From the Costa del Sol Action Group:
'...of especial concern are the Equity Release schemes which have been peddled on the Coast in recent years and have mostly been a disaster for those who have participated. The Action Group has discovered that a number of them have involved criminality. Bearing in mind the average age of the participants of the ER schemes is well over 70 many of the schemes have amounted to abuse of the elderly and robbing the aged of their life savings. The CDSAG is trying its hardest to assist such people. There was one case of a person starving to death and not knowing which way to turn. There has even been the fear of suicide where an elderly victim was too ashamed to tell their partner. The CDSAG stresses that victims should feel no shame at having been caught out by these slick conmen. The perpetrators of these schemes are in many instances highly skilled and seemingly very professional and trustworthy businessmen. Such con artists can take the best of us for our money. Imagine the creative genius and convincing manner it took to sell the Eifel Tower, never mind release the cash tied up in your property!
The CDSAG has found that up-front charges of up to 20% have been imposed in some cases (the norm being around 8/9%) with annual 'management' fees on top of this - with the released cash being invested in disasterous funds in emerging markets (these dodgy bonds paid higher commissions to the financial advisors.) All this has meant that the remaining 80% - 90% of the released capital could never make enough to support the borrowings of the 100%, and provide the promised income. They were in the main commission-driven schemes offered by unqualified, unregistered, heartless, smooth talking, cowboy salesmen'.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Monday, May 26, 2008
Changing a Bulb
The wiring is a bit wonky in our house, no doubt thanks to the age of our establishment. The sockets come in two different sizes, necessitating an array of ‘ladrones’ and gizmos to put the right plug in the right hole. Some of the sockets have burnt out over the years, or their fuses are of the type that no longer exists. Spain, when it comes to bricolaje, is enthusiastic about ‘progress’. We persevere.
Long bits of wire with multiple plugs snake under the carpets to keep the gadgets going. It’s a system.
The light bulbs though, are a menace. First of all, they don’t last 1,000 hours as it says on the box. In fact, some of them go ‘floop’ just as you are screwing them in, standing inevitably on a wobbly chair. Once, I went clean through the seat of an antique chair while reaching up to change a light. You should stand on the edges apparently.
But the real problem here is the light sockets, the fundas. These are made either from a thin plastic that soon cracks or from a sturdy plastic which cooks and cracks. The cable behind obligingly rots when it gets a chance. Half the time, changing a bulb (while standing on that wobbly chair, the spare bulb in your pocket) means having to change the whole fixture – in the dark, with a screwdriver which has a crooked blade.
That’ll be when the phone rings.
Shortly after I’d finished the above masterpiece, the Spanish government decided to change things, lightbulbwise (perhaps it was simply pure coincidence, although I think they’ve been checking my blog).
In three years time, the old incandescent bulb will be phased out, in exchange for those new, expensive to buy and cheap to run bulbs. If Spain tossed its 350 million light bulbs in favour of these new-fangled ones, why the country would save 3% on its energy bill and households would see their electric (which just went up by 10%) go down again.
I looked. They cost about ten euros a pop (actually, perhaps ‘pop’ isn’t the best word here, as, one would not be too happy if the light didn’t do its duty and last for ever).
Property Meeting in Mojácar
Levante Almeriense: AULAN
Covering the municipalities of: Mojacar, Carboneras, Garrucha, Los
Gallardos, Cuevas, Bédar, Huercal Overa, Pulpi, Antas.
12 AM 6TH JUNE 2008.
HOTEL CONTINENTAL, MOJACAR PLAYA
AGENDA:
(1) Discussion of the aims of the Association.
(2) Talk on planning and real estate problems.
(3) Consideration of steering committee.
(4) Consideration of membership fee.
(5) Next steps.
(6) Other matters arising.
CHAIR: Lenox Napier.
In attendance representatives of: Abusos Urbanisticos Almanzora No, Asociacion
de Vecinos del Pinar de Bédar, Levante Sostenible, Ciudadanos Europeos de
Mojacar.
Anyone interested in joining who has not already done so, please call Mary on 661
742 102 to confirm attendance.
