"unless the Habitation Certs have been issued, we should not be paying for this water"
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Jeycon, despite having been on EOS for some time now I've only just come across this thread. We completed on 'Mirador de la Vega 1' just over a year ago, which is in Benejúzar approx 8km from Cox, so many of the issues you're raising here sound familiar. I've read through quite a lot of the posts on this thread today and you all seem to be very happy and lets face it that's what it''s all about.
In general I found Mahersol excellent to deal with and compared to a previous (aborted) purchase with 'Larrosa' they are streets ahead. Due to the aborted purchase being a combination of Larrosa's incompetence and some appaling legal stuff, I got a new solicitor on board who got all our money back plus interest in just 6 weeks, after which we jumped straight in with Mahersol. Not wanting to come unstuck the second time around I'd have to say my solicitor became rather a thorn in Mahersols side along the way and picked up on quite a few things that lets say weren't in our best interests, that said Mahersol always responded positively to any objections raised and at the end of the day we completed (Jan 08) and are really pleased the way things turned out. So, intro over on with the show..
1. Bit late in the day now but strictly speaking nobody should have completed their purchase until the Habitation License has been granted. Any solicitor acting in your interests should advise you of this, however lots of brits seem to use sols "recommended" by the agents so it's not in their best imterests to be seen to advise anything that stalls completion when Mahersol say they're ready. Unlike your development ours came in well ahead of time, think completion was due by April 08 but first people were in as early as Oct 07 (there's a rarity in spain). As such I deliberately stalled completion as long as I could. Mahersol made various threats if I didn't complete when they asked me to, so seeing how the market was going I told my solicitor to call their bluff. We were doing fine then they finally got the habitation license so we went straight over and completed. Without HL no-one can (legally) force you to complete, hence emotional blackmail seems to be the weapon often used. Until the HL is granted you will be on builders electricity which you wont have to pay for (nice), hence there may be perks in moving in early but you wouldn't buy a house in UK without all the planning permisions and building regs control so why do it in Spain? Water I'm not sure about but I do know we only got our first water rates bill (€28.30) in Nov 08 which was only for the period Jan to March 08, so they seem a bit slow in collecting. Thats from Benejúzar town hall though so Cox may work to english time!
2. I saw a post re 2x presidents which maybe a bit misleading. Our development is mainly Spaniards (out of 52 properties I think there are about 22 from UK or Ireland), by all accounts their first meeting was a bit of a dissappointment with all the spaniards agreeing the ground rules and then telling the brits what they were! Actually it's turned out really well. The president is a spainiard, lovely bloke with excellent english and the deputy (can't remember the precise title) is english, another great bloke (gotta say that in case he sees this!). Administrators are same as yours I think (Rodas3) and everyone they intoduce will be affiliated in some way to Mahersol (wheels within wheels, lots of brown envelopes I suspect). That said, our finances for first year came in under budget and I believe things have run fairly smoothly, particularly the latter part of the year as lets face it, you've got to expect some teething troubles when starting any new development.
3. Furniture etc - Like most things you'll get what you pay for. One of the best known in the area is Hnos Garcia (Garcia Brothers) who have 3 large stores in Torrevieja all fairly close to Carrefour. That said wherever you shop if you want quality, it'll cost you a lot more than in UK. Air Conditioning you'll find much less expensive if you go direct to a company rather than through builder - we saved something like €600 doing this!
As regards snagging, it's good if you can get someone to act as a single point of contact (maybe deputy president) to liase with Silvia at Mahersol as you'll find it's a more efficient way to get more done each time someone comes (rather than loads of individual trips).
Anything you think I might be able to help with feel free to post on here or use PM if you prefer, I tend to come on here in spurts, sometimes 2 or 3 days on the trot other times not for a month.
Can't think of anything else for now, good luck to you all, particularly the one's who've moved out permanently, maybe one day we'll have a 'Mirador1' versus 'Mirador2' food fight or something!!!!