# House Buying Experience



## Maureen47 (Mar 27, 2014)

I am sure some of the regulars are aware we move to Spain in 2 weeks , havent shared this before but we have had awful trouble with our sellers. We now own the house and have done for some time. We had to have an inventory of the things included in the sale in the contract as despite using said items in the negotiations things were changing.

We checked the house and the inventory before paying , there were things missing but we thought we wouldnt push it as we didnt want them anyway.

The land and gardens were a disgrace despite being agreed to be in the condition we had seen them when we viewed , the pool was green , the flat screen TV;s were replaced with ancient models , this is only a few of the things the vendors felt it was ok to do.

Today I have found out through the local village grapevine that apparently the reason there logs in the log burner is to hide the hole in the back of it. They shared this info with some of the neighbours and it has made its way back to us. So we move in 2 weeks and might not have a working log burner.

Just to let future buyers know this is what you are up against , we are not fretting about it , we got the house for half of the value and also saved 10k because their lawyer agreed that we pay in euros and at the time of the agreement the rate was lowish but when we paid it was the only day in July the rate was 1.44 so we saved 10k, I guess this maybe reflected in the behaviour of the vendors but it was not us that controlled the exchange rate. 

Amazing you find out you have a hole in the back of your log burner on the village grapevine when you havent even noticed it ! I did clean it when we went to sort the house out a few weeks ago but didnt empty the logs out so maybe missed the damage.

These folks were sweetness and light when we viewed and agreed the sale , buyers beware !


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## Madliz (Feb 4, 2011)

How dreadful, Maureen. What nationality were they? We bought from an Iberia pilot - one would expect a certain standard of behaviour, ¿no? But, no. The furniture it was agreed he would leave, was gone, the lawn had become a wildflower meadow, and so on. This was 20 years ago, so nothing changes. They do say that when buying and selling, people lose all morals. Maybe a percentage of the sale price should be withheld for a month to ensure that everything is as agreed on completion, then there would be an incentive for the vendors to be honest.


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## Roy C (Sep 29, 2012)

Sorry to hear that but also thanks for the warning Maureen.......


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## Maureen47 (Mar 27, 2014)

Its not the end of the world , we love the house and the location and things can be fixed , its just not the way we would conduct our affairs and disappointing that people behave in this way. But I guess when it comes to money for some folks there are no rules .


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## Tusabrat (Sep 25, 2014)

Like you say, not the end of the world, but it leaves a sour taste doesn't it?

After we moved out of our flat in Twickenham, I received an email from the buyer thanking me profusely - we left everything spotless for her, all the remote controls for the fire, TV and music system in a cute little basket, all paperwork in a lovely padded fake-leather folder, and on the counter, we left a card, bottle of bubbly, and 2 champagne glasses with a Ferror Rocher chocolate on the bottom of each.

Hubby laughed at me, said we'll never get the same treatment, I just shrugged and said, well, hopefully she will remember how good it felt and do it for the next person, and so on.


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## baldilocks (Mar 7, 2010)

I'm afraid, I can't add a tale of woe. Ours went perfectly and because we have always maintained a good relationship with the vendor, we have a comfortable position in the village.


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## Maureen47 (Mar 27, 2014)

baldilocks said:


> I'm afraid, I can't add a tale of woe. Ours went perfectly and because we have always maintained a good relationship with the vendor, we have a comfortable position in the village.


Our relationship with the vendor was fine until they then started to behave in an unacceptable way during the handover , I guess they were bitter that they were selling into a buyers market with a euro rate that was going against them but it doesnt excuse the things they did. If we had been really awkward we could have got the solicitor involved but decided not to.Incidently the vendors reputation in the village is not so good and we have found out since this is the way they normally conduct their business and have had many fall outs locally because of this. They have now moved from Spain and the stories are beginning to arise. I hope the locals now know there are some decent folks moving in who dont treat people in this way.


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## Maureen47 (Mar 27, 2014)

Tusabrat said:


> Like you say, not the end of the world, but it leaves a sour taste doesn't it?
> 
> After we moved out of our flat in Twickenham, I received an email from the buyer thanking me profusely - we left everything spotless for her, all the remote controls for the fire, TV and music system in a cute little basket, all paperwork in a lovely padded fake-leather folder, and on the counter, we left a card, bottle of bubbly, and 2 champagne glasses with a Ferror Rocher chocolate on the bottom of each.
> 
> Hubby laughed at me, said we'll never get the same treatment, I just shrugged and said, well, hopefully she will remember how good it felt and do it for the next person, and so on.