Covering the municipalities of: Mojacar, Carboneras, Garrucha, Los
Gallardos, Cuevas, Bédar, Huercal Overa, Pulpi, Antas.
12 AM 6TH JUNE 2008.
HOTEL CONTINENTAL, MOJACAR PLAYA
AGENDA:
(1) Discussion of the aims of the Association.
(2) Talk on planning and real estate problems.
(3) Consideration of steering committee.
(4) Consideration of membership fee.
(5) Next steps.
(6) Other matters arising.
CHAIR: Lenox Napier.
In attendance representatives of: Abusos Urbanisticos Almanzora No, Asociacion
de Vecinos del Pinar de Bédar, Levante Sostenible, Ciudadanos Europeos de
Mojacar.
Anyone interested in joining who has not already done so, please call Mary on 661
742 102 to confirm attendance.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
The Wasp
I receive by email a daily average of two copies of articles from the British media that are critical of Spain, its housing problems, the Vera demolition, illegal homes, bankruptcies and the like. Poor Spain – the country we have come to love is now the target for the vilest accusations from Fleet Street and Broadcasting House! Reports of threats of demolition, special payouts for illegal homes, fraud, calls to the European Court of Human Rights… it sounds like Morocco in 1958 when the lunatic king decided to nationalise all the foreign land. The British media love a good story and this one has it all – all those rich bastards going to live the Life of Riley and losing their savings while we are stuck in an increasingly horrible Grate Britain.
After all, one house was knocked down this January in Vera by a maniac who should by all rights be in prison or at the very least fired from his job in the Junta de Andalucía for incompetence. But they haven’t fired him - not for his arrogance or his immorality and certainly not for costing Spain a staggeringly huge amount of both money and jobs. Indeed, they haven’t even fired him for going after ‘opposition’ town halls like Cuevas, Zurgena and Vera while ignoring places like Arboleas, Huercal Overa, Albox and Carboneras (all PSOE towns).
And the Brits don’t think local politics are interesting…
The Spanish aren’t very keen on being criticised by the foreign media. They don’t like these daily stories, ITV’s ‘Holidays in Hell’ and the rest of them, that are continuously beating the same drum. So, they circle the wagons and ignore them. The Spanish press will admit that there are too many empty houses already – although most of these were built around the cities as apartments for working families – but they don’t want to report on the problems facing the coastal towns or those concerns experienced by the Northern European émigrés that are so lovingly followed by The Times and Telegraph. And, as long as a few breasts make an appearance in the story, count on The Sun and the News of the World for joining in with some of their trademark sensitive reporting.
Locally, there is bemusement among my Spanish friends. Why have they turned on us? Well, you’ve got mayors, councillors, builders and architects all facing court sentences, I tell them, for fraud. Companies with a capital of just 3,000 euros change and switch to avoid bankruptcies but, if sued, only have those three thousand euros and, traditionally, a penniless president who resides in a nut-hatch. Politicians who can patiently wait until long after they are out of office before having to defend themselves in court or who rely on ‘compañeros’ in the system to get them off the hook. If it wasn’t for the lack of judicial expedience, some of these characters might even have gone to jail by now. In fact, the Minister of Justice defending that the nation’s judicial system was ‘not in chaos or collapse’ admitted that it would take a while to straighten things out. But, we can’t blame the town halls entirely. In the recent years as the money came in, they enlarged their legions of public employees (it’s good for votes) who get a guaranteed sinecure for life, and started on various projects such as museums, sports stadiums, multi-storey car-parks and all things nice. They are now stuck with continuing with these projects. At the same time, the traditional power of a mayor to decide what’s good for his pueblo (i.e. to give out building licences) has now been passed to higher authorities, sometimes with little understanding and sympathy over local issues.
There’s a story of a wasp that flew in through the window of a speeding car and stings the driver. The car flips and crashes into a bus. Twenty dead. One little wasp is responsible for a major accident. So, too, one demolition in Vera has started the cry from the foreign press (well done, most of our local freebies, for staying staunchly silent on this issue!).
