? Would that happen if I used a Brit here? Give me Spain every time.