I agree we have always left properties spotlessly clean , a welcome card and flowers for the new owners and some wine to celebrate. Its always been much appreciated and hopefully passed on in the future.


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## Maureen47 (Mar 27, 2014)

Roy C said:


> Sorry to hear that but also thanks for the warning Maureen.......


I guess Roy , some folks live their lives like this and have no morals or values , I really wasnt that bothered about the things they did , it just troubled me they tired to hide them and hoped we didnt notice , to fill a log burner with logs to hide a hole is a bit sad , they only needed to say , it may be defective , then at least you know what you are dealing with.


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## Swerve (Jun 29, 2011)

First thing I would be doing is getting the locks changed. You never know. If they have behaved this badly nothing else would surprise me. But that's just me.


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

We bought from an elderly Spanish couple who were lovely, but we got some unwelcome surprises too. They'd agreed to leave some furniture (which we didn't really want but would do for a few weeks until we got stuff organised, but boy did we get more than we bargained for. The first thing I saw when I unlocked the front door was a 3 foot high china leopard staring at me, and that was probably the least hideous of the unenviable collection of ornaments they'd left behind. All of them got packed up and taken down to the bins pronto, we didn't know at that stage that if we'd just left them on the doorstep they would have been swooped upon and carted away within minutes.

Then there were the storerooms, 4 of them still filled with the accumulated junk of generations. I wonder why anyone ever wanted to keep 20 (yes 20) old car stereos? The old guy was obviously one of those who never wanted to throw anything out. One of the rooms had been used as a pigeon loft and it took me 3 days to get it properly clean, what a disgusting job.

Worst of all that we'd thought on viewing (twice) that the kitchen, although very dated, would be usable for a while until we could organise getting it retiled and a new one fitted. Unfortunately we found that a tray strategically placed on the worktop had actually been hiding a large hole in the work surface, and more than one cupboard door fell off the hinges when we opened them, so a new kitchen became more of an immediate priority than we'd anticipated.

Apart from all that everything was just fine!


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## Madliz (Feb 4, 2011)

Maureen, were they Brits?


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## Isobella (Oct 16, 2014)

Madliz said:


> Maureen, were they Brits?


Is that important, any nationality is capable of dirty tricks from what I have heard. We bought from A very nice German quite a few surprises, the major one that one of the bathrooms was blocked solid and according to the plumber (Spanish) had been for a long time.


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## Maureen47 (Mar 27, 2014)

Love it Lynn ! Isabella, one was the other Austrian but dont think that made them behave in the way they did , people are people, I just keep thinking I am going to find a dead fish somewhere to deliberately cause a bad smell , we also tried to switch on the TV in the rental villa and it worked even thought it wasnt the flat screen we viewed but an ancient model . The ariel didnt seem to be connecting so my OH tracked it over the architrave, along the wall into the cupboard and they had cut the wire in the cupboard leading to the ariel outside , how sneaky was that. But we just keep smiling at these things and think about the trouble they went to to make things difficult , we saved 10k on the exchange rate and paid half the value of the house, we havent had that amount of trouble yet lol I dont want to sound smug but hey I didnt ask for these issues either


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## Nignoy (Jun 4, 2010)

We had the same sort of experience, agreed furniture and appliances swapped out for junk, but the biggest shock was to find out that the houseowner was a do it yourself nut ,so in the last 12 months we have rewired the house and replaced most of the plumbing,,but that's all behind us now and we love our little nest


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

maureen47 said:


> Its not the end of the world , we love the house and the location and things can be fixed , its just not the way we would conduct our affairs and disappointing that people behave in this way. But I guess when it comes to money for some folks there are no rules .


What a great attitude. Well done to you. I'm confident that you will find a lot more positives to Spain than negatives and will know how to face the let downs when they come.



Tusabrat said:


> Like you say, not the end of the world, but it leaves a sour taste doesn't it?
> 
> After we moved out of our flat in Twickenham, I received an email from the buyer thanking me profusely - we left everything spotless for her, all the remote controls for the fire, TV and music system in a cute little basket, all paperwork in a lovely padded fake-leather folder, and on the counter, we left a card, bottle of bubbly, and 2 champagne glasses with a Ferror Rocher chocolate on the bottom of each.
> 
> Hubby laughed at me, said we'll never get the same treatment, I just shrugged and said, well, hopefully she will remember how good it felt and do it for the next person, and so on.


That's a lovely thing to do and would probably never have occurred to me, but will do it when we move on.