Of course the problem of Spain’s building industry is much larger than one pointless demolition, although one has to wonder at the poor question of timing.
This article appears as an editorial in The New Entertainer and as a feature in The Olive Press (Granada)
After all, one house was knocked down this January in Vera by a maniac who should by all rights be in prison or at the very least fired from his job in the Junta de Andalucía for incompetence. But they haven’t fired him - not for his arrogance or his immorality and certainly not for costing Spain a staggeringly huge amount of both money and jobs. Indeed, they haven’t even fired him for going after ‘opposition’ town halls like Cuevas, Zurgena and Vera while ignoring places like Arboleas, Huercal Overa, Albox and Carboneras (all PSOE towns).
And the Brits don’t think local politics are interesting…
The Spanish aren’t very keen on being criticised by the foreign media. They don’t like these daily stories, ITV’s ‘Holidays in Hell’ and the rest of them, that are continuously beating the same drum. So, they circle the wagons and ignore them. The Spanish press will admit that there are too many empty houses already – although most of these were built around the cities as apartments for working families – but they don’t want to report on the problems facing the coastal towns or those concerns experienced by the Northern European émigrés that are so lovingly followed by The Times and Telegraph. And, as long as a few breasts make an appearance in the story, count on The Sun and the News of the World for joining in with some of their trademark sensitive reporting.
Locally, there is bemusement among my Spanish friends. Why have they turned on us? Well, you’ve got mayors, councillors, builders and architects all facing court sentences, I tell them, for fraud. Companies with a capital of just 3,000 euros change and switch to avoid bankruptcies but, if sued, only have those three thousand euros and, traditionally, a penniless president who resides in a nut-hatch. Politicians who can patiently wait until long after they are out of office before having to defend themselves in court or who rely on ‘compañeros’ in the system to get them off the hook. If it wasn’t for the lack of judicial expedience, some of these characters might even have gone to jail by now. In fact, the Minister of Justice defending that the nation’s judicial system was ‘not in chaos or collapse’ admitted that it would take a while to straighten things out. But, we can’t blame the town halls entirely. In the recent years as the money came in, they enlarged their legions of public employees (it’s good for votes) who get a guaranteed sinecure for life, and started on various projects such as museums, sports stadiums, multi-storey car-parks and all things nice. They are now stuck with continuing with these projects. At the same time, the traditional power of a mayor to decide what’s good for his pueblo (i.e. to give out building licences) has now been passed to higher authorities, sometimes with little understanding and sympathy over local issues.
There’s a story of a wasp that flew in through the window of a speeding car and stings the driver. The car flips and crashes into a bus. Twenty dead. One little wasp is responsible for a major accident. So, too, one demolition in Vera has started the cry from the foreign press (well done, most of our local freebies, for staying staunchly silent on this issue!).
Of course the problem of Spain’s building industry is much larger than one pointless demolition, although one has to wonder at the poor question of timing.
This article appears as an editorial in The New Entertainer and as a feature in The Olive Press (Granada)
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Rugby at Desert Springs
The Cabras Rugby Club from Carboneras
On a slightly wet Saturday, what could be better than a nice game of rugby? The sun came through the clouds as the two teams pounded onto the grass and battle began. The teams were our local Cabra Rugby Club based in Carboneras and the heavier and larger looking chaps from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. The game was fun, with good scores (that nobody seemed to know much about), a few fights and a cut head. I had the good fortune to meet a retired trainer who could explain the finer points. During the second half, perhaps inspired by a herd of goats being led past by a dusty looking old shephard and a couple of dogs, the Cabras rose to even greater efforts and by the final whistle (and a few sums performed by the referee), it emerged that the local boys had won the day with 30 - 26.
Afterwards, the two teams posed for a photo, before breaking into song (for some reason - an interesting new version of 'Singing in the Rain') and organising a Full Monty, which your photographer was either a split second to early or late to capture.
For information on joining the rugby club, call Juan Pedro on 664 052 793.
