Breakfast on the Balcony
Kathie and I were Francophiles for over twenty years spending many happy holidays in the South of France, Burgundy and the Alps. Winter holidays were taken on the ski slopes of Switzerland or Austria.
In about 1997 we spent our first winter holiday in Spain and found out (a long time after most other people) what a super place it is and how much less expensive it is than France. In those days two coffees on the Riviera would cost about £4.50 whereas the same snack on the Costa Del Sol would cost less than £1.00. The cost however was a very small part of the "conversion". The speed of life, the climate, property prices etc all played their part.
As we spent more winter holidays in Spain we realized at long last how good it could be to wander about in December, January, or February in our English summer clothes. Bougainvillea, Coleus, and Poinsettia were growing outdoors in gardens and window boxes. A wish to live in this kind of environment began to grow but we had no plans or finances to enable this to happen.
We had always said that when we retired we would sell-up and "Bugger off to Burgundy" and this became our motto and target for retirement. Burgundy has a wonderfully soft and year-round pleasant climate, and property prices are such that we would have been able to afford a very nice place there. Add to that our reasonable command of the French language and it seemed an ideal solution. Our winter holidays in Spain however shifted our aiming point to the Costa Del Sol but finances decreed that it would be many years before either option was likely to happen.
Until circumstances changed that is......
In 2002 we had the opportunity to fund our dream by selling the family home and moving into our son's house whilst he was working abroad. This we did and by the end of the 2003 we had sold-up and arranged a Viewing Trip to Spain with the largest Selling Agent in Europe. During the previous months we had decided that we could afford a much better property on the Costa Blanca rather than the Costa Del Sol and so this is where we targeted our efforts.
Our dream place had now become an apartment overlooking the sea.
Just before Christmas 2003 we flew to Alicante to meet with Atlas International who were to show us the area and offer us various types of property within our budget. After the first day we had almost decided upon an apartment and on the second day we confirmed our decision and laid down a deposit. The agreed completion date for the apartment was September 2005 so we signed the papers, shook hands, and came home to wait.
Atlas International promised that we would receive regular updates on the progress of our new property by email and indeed for the first year we did. At the beginning of 2005 communications dried up from Atlas and I had to start asking for reports. The usual answer was that nothing was available, interspersed with the odd builder's report. Towards the contracted completion date reports dried up completely and Atlas reported that as the apartment block was multi-storey, their inspectors were forbidden access to the site so could not tell us anything. Presumably the builders were incommunicado and information of any kind was unavailable. The completion date passed and Atlas announced that the builder had opted to take up an obscure clause allowing him to extend the completion date by a further three months.
We eventually took possession of our apartment in December 2006, some 15 months late. Atlas International provided very little help as they have a clause in their contract which states that they are merely agents and are not responsible for any actions taken by the builder. Their fee was allegedly about 32,000 Euros for selling us our apartment so it would have been nice had they done more during what was a very traumatic year.
The lessons we learned were NEVER BUY OFF PLAN and DO NOT ALWAYS RELY ON THE SERVICES OF AN AGENT despite their size.
We always now recommend that people should consult a reputable Estate Agent, arrange a short viewing trip, and purchase a ready built property on a properly completed urbanization. Properties in Spain are almost always sold furnished, so on the day you exchange contracts you can move into your new home.