Next viewing trip booked!

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Wicksey
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Re: Next viewing trip booked!

Postby Wicksey » Tue Mar 07, 2017 3:23 pm

1% seems a lot. Just looked at how much we were charged by our asesoria when we bought our house in 2011 to change electricity and IBI (no other utilities here) into our name and it was 110€ + IVA. Her charges are always reasonable for those sort of jobs which is why we would rather use her to do jobs that involves a lot of queuing up (especially if it is early in the morning like at the police station for residencia-type matters!).

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concorde
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Re: Next viewing trip booked!

Postby concorde » Tue Mar 07, 2017 3:33 pm

Miro,
our buyers lawyer changed over the water/electric contracts on the day we all signed. Our bills were due a week after we were leaving, and so we actually gave the new owner enough cash to pay them. as I was closing our bank account.
The original owners name was still on our contracts but nobody seemed to worried about that!

We did our IBI ourselves as it was in the very first owners name, not whom we bought from, we went to the town hall and managed to get it changed into ours simply by photocopying the escritura.

Now getting the 3% retention refund could be another story!

I do feel out of sight out of mind applies sometimes.

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Re: Next viewing trip booked!

Postby Miro » Tue Mar 07, 2017 3:35 pm

The stupid thing is, changing the utilities is of course the buyer's responsibility - but we got stung once before by leaving it to the buyer. When we sold a hostel, the buyer unbeknownst to us never changed the contracts - and years later we started getting calls from a debt collection agency for thousands in unpaid bills. Luckily they were in the name of our long since ceased-trading company, and could not be dumped on us personally, but it unnerved us. The only sure way to avoid this is to simply put everything on baja, but that seems unfair to the buyer, who will then have to start from scratch arranging connections etc. We're simply trying to find out the easiest way to organise things so that we pay our fair share of utilities up to the day of completion, whilst ensuring that she changes everything to her name immediately. (She's not using a lawyer, she's Spanish!) At the end of the day, it is her responsibility, which is another reason why I'm certainly not going to pay anyone else to make sure it's done, and the only thing we can think of is to basically threaten her with baja if she doesn't do it within a couple of weeks of completion.
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Loopy Lisa
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Re: Next viewing trip booked!

Postby Loopy Lisa » Wed Mar 08, 2017 12:04 pm

Miro wrote:
So, back to Lisa and her thread.....are you looking forward to living in Spain?! :lol:
Congratulations Miro on your sale and moving back to the UK. You should be aware that the "open" market for electric and gas has made selecting a supplier and minefield. Added to which if you don't have recent bills or credit worthiness they are asking for deposits to be paid that they hold. This is the case with a friends daughter who recently bought her own house. Luckily mum helped her through the red tape etc.

But back to my move ....... as ex civil servant's we LOVE beaurocracy!!!! So Spain sounds like a dream to us *runs screaming around the room* but in seriousness we think we are far more prepared this time. We are ready to haggle and have agreed a price to offer as a starting/opening offer. We entirely expect this to be rejected but we have arguments as to why the price needs to come down and if we can't get to a figure we like we are going to walk away. We are not going for the full on heart strings this time and my OH is taking on the stance of tough negotiator.

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Re: Next viewing trip booked!

Postby Miro » Wed Mar 08, 2017 6:56 pm

My enquiries with the water & electric companies have revealed that they took deposits off us 13 years ago (when the property was new and we were the first owners / occupiers) which I either was unaware of or had completely forgotten about. These deposits ("fianza") can be returned to us when we switch the contracts over to the new owner, and she will be required to pay new deposits - so it's much the same here I guess. We'll be interested to know how much our vendors in the UK pay for water though, after a couple of family members told us on our recent trip over that they pay over £1,000 per year for water.
I've been bombarded with paperwork to read, sign & return by our UK solicitor, for the purchase of our house there. At first I suffered a bit of information overload and panic started to set in. Then I realised not only was everything in my own language, but it was also quite simple and easy to understand anyway. Furthermore, when I rang this morning and spoke to our solicitor he reassured me and said I don't actually need to do a thing - it can all be done in a couple of weeks time when we pop over to see them. They don't even want any money yet, and only £250 for searches when we go over. We've arranged a full building survey for £400 (something you'll probably struggle to find anyone to do in Spain) but even the surveyor doesn't want any money up front. So far, it's all going pretty well and we're more worried about whether the Spanish sale will go smoothly.
Just out of interest, now we have a future address, I got some online insurance quotes. A friendly meerkat helped with house (building + contents) insurance, which surprised me, with quotes starting at around £100 pa. We pay more than that for just contents on an apartment currently; building insurance is included in the community fee we pay. They weren't so good with car insurance, but with a bit of research, I turned up a fully comp quote for less than £500, which isn't much more than I pay now.
Don't worry about what people think, they don't do it very often

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chrissiehope
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Re: Next viewing trip booked!