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Property Rights and Wrongs
There was a meeting last Saturday in the Best Hotel on Mojácar Playa regarding the problems of property in Spain - from demolitions to expropriations, 'illegal properties', third party mortgages, dodgy salesmen, 'builders' electric', 'land grab', buildings in flood plains and so on. Charles Svoboda from the AUN gave the main talk, with Bob Preston (Albox) from the AUAN (see his speech on http://www.almanzora-au.org/), Helen Prior - whose home in Vera was knocked down in January (she is living in a caravan with her husband Len, without water, electricity or much hope of compensation) - Angel Medina from the Ciudadanos Europeos de Mojácar (see the website for photos at http://ciudadanoseuropeosdemojacar.blogspot.com/) and me doing the introductions. Around 400 people came along to the meeting.
One thing that came out of it - I shall write more about the event later - was the announcement of a new local association to be called Abusos Urbanisticos del Levante Almeriense - No.
Left to Right: Angel Medina, Charles Svoboda, Bob Preston and Helen Prior, speaking.
For the moment - here's the press release:
ANTI PLANNING-ABUSE MEETING IN MOJACAR
On the 3rd May last, a meeting was held at the Best Hotel in Marina de la Torre, Mojácar, Almeria at which almost 400 people attended.
The meeting was chaired by Lenox Napier of the political party Ciudadanos Europeos de Mojácar and was organised with their assistance to discuss the planning problems arising in the area. The head of this political group and Councillor of Mojácar, Mr Angel Medina, spoke and stated that Spain should be kept as a favoured destination for foreign investments and was a good place in which to live, despite the problems which had arisen and which should be remedied.
With respect to the problems, Mr Medina mentioned a number of measures which should be taken, including: the establishment of a legal protocol (a set of regulated steps) for conveyancing; estate agents to be registered, supervised and insured; that the publicity and public consultation for plans be made obligatory and this be implemented as soon as possible; that the land registry should be relied upon to show the real-estate and planning situation on a particular property; that the catastro should be tied in with the land registry as soon as possible; that a commission should be set up to consider the current planning problems and to make recommendations, of which the administration and associations should be a party; and that there be independent agencies to oversee the protection of the environment and human rights.
Mr & Mrs Prior were invited and spoke. Readers will recall the demolition of their house – before the very eyes of this unfortunate couple, which has had great repercussion with the media outside Spain. They explained that, at the moment, no compensation for them was in sight. Bob Preston, President of Abusos Urbanisticos Almanzora No, an association trying to fight against perceived planning abuse in the Almanzora Valley in Almeria where thousands of homes are under threat also spoke and complained that, despite various indications from the various administrations, few concrete steps had been taken to legalise the homes involved.
During the speeches Mr Svoboda, of Abusos Urbanisticos No in Valencia, who has been fighting against planning abuse for many years, and whose association has thousands of members, urged people to group together to fight for their common interests to prevent planning abuses. Mention was made of a new association which was being set up to cover the Levante Almeriense (the western coastal part of Almeria) which would be linked to Mr Svoboda´s association and would work together with other similar associations, and eventually form part of a national federation of like-minded Associations.
This new, fledgling association is to be called the AULAN (“Abusos Urbanísticos Levante Almeriense No”). Members to be of this association have indicated that the association is to be independent of political parties, though they are grateful for the support the political party Ciudadanos Europeos appears to be currently giving to the aims of the new association.
It has been stated that the purpose of the association can be summed up in one phrase: to strive for the protection of human rights within the ambit of the real-estate and planning fields, preventing abuses.
It has also been stated that the association will seek to inform its members of planning changes – a bit like an early warning system so that its members will know what changes are afoot and are not surprised with the bulldozer turning up on their doorstep.
In addition, it is considered that by people grouping together they can press the administration for solutions to current and possible future problems.
Apart from this, concrete steps have already been discussed at political level and with other associations to seek to remedy the problems which have arisen and the members to be are pleased that these ideas appear to have some support.
It is thought that situations like that experienced by Mr & Mrs Prior must not be allowed to happen again, and full backing is expressed for Mr & Mrs Prior by the members to be of the association.
