All seems to have gone pear shaped

What a bu**er!

Yes - welcome to Spain - you will find many inconsistencies as you pass through the Spanish way of life!

Its why the Manana saying started as the Spanish themselves get the same treatment, then they throw their hands in the air and say Manana....and go for a stiff brandy!

Ive had it with loads of different things and loads of times and know it will happen time and time again!

Good luck - you will get there and feel a huge sense of achievement when you do!

Found the money . No completion . Let me explain.

We asked our building society if we could send them all of our deposit money instead of our solicitor getting a bankers draft. that way, at the notary, there would only be the need for one draft and it also kept our bank charges down. The building society gave us their Gestoria's account details and told us to transfer the provision funds and the make up, which we did on Friday 23rd, making sure the provided reference number was quoted on the transfer and sending a screen shot of the transaction to them.

The money did hit their account on the Wednesday, no ifs and no buts. Here's the best bit.

The building society have sent this email after admitting the money has been in their account all of this time:

"Basically I have a huge apology to make as there has been a misunderstanding between ourselves and the gestoria it appears that they are not authorized to write cheques on the clients behalf for anything over and above the mortgage amount as they do not have power of attorney and cannot get involved in 3rd party payments.

 I am really sorry this has occurred and please pass on my sincerest apologies to Mr Burningham for the huge inconvenience this has caused. The gestoria did receive the money last week but as they were only waiting for around 8.000 Eur they could not identify the payment.

 The only solution we have to this is that we transfer the money back to Mr Burninghams account from what I can see is a Spanish Account and if his lawyer has power of attorney to operate his account he will need to collect a cheque from the clients account for the difference on the day of the signing."

So they 1) couldn't identify where the payment had come from, even though it had a reference number 2) didn't question where or why this €40,000 was in their account that they couldn't account for 3) didn't tell us until the last minute last week that they couldn't find the money 4) have caused us extra bank charges through transferring a greater sum than necessary 4) basically they talk b+llocks when you ask a question and only answer with what they think you want to hear.

We now have to wait for the funds to be transferred back to our account before we can then instruct the solicitor to collect the draft and then complete. Once this purchase has completed, there will be some serious ars+e kicking, and we will then try to get our extra fees returned, plus a little bit of compo. But, I suppose this is Spain .

I can't follow it any more then until Thursday as I have to go to Guernsey tomorrow and don't know if I will have internet access.

Mark

We all wish you, Mark, a very successful day.

I think we should start a campaign to declare Monday 3rd December

MARKS MAGNIFICENT MONDAY!!!

Hope it all goes according to plan Mark.

Noreen

You're welcome Noreen

Good luck Mark - I,m sure a lot of us are following your story - hope it's all sorted out for you this week

Thanks for that Annie 21.

We have a 2bed apartment so hopefully it will be enough.

Noreen

Hi guys

Just to put my twopennorth in - we have a 2 bed townhouse & are on 5.75 I believe (certainly no more anyway). Most of the time it's fine but when I start cooking, & the kids have tv on, & others are upstairs with lights, hairdryers, music, straighteners etc - we trip the electric a lot.

My original comment - If it is too much of a nuisance with the electricity tripping, we will just have to upgrade.

Your response - Anyway, you can always request to change it later on if it isn't. It's only a matter of changing the supply limiter in your fuse box.

Now who is being pedantic?

think you'll find 5.75 perfectly adequate. Anyway, you can always request to change it later on if it isn't. It's only a matter of changing the supply limiter in your fuse box.

Roberto, is that not exactly what I said?

Not wanting to be too pedantic, but actually, no, this is what you said:

The solicitor took it upon himself to go for this level of connection, even though we had advised key mare that we wanted the 9.2kw connection. If it is too much of a nuisance with the electricity tripping, we will just have to upgrade.

What you didn't say before, was that 9.2kw had been recommended. You simply said that is what you requested, and I just wondered why. Now I know! I presume the application form you refer to is the elecrtic company's? I wonder why they would recommend 9.2kw though? As far as I know, that would be quite unusual for a 2 bed apartment. Anyone else?

 think you'll find 5.75 perfectly adequate. Anyway, you can always request to change it later on if it isn't. It's only a matter of changing the supply limiter in your fuse box.