Our story was not so bad, but similar to Maureen we were disappointed by the sellers underhand tricks like taking the oven and some bushes from the garden without telling us. It wouldn't have made a difference to a sale or not, so why didn't they just say? The worse thing was that they took all the light fittings, fair enough and the bulbs and the screw in bit where the bulbs fit in, so we had no lights. I was 7 months pregnant at the time and had been signed off work and was given complete bed rest until the birth, which they knew!! I ended up giving birth one month premature of course, but all was fine


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

Sorry to hear about your experience Maureen - what a horrible thing to happen. I must say you're being very philosophical about it!

When we bought our house ten years ago we hadn't met the sellers until the day of completion. We met them at the house, which she had just spent all morning cleaning - it was spotless. He showed us round to tell us about the wiring, plumbing etc (very useful information) and proudly explained that he had done all the carpentry and tiling himself. He had done a beautiful job! He was almost in tears as he handed over the keys. It was his wife who wanted to sell apparently.

As we've got to know more people here, lots of them said how lucky we were to buy one of the best-constructed houses in the village. Turns out he had quite a reputation as a perfectionist.

The agent on the other hand (a Brit) was quite the opposite ... but that's another story!


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## baldilocks (Mar 7, 2010)

Pesky Wesky said:


> Our story was not so bad, but similar to Maureen we were disappointed by the sellers underhand tricks like taking the oven and some bushes from the garden without telling us. It wouldn't have made a difference to a sale or not, so why didn't they just say? The worse thing was that they took all the light fittings, fair enough and the bulbs and the screw in bit where the bulbs fit in, *so we had no lights.* I was 7 months pregnant at the time and had been signed off work and was given complete bed rest until the birth, which they knew!! *I ended up giving birth one month premature* of course, but all was fine


In the dark??


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## Maureen47 (Mar 27, 2014)

I guess it silly really as a few issues and a bit of furniture wouldnt have changed our mind about the house. The lady I think had had enough of Spain , her husband on the other hand never got to complete the things he had planned for the property, I think his preference would have been to stay. He designed the house and had it built so a bit of wrench for him.

It will be a happy house to live in now and I cant wait to get all my own things in and make it home.
I have been getting ready for that for over 12 months and been sewing, making . upcycling and have the room layouts planned on room sketcher so hoping it will all work as planned and we can enjoy our new adventure.


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## Gazeebo (Jan 23, 2015)

Enjoy putting your new home together Maureen47, and - hey - the sun is shining!


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## Maureen47 (Mar 27, 2014)

Gazeebo said:


> Enjoy putting your new home together Maureen47, and - hey - the sun is shining!


medianoche valencia chella masa

It sure is , have checked the forecast for our arrival and weather looking good. I will bore you all with before and after pics of our house when I get settled lol !


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

baldilocks said:


> In the dark??


In an operating theatre in Madrid unfortunately,but with lots of light!


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## Pazcat (Mar 24, 2010)

Sorry to read that Maureen, you are taking it well in your stride however. I don't think I would be so calm.

That said our place is always throwing up surprises, we visited the house two or three times with the first visit being nearly a year before we decided to buy it. The owners were an old couple and while they kept the house very clean and tidy it really masked some dodgy things.

I think too from our first visit to the last their health had deteriorated and during the buying process one did pass away so as soon as the deposit was in a holding account the place was basically abandoned for the 4 months it took their crappy English legal service representative to legalise the place.
The garden wasn't watered, the pool not clean and running and they left us with a heap of unwanted furniture and stuff we didn't want which we are still trying to get rid off.

When we moved the cabinets we had found that they just painted around them and the same with the pictures on the wall.
The kitchen was falling apart because it was cheap crap in the first place and it and the gas cooker had seized up completely and doesn't work. It's all rusty and frankly disgusting how anyone could of lived with it, then again I don't actually think they used it beyond the kettle and microwave. 
I'm going to take great pleasure in destroying that.

The wiring was so dodgy that when the pool was running nothing else in the house would run and needed to be fixed which we did and now things are at least livable but the light fittings plug sockets are all rusted and will need to be changed.

Rust is a common theme actually on pretty much all the metal in the house, door locks, hinges, screws and any pipe that isn't overly calcified is rusted too.
Seems to me they were using those portable gas heaters and with no ventilation it just made the house a humid mess, same in summer except with no air-con and big windows it just trapped the heat inside.