Concern is expressed that the plight of Mr & Mrs Prior has had a wide coverage outside Spain – one of the main reasons the British are reluctant to invest in Spain, due to the perceived lack of legal security - but that the Spanish media at a national level has failed to inform on what has transpired.
A meeting is to be held shortly to formally set up the association, elect members etc. In addition, at this meeting a talk will be given on the planning issues relating to this area.
Both English and Spanish living in this part of Almeria are welcome to join. The time and place is to be advised.
On the 3rd May last, a meeting was held at the Best Hotel in Marina de la Torre, Mojácar, Almeria at which almost 400 people attended.
The meeting was chaired by Lenox Napier of the political party Ciudadanos Europeos de Mojácar and was organised with their assistance to discuss the planning problems arising in the area. The head of this political group and Councillor of Mojácar, Mr Angel Medina, spoke and stated that Spain should be kept as a favoured destination for foreign investments and was a good place in which to live, despite the problems which had arisen and which should be remedied.
With respect to the problems, Mr Medina mentioned a number of measures which should be taken, including: the establishment of a legal protocol (a set of regulated steps) for conveyancing; estate agents to be registered, supervised and insured; that the publicity and public consultation for plans be made obligatory and this be implemented as soon as possible; that the land registry should be relied upon to show the real-estate and planning situation on a particular property; that the catastro should be tied in with the land registry as soon as possible; that a commission should be set up to consider the current planning problems and to make recommendations, of which the administration and associations should be a party; and that there be independent agencies to oversee the protection of the environment and human rights.
Mr & Mrs Prior were invited and spoke. Readers will recall the demolition of their house – before the very eyes of this unfortunate couple, which has had great repercussion with the media outside Spain. They explained that, at the moment, no compensation for them was in sight. Bob Preston, President of Abusos Urbanisticos Almanzora No, an association trying to fight against perceived planning abuse in the Almanzora Valley in Almeria where thousands of homes are under threat also spoke and complained that, despite various indications from the various administrations, few concrete steps had been taken to legalise the homes involved.
During the speeches Mr Svoboda, of Abusos Urbanisticos No in Valencia, who has been fighting against planning abuse for many years, and whose association has thousands of members, urged people to group together to fight for their common interests to prevent planning abuses. Mention was made of a new association which was being set up to cover the Levante Almeriense (the western coastal part of Almeria) which would be linked to Mr Svoboda´s association and would work together with other similar associations, and eventually form part of a national federation of like-minded Associations.
This new, fledgling association is to be called the AULAN (“Abusos Urbanísticos Levante Almeriense No”). Members to be of this association have indicated that the association is to be independent of political parties, though they are grateful for the support the political party Ciudadanos Europeos appears to be currently giving to the aims of the new association.
It has been stated that the purpose of the association can be summed up in one phrase: to strive for the protection of human rights within the ambit of the real-estate and planning fields, preventing abuses.
It has also been stated that the association will seek to inform its members of planning changes – a bit like an early warning system so that its members will know what changes are afoot and are not surprised with the bulldozer turning up on their doorstep.
In addition, it is considered that by people grouping together they can press the administration for solutions to current and possible future problems.
Apart from this, concrete steps have already been discussed at political level and with other associations to seek to remedy the problems which have arisen and the members to be are pleased that these ideas appear to have some support.
It is thought that situations like that experienced by Mr & Mrs Prior must not be allowed to happen again, and full backing is expressed for Mr & Mrs Prior by the members to be of the association.
Concern is expressed that the plight of Mr & Mrs Prior has had a wide coverage outside Spain – one of the main reasons the British are reluctant to invest in Spain, due to the perceived lack of legal security - but that the Spanish media at a national level has failed to inform on what has transpired.
A meeting is to be held shortly to formally set up the association, elect members etc. In addition, at this meeting a talk will be given on the planning issues relating to this area.
Both English and Spanish living in this part of Almeria are welcome to join. The time and place is to be advised.