Postby chrissiehope » Wed Mar 08, 2017 11:51 pm

re the water - if there's only two of you & it's a largish house, I would recommend getting a water meter fitted (free :-) ) if there isn't one already - it made a huge difference to my bills !
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elusive
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Re: Next viewing trip booked!

Postby elusive » Thu Mar 09, 2017 8:51 am

Try different search sites for car insurance. Such as moneysupermarket.com as some sites dont show all the offers

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Re: Next viewing trip booked!

Postby Miro » Thu Mar 09, 2017 9:42 am

So far, the only company I've found that accepts Spanish NCB is Activated, and they were the ones who gave the best quote anyway.
Don't worry about what people think, they don't do it very often

"Acquiring a dog may be the only opportunity a human ever has to choose a relative," Mordecai Siegal 1935-2010.

elusive
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Re: Next viewing trip booked!

Postby elusive » Thu Mar 09, 2017 2:00 pm

Activated?

More than used to last time i asked.think there was quite a few others aswell.there was a thread on it not long back. Aviva and i think L.V we mentioned

You should get double bonus if you remain accident free when in spain!!

Miro
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Re: Next viewing trip booked!

Postby Miro » Thu Mar 09, 2017 3:21 pm

Sorry, mobile posting and didn't notice spell corrector interfering. I meant Aviva.
And yes, I agree about double bonus!
Don't worry about what people think, they don't do it very often

"Acquiring a dog may be the only opportunity a human ever has to choose a relative," Mordecai Siegal 1935-2010.

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concorde
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Re: Next viewing trip booked!

Postby concorde » Thu Mar 09, 2017 4:35 pm

£1000 a year for water!!!
just checked our DD for ours, £17.78p per month, that"s dishwasher, washing machine etc. using hosepipe for garden, car washing .
Our house was fitted with a water meter when built.
Only the 2 of us.

Miro
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Re: Next viewing trip booked!

Postby Miro » Thu Mar 09, 2017 5:03 pm

Keep it coming, it's making me feel better than ever about our pending move! I shall have strong words with my sister-in-law; just two peeps (and frequent children / grandchildren visiting) living in a far too big house - always says she doesn't want a meter, because when she sells (assuming to a large family) the lack of one will be a selling point. Been saying it for donkey's years though, and no sign of selling.

On driving UK v Spain: when I first knew my partner way back when in Enlgand, she often commented on how calm I was when driving. I put it down to the fact that I covered over 40,000 miles a year for work and was just used to all the stress of the roads. In recent years, she's often commented on how stressed she feels when we go out in the car, because within 100 metres of home I'm already cursing some idiot road user.
On our recent brief viewing trip to England we hired a car - and she commented on how calm and relaxed I seemed behind the wheel. I realised she was right, I hadn't felt so calm driving for years.
Today we drove to Leroy Merlin, all of 10 minutes from home. By the time we got back I'd lost count of the number of attempts on our or other road users' lives I'd witnessed. :crazy:
Yep, definitely should get extra bonus for surviving in Spain!
Don't worry about what people think, they don't do it very often

"Acquiring a dog may be the only opportunity a human ever has to choose a relative," Mordecai Siegal 1935-2010.

elusive
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Re: Next viewing trip booked!

Postby elusive » Thu Mar 09, 2017 6:05 pm

Ah aviva ok.

Its a joy when i go back home and see people (well most of them!) Who know who to go around a roundabout properly and if you are lucky indicate aswell.if only the amount of traffic could be cut in half.

Saw a nasty accident on the industrial site at velez the other day.car turning left up a side street off the main road obviously didnt notice the motorbike coming the otherway and crossed his path and the rider and his bike went flying into a stationary bike and its rider.thankfully just walking wounded.mind you the motorbike was certainly going fast as as we sat at the junction a couple of cars behind we only saw him for a split second before he put a nice dent into the front of the car. Fatalistic idiots most of them especially the bike/scooter riders

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Wicksey
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Re: Next viewing trip booked!

Postby Wicksey » Fri Mar 10, 2017 9:44 am

I am the opposite here with driving ... much calmer on the roads than in the UK where everyone seems to be in a mad rush and driving like idiots. It obviously depends on where you live here, and where you go in the UK :)

Our experience of water meters in the UK is the same as yours concorde. When we had a meter fitted on our tiny bungalow when they first started introducing them, the bills went down enormously. Why pay an inflated flat rate when you can be metered and just pay for what you use.

elusive
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Re: Next viewing trip booked!