Roberto, is that not exactly what I said?

We requested the 9.2kw because that is what was recommended on the application form & not having any electrical knowledge whatsoever (or should that be watt so ever?) we took their advice.

I know that there was a thread on the general forum on this subject in the last couple of weeks but their didn't seem to be a definitive conclusion as to whether the 5.75kw would be enough. Therefore that accounts for my remaining uncertainty.

As I said, we are out for 10 days over christmas & if it proves to be a problem, at least we know we can do something about it.

You forgot to mention the fairy lights on the christmas tree.

Noreen

"we had advised key mare that we wanted the 9.2kw connection" What on earth are you planning on running there? Unless you plan on having a bar heater on in every room at the same time as the aircon, while doing the ironing at the same time as drying your hair and cooking dinner in the microwave, I think you'll find 5.75 perfectly adequate. Anyway, you can always request to change it later on if it isn't. It's only a matter of changing the supply limiter in your fuse box. Of course, you'll pay more standing charge if you upgrade.

The "fianza" is a security deposit on your meter. If it gets vandalised, you lose your deposit! Theoretically, when you sell a property, you can put the power supply on "baja" (cancel it) and get your deposit back. Alternatively, you can ask the buyer to give you the same amount to take over the existing meter. Of course, this never happens, as it's a fairly insignificant amount.

Hope it all comes off on Monday for you.

I have no faith that it will be on Monday either. It is difficult to try and trace the money from the UK as Barclays Spain say it has been delivered end of story, show the recipient the screen shot as proof. It may show that the funds were sent, but it doesn't show they were delivered which they must have been somewhere. My concerns are 1) Potential penalties imposed for late completion & 2) Sending Dave to the notary on a wild goose chase until he is able to collect the keys.

Mark

Never Mind Mark,

We were told we would complete in Decemebr last year and booked our flights ready. Last minute said would complete January so had to rent, still what can you do? It was a bit annoying as we had booked for almost 2 weeks and couldn't put anything in the apartment that we had planned to do. Just enjoy when you do complete, it'll be worth it  .I'll keep the congrats bling for Monday then

We paid just over 200euros for our connection at 5.75Kw.

We have a 2 bed & there is conflicting opinion as to whether this is enough. We are over for 10 days over christmas so we will soon know.

The solicitor took it upon himself to go for this level of connection, even though we had advised key mare that we wanted the 9.2kw connection. If it is too much of a nuisance with the electricity tripping, we will just have to upgrade.

Noreen

Thanks Noreen. I suppose that is the benefit of buying a new apartment on a reasonably old development completed an age ago!! The conection fee with Portillo was nearly €200, so that is a bonus . Can't use the bloody stuff yet though!! The connection is 5.75kw acording to Key Mare and I didn't have any options available, but it is only a 1 bed, so it should be enough.

Mark

Mark

It certainly does look like it is just the connection fees:

Derechos de Enganche = The Right to Connection

Fianza = Surety

The last amount I think is The Right to Access

Noreen

I have a feeling that they are not looking in the right place. To save us money on bankers drafts, we had to send our part of the money to the bank's Gestoria. I think the bank are probably looking in their bank account rather tan their Gestoria's account and that it will have been sitting comfortably there since Wednesday!

On the plus side, the Spanish postal system seems to be pretty good. I received my first electricity bill today, for an apartment I don't yet own . I am assuming it is just the connection costs, if someone would be so kind as to decipher for me please?

Derechos de enganche    8.64€
Fianza      35.11€
Derechos accesso s/r.d.1955/200   4.71€
IVA       €2.14

Total    50.60€

Not too terrible a price if it is the connection fee, but VAT at the full rate on utilities??

Mark

Hi Marksfish,

Just been reading about your cash probs.

Feel for you...............but I am sure by Monday, the bugger who has been hiding your dosh will come clean!

What gets me is that someone, somewhere, earns a bit of interest on this "missing" money.........

I think it happens all the time and even if it's for 24 hours, it makes someone money..

Good luck for Monday            

You're probably very chilled by now!  I hope everything goes well on Monday, I'll keep my fingers crossed!

Bl***** Banks!!!!!!!!  They should have paid you for doing their job!!!!!