Monday, April 28, 2008
New Real Estate Rules
The following has been creating something of a stir in the Real Estate world in Andalucía:
The Junta de Andalucía has recently been fining real estate professionals in Andalucía for non-compliance with the decreto218/2005 which states that every agent must have a DIA or a Ficha Informativa readily available relating to every property they market, amongst other things. We have been hearing from very worried agents about this but to date there has been very little information readily available about how to comply with this law. I would therefore like to make you aware of a new organization that has been set up to help with this situation. They are trying to raise awareness, offer support and assistance with regard to this situation, as well as offering related products. They have researched the decree, made it more decipherable, abbreviated it and explained it. They supply vendors with property information packs so they can go to agents and promote their properties in a legally correct fashion.They also provide property management software to agents, complete with the necessary forms, notices, window cards etc., to make sure their business isfully compliant with this law. Their website is http://www.boja218.com/ We thought your readers would find this information useful. We would also like to raise awareness about the law in the very least, as many agencies in the region are blissfully unaware that they are at risk of being fined, or that they are in fact breaking the law. We would all like to see an improvement the Andalucían property market, and this decree could be the answer. If every agent abided by it, the whole industry would be hugely improved. If you would like further information about this organisation, please feel free to contact me, or email them directly on http://www.theentertaineronline.com/webmail/src/compose.php?send_to=info%40boja218.com .
Keren.
FAB Asesores S.L. Apartado de Correos 91, La Cala de Mijas, 29649 Mijas Costa, Malaga Tel: 952 587 673, Fax: +34 952 494 580 http://www.fabasesores.com/
Charles Svoboda of AUN http://www.abusos-no.org/ says:
Viewed positively this means the Junta is cracking down on some of the fly by night agents and it will be interesting to see if other regions folllow suit. I don't know of such rules under "Decretos" in other regions of Spain. This will be another reason for some of the smaller - one hopes the shadier - estate agents to shut down - or perhaps they will try to make deals and clear off quickly before they face "legal" action. The "Boja" advice, software and services need to be checked out by those who could suffer from all this new angle. The website is not that helpful as I read it, alas. More of a teaser than a source of free advice.
An estate agent called Tina says: We have some 600 properties for sale on our books and historically if someone is interested in purchasing we have always paid for the nota simple (property search). This costs around 10.46 depending on the property, whether it has a mortgage, is commercial etc. Decreto 218 now wants us to hold in our offices an up to date nota simple not more than three months old for every property we market. The cost and administration of this is, in our case, going to cost a very minimum of 6,300 odd euros per three months. Most agents, like ourselves, are not busy at present and certainly not making enough money to pay out this kind of money on a three monthly basis. However, I note that there are still cowboys swanning around in their 4 x 4s, not paying tax, social security or legally registered offering houses for sale over bars and in restaurants. They have already done deals with the owners of houses to pay them X before taking a potential purchaser to view. They are operating on the premise of "doing a deal direct with the owner" and can do so quite legitimately because an owner does not have to provide a potential purchaser with the paperwork that an agent does.
The Junta de Andalucía has recently been fining real estate professionals in Andalucía for non-compliance with the decreto218/2005 which states that every agent must have a DIA or a Ficha Informativa readily available relating to every property they market, amongst other things. We have been hearing from very worried agents about this but to date there has been very little information readily available about how to comply with this law. I would therefore like to make you aware of a new organization that has been set up to help with this situation. They are trying to raise awareness, offer support and assistance with regard to this situation, as well as offering related products. They have researched the decree, made it more decipherable, abbreviated it and explained it. They supply vendors with property information packs so they can go to agents and promote their properties in a legally correct fashion.They also provide property management software to agents, complete with the necessary forms, notices, window cards etc., to make sure their business isfully compliant with this law. Their website is http://www.boja218.com/ We thought your readers would find this information useful. We would also like to raise awareness about the law in the very least, as many agencies in the region are blissfully unaware that they are at risk of being fined, or that they are in fact breaking the law. We would all like to see an improvement the Andalucían property market, and this decree could be the answer. If every agent abided by it, the whole industry would be hugely improved. If you would like further information about this organisation, please feel free to contact me, or email them directly on http://www.theentertaineronline.com/webmail/src/compose.php?send_to=info%40boja218.com .
Keren.