Postby elusive » Fri Mar 10, 2017 11:50 am

I guess its calmer driving here interms of the amount of traffic (east of malaga at least) the west coast main roads seem hardly diff to the uk with the added bonus of people with no road sense,manners, common sense or sense of danger.

Miro
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Re: Next viewing trip booked!

Postby Miro » Fri Mar 10, 2017 2:44 pm

Miro wrote:Been to Hacienda....to see if we can get our fiscal residency certificates....you can use cl@ve, and supposedly get the certificates straight off. Great idea, except that you can only use one mobile number once, and there's two of us but we only have one mobile.
Quick update: we had an appointment at Hacienda yesterday and ordered our certificates, but the suspense was killing us (will they **** us around like last time or not?) But I also applied for our Cl@ve invitation letters a couple of days ago, and received them today, so went ahead and registered. I'll post something about that on the relevant thread, but the long & short of it is, we got our certificates, so another big TICK off the list. Also booked the movers for middle of May, so all going according to plan. :thumbup:
Don't worry about what people think, they don't do it very often

"Acquiring a dog may be the only opportunity a human ever has to choose a relative," Mordecai Siegal 1935-2010.

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Re: Next viewing trip booked!

Postby Miro » Sat Apr 22, 2017 2:49 pm

Update for anyone who's interested:
Since accepting our offer back in early March, paying for a survey and our subsequent visit to see the property, we had heard absolutely nothing from the vendors or the estate agent in the UK. The agent had actually advised us to keep looking, because the vendors, two old widows, seemed somewhat reluctant to move. They had also argued over an issue that the survey had flagged up, and lied to our faces about previous repairs (which were obvious to even an inexperienced eye), so overall we were feeling rather frustrated and despondent, as the clock ticks on towards moving day.
Then the week before Easter a house came up on Rightmove literally next door to one we had just missed out on a couple of months ago. Sister-in-law was duly dispatched again to view it, and over the weekend we decided what the heck, we "bought" one house without seeing it, why not do it again? We made an offer which was accepted, so we're on a go again! These vendors have said they can move out as soon as we like and generally all the feedback we're getting is much more positive. The survey is booked, as are flights over next week to see the property "in the flesh". For those familiar with the area, this time it's not Birkdale, it's very close to the town centre (which was always our preference), between town and Hesketh Park, and only about 10 minutes walk to Volare! We're getting excited again. :thumbup:
And of course, inevitably, we got a call from the first agent a few days after having our latest offer accepted, saying the vendors of the original house have now found a place to buy and have had their offer accepted. We politely told them tough s**t, too late. Now they're going to have to find themselves new chain free cash buyers! :P
Don't worry about what people think, they don't do it very often

"Acquiring a dog may be the only opportunity a human ever has to choose a relative," Mordecai Siegal 1935-2010.

BENIDORM
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Re: Next viewing trip booked!

Postby BENIDORM » Sun Apr 23, 2017 8:06 am

Miro,
Good to hear that you are now making progress with your planned evacuation plans.. :lol:

And maybe it will all turn out for the best, Good Luck .. :wave:

Regards,
Gordon

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Wicksey
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Re: Next viewing trip booked!

Postby Wicksey » Sun Apr 23, 2017 10:36 am

Good luck Miro, it sounds like this house is much more to your liking. It's satisfying to say 'bog off' to the original vendors. I hate the UK system as everything is so up in the air and as someone who has moved quite a bit over the years, it has driven me mad.

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Re: Next viewing trip booked!

Postby Miro » Thu May 04, 2017 3:53 pm

Trying to keep all the threads on which I've been posting about our impending move updated - I guess I should have started one of my own and kept it all in one place. :oops:
We've just returned from visiting the house we're buying back in the UK (for the first time other than in photos!) and it met & exceeded all our expectations. We're really excited about it now, and can't wait to move permanently. The vendors are delightful and also want to complete as soon as possible - in fact, they were hoping to exchange by the end of May, which with the best will in the world is unlikely, given that our solicitor has said it will take at least 6 weeks to complete all the searches. But it now looks as though everything may fall neatly into place, with us arriving by ferry in the UK the second week of June. So all being well, this should be my last post on "Next viewing trip booked". Ryanair have had enough of our hard-earned over the last three months, the next trip will hopefully be with Brittany Ferries, and not just for viewing, but for actually moving!
Don't worry about what people think, they don't do it very often

"Acquiring a dog may be the only opportunity a human ever has to choose a relative," Mordecai Siegal 1935-2010.


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