El Al wrote:What plans have you had to make to go there?
We started 5 years ago by using my husband's early retirement money to buy some land near Huercal Overa. After waiting for 18 months for the paperwork to be signed by the farmer, he decided to double the price when we got building permission. We still had to pay solicitor's fees etc and lost interest on a considerable amount of money.
Then we bought land in Baza which had outline building permission from Baza council. We applied for building permission and after 18 months it was granted from Baza but had to be rubber stamped by Granada. Unfortunately we bought the land just before Granada decided to move the goalposts and reclassified our land as rural agricultural instead of urban which meant that we couldn't build on it. Thankfully we had a clause put into the contract which meant that if we couldn't ultimately build on our land, then we would get our money back.
We've been waiting all this time to get our money back as the previous owner of the land has been using all kinds of delaying tactics, but we now believe from our solicitor that we can collect it next week when we finally move to Spain. 5 years of lost interest on a considerable amount of money has been a wrench, plus all the solicitor's fees etc.
We have now, at last, sold our house for the second time this year. We lost our original buyers the same week as we lost the permission to build our house.
Still, that's in the past and there's no point in dwelling on it too much. It's just been a catalogue of dismay and disappointment, but our new life is just about to begin and we will ultimately end up with something we want in time. Until then we'll just remember all the advice we've received from this forum and keep a sense of humour as best we can.