FAB Asesores S.L. Apartado de Correos 91, La Cala de Mijas, 29649 Mijas Costa, Malaga Tel: 952 587 673, Fax: +34 952 494 580 http://www.fabasesores.com/
Charles Svoboda of AUN http://www.abusos-no.org/ says:
Viewed positively this means the Junta is cracking down on some of the fly by night agents and it will be interesting to see if other regions folllow suit. I don't know of such rules under "Decretos" in other regions of Spain. This will be another reason for some of the smaller - one hopes the shadier - estate agents to shut down - or perhaps they will try to make deals and clear off quickly before they face "legal" action. The "Boja" advice, software and services need to be checked out by those who could suffer from all this new angle. The website is not that helpful as I read it, alas. More of a teaser than a source of free advice.
An estate agent called Tina says: We have some 600 properties for sale on our books and historically if someone is interested in purchasing we have always paid for the nota simple (property search). This costs around 10.46 depending on the property, whether it has a mortgage, is commercial etc. Decreto 218 now wants us to hold in our offices an up to date nota simple not more than three months old for every property we market. The cost and administration of this is, in our case, going to cost a very minimum of 6,300 odd euros per three months. Most agents, like ourselves, are not busy at present and certainly not making enough money to pay out this kind of money on a three monthly basis. However, I note that there are still cowboys swanning around in their 4 x 4s, not paying tax, social security or legally registered offering houses for sale over bars and in restaurants. They have already done deals with the owners of houses to pay them X before taking a potential purchaser to view. They are operating on the premise of "doing a deal direct with the owner" and can do so quite legitimately because an owner does not have to provide a potential purchaser with the paperwork that an agent does.
Friday, April 25, 2008
A Short Trip to Foreign Parts
There’s nothing like a few days away from home. Last week I went to Henley-on-Thames, an excruciatingly English town located midway between Oxford and London with three Spanish friends.
It was quite wonderful. Forget all the stuff I’ve written over the years about never going anywhere near Britain which has changed irreconcilably over the past thirty years. I was completely wrong. Henley was perfect.
It’s too early for regattas and tourists and all the hurly-burly. At the moment, with surprisingly benevolent weather thrown in for good measure and a dearth of noisy tourists (present company excepted), Henley is at its finest.
We stayed at a boarding house. I’ve read about these institutions in Dickens but rather thought that they had died out. Not in Henley. Ours was comfortable rooms, a one-table dining-room where we joined the three or four other guests, a Russian lady who kept everything ship-shape, and a latch key.
Henley is rather smaller than I expected and it was easy enough to find our way about – from the station to the Henley College (eighteen hundred A-level kids in a splendid looking school), from the River Thames to the town hall and from the cinema to the pubs. Actually, we went straight to the pubs.
How much does it cost in England these days? That’s the beauty of a three-day trip: I have no idea. You simply shovel over a wad of English pounds and come away with two pints and two double whiskies, ice no water. ‘Spanish, are you?’ and ‘It’s a nice day today’ being the main conversation. You can’t smoke in British pubs and the outside garden shed has to be at least fifty per cent open to the elements. No one seemed to mind much. Of course, at £6.80 for 16 cigarettes out of the fag machine, smoking is not quite what it was either. The pubs are quiet, the carpeting and decoration, together with the low tones of the English in conversation, take care of that. There are a few TV screens in the Henley public houses, but the sound is turned off. One place we found, kept by an 84 year old lady and two sausage dogs, had a clutch of agreeably drunk male customers. ‘Isn’t it dangerous?’ I asked. ‘Goodness, no’ she said ‘that’ll be nine pounds forty’.
One evening late, we sat on a bench by the river and enjoyed the view, an occasional splash from the sleeping ducks, the starry sky and the magnificent Henley Bridge.
The next day, we went to visit the mayor. It seemed like a good idea to broach the subject of an entente cordial between Henley and Mojácar. He received us in his office, on the second floor of an imposing looking public building. We took photos, exchanged a couple of compliments and then the mayor showed us around the upper storey, including the assembly hall walled with portraits of past incumbents. Nice chap. ‘Are you Conservative?’ I wanted to know. ‘Independent’, he answered with a grin. ‘We’re independent as well’, said Angel, my Spanish mate.
