Yeh I just saw the tail end of that programme, I felt a bit sorry for them but really they should have done their homework.

My Dad lived ,worked and owned places in Benidorm for nearly 25 years prior to his death 3 years ago but he had the advantage in that he married a Spaniard and also learnt the Lingo.

His first business venture was importing English products that people craved for but couldn't buy, he employed people to sell them to shops up and down the coast around Benidorm. I don't know if it's true but he reckoned that he was the first person to introduce mothers pride bread,Iron Bru and Ben Shaws pop to Benidorm.

He was always telling me about people who holidayed in Benidorm and thought "We could do this". He saw it time and time again,people selling up in the U.K to open a bar when they didn't have a clue. Perhaps the programme will enlighten people to think and think again.

Sue

It occurred to me that it wouldn't have made any difference where that couple decided to open up a business; with a total lack of experience they would have quickly gone skint. But I suppose that highlighting their plight, along with the sob stories from the other British people, the producers thought that they had made an entertaining program.

A story last week followed the problems of an Irish man who had brought a property on the La Zenia Elite urbanization, Orihuela Costa. He was upset that the house and facilities were unfinished and the services were not adequate. At no time was he asked the question, ‘Why did you complete on the purchase then?'

The most basic thing that you have to find out when finalizing a purchase is whether or not your intended property is habitable. If the house itself is unfinished, then don't complete. If there are no dedicated utilities, then hold onto your money until there are. This is most important. The builder would have a temporary supply of electricity and water in order to construct a house, but unless you make sure that he has paid his bills, you will become liable for his debt which could be several thousand Euro once you own your property.
Another point to bear in mind is that unless your intended property has its own utilities, it is unlikely to have been registered as legal. But the guy in La Zenia and the group of people in last nights program had all completed and moved into properties with no electricity except the builders supply.

The spokesman for last night's group insisted that not all the people that he represented were stupid. I beg to differ.

The man in La Zenia was moaning that the promised pool and spa were not complete and the gardens were not planted. If he was promised those facilities when he initially paid his deposit, then he could have done one of three things on the day of completion.
He could have insisted on having any money that he had paid returned, and then walked away. He could have waited until the development was complete and legalized. Or he could have pointed out that the house was worth considerably less without those facilities and renegotiated the price. He did none of these things. Instead he paid in full, moved in and then decided to complain.

Its all well and good thinking that a Solicitor should do these basic things on your behalf, but this is Spain and not England. Buying a property here is a grown up thing to do. These people should have acted like adults then, and they should accept their responsibilities now.

I wonder if one day a program might be made highlighting the positive experiences of the 999 out of a thousand people that live here.

I agree 100% with what you say Oly Daze. Time and time again I hear the same old things from disgruntled expats, things that, if they had done their homework BEFORE buying a property or business, could have been avoided. Too many people were sold 'the dream', parted with their cash and 6 months after moving to Spain reality sets in. I've been living and working on the Costa Blanca for 5 years and it is only now that I feel that I have made a successful move from the UK.

I wonder if one day a program might be made highlighting the positive experiences of the 999 out of a thousand people that live here.
Fat chance, Spain bashing is a favourite topic of the UK media

2 points really.1.
Whilst the apartment is being built he/she needs to pay 2/3rds up front at different times for materials etc. On completion they pay the final deposit. (Same here in the UK). If the building was not habitable yes he could hold back the payments but in theory could loose the Apartment and the original 2/3rds of their money. for not completing the contract. Such is the silly regulations in Spain. At least our Local Building Control Officers are on the ball in the UK.
Your left between a rock and a hard place.
2. Are the local Spanish who have bought property affected by this. Is their house buldozed or taken by the local authority. Probably not. !!
I Think the Spanish Central Government along with the British Central Government should step in and sort out the local regional authorities.
The local authorities should take the blame for allowing the builders to build on land which is classed as greensights. Afterall its not as if they couldnt see it happening. They seem to wait until the appartments are finished before acting.
Personally I wouldnt buy an icecream from the spanish at the moment until they sort out their land issues.
Afterall the Brits/Irish have been paying into the Spanish Economy for years and years and now its thrown back in their faces. If the brits decided not to holiday in Spain certain areas would go bankrupt very quickly. Especially the Islands were their only source of income is tourism.
Once this ozone depletion kicks in. The brits will not need to go abroad to get the sun. My money can go a long way here in the green islands of Ireland.

Good Luck to all those unfortunates who are battling the Spanish Governments.

It is correct that stage payments are required, but this does not mean that the potential buyer should not check on the progress of the development before making them, and once a stage payment is made it is not simply handed to the builder to be unrecoverable, it is exchanged for a bank guarantee against the satisfactory completion of the development.

A potential buyer in Spain has a legal right to walk away from any purchase at any time and for any reason regardless of any contract, without financial loss. Although it is true that you may have to shop around a bit before you can find a solicitor here that is sufficiently independent to clarify that for you.

Anyone who buys ‘off plans' either in Spain or elsewhere really need their heads examined.

The sales technique for selling ‘off plans' is to persuade the purchaser that the property will increase in value during the building phase. But if it were that easy to make money then why would the builder have to wait for individual buyers to come along on their subsidized viewing trips from the UK? Surely banks, financial institutions and speculators would be queuing up to make easy money. And even if the proposed purchase were to go up in value, who would be silly enough to buy it once completed when there are dozens of developments where they can buy ‘off plans' at any one time.