Also whoever did the tile work, render and built the fence for outside in the garden did a very poor job of it. All of it is falling down with the slightest touch.
Tiles are basically just dotted with a bit of plaster and stuck to the wall, I had heard that this was how they do tiling here and I can confirm it is a rubbish way of doing it.

Now all this does sound pretty bad but due to the previous owners poor taste in style on just about everything we had already decided to change it all anyway so really it is just motivation to do the things we want.
We already knew everything needed doing but maybe didn't realise just how desperately it needs it.

The four worst things that were left for us was the Jehovas Witnesses, the hoard of stray cats waiting at the kitchen every morning, a guy called Paco or Ceasar or whatever he is telling people today(the name changes depending on who you talk to) and gotalay/stippling on the walls.
Awful, awful stuff. Never gotalay anything is todays top tip.


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## Maureen47 (Mar 27, 2014)

That was not great for you Pazcat but I guess there are risks with any house purchase and lots can hidden. Fortunately for us much of it cleaned up beautifully , I did have to use a toothbrush for some of the cleaning though. Good thing is it will never be in that state again ! We managed to get rid of the furniture left and there was only one item I have kept , a useful pine desk which can go in the Casita. I think these guys fell out with the builder a good way through the finishing as the quality is good but there are a few things unfinished like the inside of the fitted wardrobes , I didnt realise till we took possession that the shelves were boards laid on bricks ! I guess with hindsight we would have inspected a little closer but many of these things were done in the couple of days prior to them going , there was even an outside cupboard with paint in , the paint ended up all over part of the terrace I am sure it was tipped deliberately as it was in a sheltered area and far too heavy for the wind to have knocked it over but Hey if it made her feel better then it served its purpose. I have to say I wasnt as calm at the time but now just laugh about it.


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## Madliz (Feb 4, 2011)

Alas, I'm sure these stories are going to become even more commonplace in 'la crisis' as people scrimp on repairs, bodge DIY jobs and generally save money wherever possible. Those looking for 'bargains' beware!

As a vendor, hoping one day to become a buyer, I often wonder how far one can actually go when viewing a property. Does one really have to unload logs from a pretty fireplace to check for holes? 

You could always sue them for fraud, I guess. Interestingly, that very thing was in the news this week, as the buyers of Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein's pad in the Alps sued her (she's ex-King Juan Carlos' bit on the side) for over €100k.
Corinna y Juan Carlos I: Corinna, acusada de estafa por la venta de un dúplex en Suiza
It seems all levels of society are affected!


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## Pazcat (Mar 24, 2010)

maureen47 said:


> That was not great for you Pazcat but I guess there are risks with any house purchase and lots can hidden. Fortunately for us much of it cleaned up beautifully , I did have to use a toothbrush for some of the cleaning though. Good thing is it will never be in that state again ! We managed to get rid of the furniture left and there was only one item I have kept , a useful pine desk which can go in the Casita. I think these guys fell out with the builder a good way through the finishing as the quality is good but there are a few things unfinished like the inside of the fitted wardrobes , I didnt realise till we took possession that the shelves were boards laid on bricks ! I guess with hindsight we would have inspected a little closer but many of these things were done in the couple of days prior to them going , there was even an outside cupboard with paint in , the paint ended up all over part of the terrace I am sure it was tipped deliberately as it was in a sheltered area and far too heavy for the wind to have knocked it over but Hey if it made her feel better then it served its purpose. I have to say I wasnt as calm at the time but now just laugh about it.


Like I say we knew anyway that we were going to change everything so it's not too bad but things we thought we could leave until later have become priorities.
Looking at all the paperwork I think they simply went over budget on the build and when it came to fitting everything out they did it as cheap as possible.
I was shocked to see how much it cost them, think they were too.



> You could always sue them for fraud, I guess. Interestingly, that very thing was in the news this week, as the buyers of Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein's pad in the Alps sued her (she's ex-King Juan Carlos' bit on the side) for over €100k.
> Corinna y Juan Carlos I: Corinna, acusada de estafa por la venta de un dúplex en Suiza


Could you do that here though?
Maybe if you have a clear contract stating it but to me it would seem that is not the way they do it in Spain considering you can buy a property full of debt and problems and have no come back against the seller.

France has what is called a Vice Cache and the US, Oz and NZ have similar type of laws that require full disclosure by a seller on a property and if it can be shown they hid problems by not disclosing them they are liable.

I'm all for Spain to adopt those types of laws albeit probably in a far more convoluted, expensive and confusing way.


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## Pazcat (Mar 24, 2010)

Defects in a newly purchased property | Velasco Lawyers

Supposedly you can.


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