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We returned home from spain to think about it, but in truth, we had already made up our minds, this was the property for us.
It had 7 bedrooms downstairs, 3 living rooms, 2 bathrooms and a kitchen. In addition work had been started in the attic for 3 further bedrooms, a bathroom and a huge lounge. It was situated in Murcia province close to the border with Almeria province, about 30 minutes to the coast. It was on the market for 107,000euros and worth every penny. It needed some work but nothing drastic, I,m in the construction industry (I tell architects if a jobs possible then make sure it’s done properly) so I did my own survey whilst there and it was as sound as a pound.
I offered 100,000euros but they beat me up to 105,000euros.
I employed Sally as my solicitor, my thinking behind this was if I had a solicitor in this country I’d have someone to moan at if things went slowly.Sally was in Spain whilst we had been viewing and phoned from there to say she had seen the escritura and everything was in order.
I sent a cheque for £2,000 to Sally’s office in the U.K. that was passed to the estate agent in Spain.
About a week later I got a letter from the solicitors explaining that Sally was NOT qualified however she would deal with my purchase but a qualified english solicitor would oversee her. In addition they would employ a spanish solicitor to act for them in Spain. The charge for this would be £210 per hour! but as everything was in order they estimated that it would take no more than 4 to 5 hours work. I didn’t know any better and accepted their terms, anyway, I felt reasured that I had so many people looking after my interest. (mug).
A couple of weeks later I got a call from Sally saying there was a minor problem but it was nothing to worry about and it happens all the time, the property was in probate and they could only find 6 of the 8 owners of the property, Meanwhile would I pop out to Spain and pay the balance of the 10% deposit. I said ”Let me think about it, NO”. I asked why wasn’t it picked up at the beginging ”It got missed”. I asked how many more hours this will take ”oh it shouldn’t take too long”
I asked if it was possible to get a photo copy of the escritura, ”why on earth would you want that it’ll be no use to you at all” I had to point out that she did in fact work for me and I would like a copy. In truth I didn’t have a clue what I was going to do with it but it sounded good.
In fairness to Sally she did phone me regularly to keep me informed of progress which was none. Every time she phoned I asked for the escritura
eventually she gave in and I got a copy.
Despite the delay I was still very exited about my house in Spain and showed the escritura to everybody including my sons private tutor who unbeknown to me was fluent in Spanish. ”Oooh” she said ”that’s unusual, did you know it’s in a lady’s name”.
I phoned Sally the next day and asked if it was significant ”I had’nt noticed, but I doubt if it makes a difference”
A few days later I got a call. It turns out that the house was in the grandmothers name and had been before she got married so the property belonged to her side of the family which cut the 8 down to 3 and we could proceed straight away.
However there was one other slight problem, the land wasn’t in fact 10,000 sq mtrs. it was less!!!
Now to be honest the amount of land I was shown was huge and the figure 10,000 sq. mtrs doesn’t mean a lot to me most of it was ploughed, it had been an asparagus field, and I intended to find a local farmer and let him use it to save it going to seed. All I was worried about was the citrus grove and the garden with the grapevine.
It was november by now, and flew out with the intention of paying the balance providing I still had my citus grove.
This time we hired a car so we had complete freedom to move around, we had arranged to meet the Spanish solicitor on site the day we arrived.
We couldn’t wait. When we showed up the solicitor was already there. We got out of the car and almost got back in because of the smell, the building at the bottom of the land was a pig farm!!!. I said to the solicitor that I was told it was a cow shed, ”no” he said ” we don’t keep cow’s around here they take up to much room and it’s to hot, you must be mistaken”.
Now the smell of a cow is’nt the most pleasent smell in the world but it’s what I call country, the smell of a pig can only be described as sh*t, and the noise, it was constant sqealing and grunting, worse than sunday lunch at the mother-in laws. I could just imagine having a barbeque and the pigs squealing whilst I cooked my pork chops.
The solicitor walked us around the perimeter of the land and guess what, it was twice as much as I was shown the first time!!.
I’m going up the pub now, Part 3 later. -
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