We purchased our apartment off-plan in Tenerife, as do thousands of others, with no problems at all. Also, it is the norm here that a new complex will run on the builders electricity and water supply for a few months after completion. This happened on our complex until we had our meters installed and accounts opened with the respective utilities. These programmes sensationalise and exaggerate the unfortunate experiences of the few just to make an 'entertaining' show. To be honest, selling property in the UK before moving over here was a far more stressful experience than buying in Tenerife.

It is not just afew who have finished up with illegal properties, there are thousands. Read the AUN report to the European parliament.

Yes, but for everyone who has purchase problems, there are probably a hundred who have no problems at all. There is no balance in these programmes. I know many ex-pats over here who have bought property and not one of them has had problems but this doesn't make good tv, does it? It only takes a bit of sensible research to avoid the pitfalls.

Yes I agree, we have done very well out of the property market here, no problems. I do know many who have had problems though. TV or the media never give a balance but it could be said those "place in the Sun" didn't either, they were too optomistic, made it look so easy, giving high rental predictions, how friendly the local Mayor was etc

Truth is between both type of programmes.

Funny you should mention 'A Place in the Sun'. They once showed a couple around south Tenerife and in one particular apartment, not far from where I live, told the prospective buyers that the apartment block directly in front of the balcony was due for demolition, which when completed, would give them an unobstructed sea view. The programme was filmed around ten years ago and the apartment block still has not been demolished. I hope they didn't buy there! I agree that these programmes make everything seem far too simple.

From what I have seen and read here, there are nearly always issues when buying off plan in Spain. The flats behind where I used to live were completed around five years ago but the communal landscaped gardens were never completed, even today the communal area is how it was five years ago: strewn with builders waste materials.
Where friends live, their communal swimming pool, tennis courts and multisports area is still in the hands of the builders six years after they moved into their house. Their urbanization still doesn't have acceptance from the council, meaning that there are always disputes between the builders and the council when there isn't any water or when sewerage isnt working properly. Because it's not fully handed over to the council there is no public transport and street lighting is the responsibility of the builders. The council, to be fair, does provide bin emptying and other services, but the problem is non conformance from the builders - 90% of the residents are Spanish.

There are cases in Galicia - Vigo in particular where planning permission has been granted to build, say, 45 flats over 5 storeys but the builder has built - and sold off plan - 50 on 6 storeys. Other cases where part of the construction infringes greenbelt laws (too close to the beach), including one where the planning permission was given for an aparthotel complex which ended up being built and sold off plan as private bungalows. All these cases have demolition orders but because all have people living in them it becomes dificult to demolish. firstly because Spanish councils don't have the money to pay compensation or rehouse the owners, secondly because Spanish law system is horredously slow and thirdly the councils don't have the resources to oversee construction.

Personally, given the economic climate in Spain at the moment where there are around 500,000 completed new properties on the market, I reckon it'd be foolish buying off plan. What is important is that any prosective buyer has in writing from his agent/solicitor that the property is fully legal, accepted by the council and has no liabilities (any debts pertaining to a property are inherited by new owners).

I obviously don't know the situation in mainland Spain but it isn't the case here that there are always issues when buying off-plan, at least if the experiences of the many people that I know living on complex's here is anything to go by. The handover date on our own complex was slightly delayed due to a dispute with the electricity company over who was to pay for the resiting of an overhead power cable but the site was handed over completed. The gardens, pool etc. were all completed and the basura and all other services were all in place. The builder was a large, well established company that has been in business on the island since the mid-sixties and have a very good reputation locally.
The complex is a beautiful place to live and we couldn't be happier and although I am sure there must be some people who have had problems buying off-plan here, I personally don't know of any. However, I do agree that now is probably not a good time to buy off-plan. I suppose we were lucky in that we bought during the 'boom times' and buying off-plan saved us around £30,000 to £40,000 pounds over a similar, completed property in the area.

I ran a very successful bar in Mallorca for 10 years. Over that time we have seen numerous Brits move over here and invest vast amounts on bars they are singularly unsuitable to run. They don't do their homework, don't learn the language and most of all think all they have to do is open the doors and the customers will flood in! With the current economic climate it has become harder to make money and if you don't have and "edge" or top location you WILL struggle. We were fortunate in that although when we started we were inexperienced, we learned very quicky and were able to adapt to different situations. Another aspect of buying a bar is that agents LIE!! Most agents will tell you a bar is a profitable business or has great potential. I've never heard of and agent telling a prospective buyer that the reason a bar is for sale is that the owners have gone bust for lack of business which is usually the case. In the few cases (like ours) where the owner has made enough money to retire their will be plenty of evidence to support that. Here's my tip for checking out a bar. 1. Go around the local area and ask the local Brits about the bar. 2. Visit the bar early or late in the season and check out the trade. 3. Ask to see the sellers bank account!! 4. Never believe an agent (try and negotiate directly with the seller) 5. Calculate the rent, outgoings and and include living expenses then work out how much you need to take per week to cover it. You maybe surprised at how much trade you need to do!!

And lastly remember. You will be there to WORK!! If you want to move to Spain to lie on the beach or party all night long...DO NOT BUY A BAR!!!