Hello again Diane and all fellow Corvera ENTHUSIASTS!!!
Very many thanks Diane for posting your reply which will help me to navigate around the site and will lighten my darkness in such matters.
Thank you also for such a detailed response in connection with the aircon questions. As the content of your message is still below here for all to see, I will not clutter things up by repeating the content, however, just so that I can share our decisions with you all, here is what we decided.
Some of you might recall that I had droned on earlier about the way in which we'd lost almost all our life savings since signing up for Corvera plus we lost another lot on the sale of another holiday home at Mar de Cristal...... since then, we have read about Bradford & Bingley where we have a "residual" 900 Pounds Sterling.
Suffice it to say that we have already sent them a fax directing them to send those funds to another bank which we use and to close the account. We wait to see if they are going to release the funds to us, with some trepidation!
Anyway, the reason I hark back to all this is because, as you will all have seen, there is the latest doom and gloom posting today from "spanhod".
Of course, he or she is perfectly entitled to send his or her message in whichever way he/she feels is appropriate BUT, as a result of a lot of messages back and forth between Esther Van De Velde at Corvera and ourselves over the past few days, I'll feed back to you, some info on all of this.
Before I do, and totally forget to finish off about the aircon decisions, let's get that out of the way:
Diane, we had been talking to Esther in some detail about the offer which you had been given by the other company and I relayed all the statements and claims made by their chap, Steve and asked for clarification, seeing that up to the point where we spoke to you, we had decided to go for the Calidona option.
All of Steve's points were worthwhile considering and so I asked Esther to clarify with certainty, what the situation was in respect of Steve's product support and reliability claims.
She came back to us with very reassuring comments that the recommended aircons for our apartments were very diligently and carefully designed and arrived at and furthermore, are guaranteed by reliable company support in the longer term, plus, Corvera/Calidona will themselves ensure that such guarantees and workmanship standards etc are maintained and that in the event of any malfunction or other work needed, they will supervise the opening and closing of the property and watch what is going on and check again that standards are achieved.
Also, Esther tells us that, if we take the Calidona option, the value of the airconditioning will be added to the title of the property. Because we need to be able to add this cost to the mortgage too, this facility would thus be available and so, for better or worse, right or wrong, we have decided to go with the Calidona offer, but we sincerely appreciate your taking the time to show us the other options.
We had already been discussing the very worrying ups and downs and pretty violent mood swings of the "Rumour Mill" and I felt that things really need to be tackled openly.
Esther has confirmed to me that ALL of the rumours ARE rumours. There are no cancellations or monies being returned to clients who have signed their purchase contracts. Everything is on line for completion as per the original plan and that if ANYONE has any worries or ideas or has heard a rumour or story which they are worried about, she has asked me to advise you (us) to contact her directly for resolution and clarification.
I suggested that perhaps it might be better if she were to address the forum directly but for all manner of reasons, I can see that that would not be appropriate but she DOES assure me that any such concerns will be quickly and effectively addressed.
May I propose that if any of us DOES need to contact Esther in this way, we should make a brief note of it for us all to see, if it is not a private matter, of course, so that we are all aware that the matter has been "flagged" and then further undertake to let us all know the outcome? That way, we will not just stew and mill around gnashing our gums nor waste time and energy in repeating the same questions.
None of us needs rumours, they are dreadful things and WE (my wife and I) are EXTREMELY worried about our financial situation now and my heart does go out to "spanhod" who is obviously very worried but let me assure you "spanhod" that you are not more worried than we are, nor lots of other folks too, I'll bet. I am 65 yrs. old now, and have had to take up employment again ( after retiring a few years ago), and now face having to work, probably, well into my 70's. My wife has also had to do the same.
To turn to "spanhod's" questions and suggestions, let me say that we are still very keen on the Corvera development, it's only our dire financial situation which drove us to try to negotiate an escape plan which would allow us to be released from our commitment and now we are facing up to facts and we are resigned to the fact that somehow, we MUST complete on our purchases.
So, "spanhod" and all others who are thinking of this approach: Forget it, you will
NOT be released and it will NOT stop at "only" losing your deposits. We could not possibly have considered even doing that as we have paid two lots of 30% already.
Do NOT run away and hide..... I know that people do, but do you want to spend your life like that, always hiding and looking over your shoulder and finally, you WILL be harried and found eventually. I wish that there was some compassionate way of applying this to our own situation but there is none. I am aware now (from my Abogada) that if I died from worry (!) the developer would pursue their rights of retrieval from my wife! End of story.
So, now can we all share whatever news and thoughts or worries in a constructive way with one another but direct them to Esther for resolution and then share the outcome with us all, please?
I was reading the very positive input posted very recently by a couple who had visited Corvera in pouring rain (wish we had some here in Australia!) and they made their comments on what they saw but they went on to highlight a whole truck load of positive observations about our wonderful development and with comparison to Roda for instance.
These are very difficult times and I am an awful one for "gut feelings" and worrying and I can understand entirely where "spanhod" is coming from (to use the modern vernacular) BUT, I'd be dragged down a lot more readily if any single one of his/her negative observations were backed up by a single statement of fact and with cross reference to supporting material.
It is the stuff of
all our nightmares but, without sound proof and evidence, we must ALL avoid this destructive rumouring. Of course we all need to keep our fingers on the pulse and to be alert to developments but who knows what is going to happen next in this crazy world, even tomorrow.
Suddenly, all the lights could come on again and the whole Spanish scene change beyond recognition. Let us avoid Churchill's "standing poised on the brink of the black abyss" and move positively into his "Broad sunlit uplands" and look forward to when we can all join together socially at the clubhouse or amongst friends at our new homes at Corvera......... with any luck, we too, will manage to survive and be there too!
In closing, I wrote to Justin, our webmaster and told him off for advertising a book which, in my opinion was designed to equip the "parasites" out there, to jump on the band wagon of driving prices down further. (See the latest "Eye On Spain" website).
However, he has taken the trouble to write a very balanced letter back to me and it is more than apparent that he was ahead of me in considering this, way before I read about it and his opinions are justified. The book plays its part in the present scheme of things.
I commend Justin for his diligence and his authenticity as a webmaster who has our interests at heart and is not solely in this for the money.
Also in closing, I now place all my faith in Ester's assurances which she has given freely, honestly and openly and we all owe it to her and ourselves to work together.
Thank you for your patience and for reading this lot!
With kind regards,
John (fizzler) Chin up "spanhod" and welcome aboard!
Thanks again Diane.
Oops! a "P.S" : There is an excellent article (positive) abour Banco Santander on the forum today. It belongs to the thread: SERIOUSLY THOUGH! - what are the Spanish banks to do? It's very good.