Henley has a Teddy-Bear shop. That’s all it sells – teddy bears of every size and inclination. Teddies, despite being named after Roosevelt or someone, are intrinsically English. There was Rupert Bear, Pooh, Paddington and a furry host of ursine characters lining all the shelves. ‘I watch the faces of everyone who comes in here’, said the lady, ‘they just light up with pleasure’. She was quite right about that. I asked her about St George’s Day – who’s saint’s day it happened to be that day. ‘No one seems to celebrate it’ she answered wistfully. It seems a shame.
I asked a few more people about the English saint’s day. Everyone agreed that nothing was ever done – but, all things considered, something most definitely should be.
The English have trouble in defining their Englishness – unlike the Scots or the Welsh – or even the British. It seems that no one can quite describe what being English is all about.
I would recommend a trip to Henley in the springtime. That’s English. Which is odd really, because the place is full of Poles.
It was quite wonderful. Forget all the stuff I’ve written over the years about never going anywhere near Britain which has changed irreconcilably over the past thirty years. I was completely wrong. Henley was perfect.
It’s too early for regattas and tourists and all the hurly-burly. At the moment, with surprisingly benevolent weather thrown in for good measure and a dearth of noisy tourists (present company excepted), Henley is at its finest.
We stayed at a boarding house. I’ve read about these institutions in Dickens but rather thought that they had died out. Not in Henley. Ours was comfortable rooms, a one-table dining-room where we joined the three or four other guests, a Russian lady who kept everything ship-shape, and a latch key.
Henley is rather smaller than I expected and it was easy enough to find our way about – from the station to the Henley College (eighteen hundred A-level kids in a splendid looking school), from the River Thames to the town hall and from the cinema to the pubs. Actually, we went straight to the pubs.
How much does it cost in England these days? That’s the beauty of a three-day trip: I have no idea. You simply shovel over a wad of English pounds and come away with two pints and two double whiskies, ice no water. ‘Spanish, are you?’ and ‘It’s a nice day today’ being the main conversation. You can’t smoke in British pubs and the outside garden shed has to be at least fifty per cent open to the elements. No one seemed to mind much. Of course, at £6.80 for 16 cigarettes out of the fag machine, smoking is not quite what it was either. The pubs are quiet, the carpeting and decoration, together with the low tones of the English in conversation, take care of that. There are a few TV screens in the Henley public houses, but the sound is turned off. One place we found, kept by an 84 year old lady and two sausage dogs, had a clutch of agreeably drunk male customers. ‘Isn’t it dangerous?’ I asked. ‘Goodness, no’ she said ‘that’ll be nine pounds forty’.
One evening late, we sat on a bench by the river and enjoyed the view, an occasional splash from the sleeping ducks, the starry sky and the magnificent Henley Bridge.The next day, we went to visit the mayor. It seemed like a good idea to broach the subject of an entente cordial between Henley and Mojácar. He received us in his office, on the second floor of an imposing looking public building. We took photos, exchanged a couple of compliments and then the mayor showed us around the upper storey, including the assembly hall walled with portraits of past incumbents. Nice chap. ‘Are you Conservative?’ I wanted to know. ‘Independent’, he answered with a grin. ‘We’re independent as well’, said Angel, my Spanish mate.
Henley has a Teddy-Bear shop. That’s all it sells – teddy bears of every size and inclination. Teddies, despite being named after Roosevelt or someone, are intrinsically English. There was Rupert Bear, Pooh, Paddington and a furry host of ursine characters lining all the shelves. ‘I watch the faces of everyone who comes in here’, said the lady, ‘they just light up with pleasure’. She was quite right about that. I asked her about St George’s Day – who’s saint’s day it happened to be that day. ‘No one seems to celebrate it’ she answered wistfully. It seems a shame.
I asked a few more people about the English saint’s day. Everyone agreed that nothing was ever done – but, all things considered, something most definitely should be.
The English have trouble in defining their Englishness – unlike the Scots or the Welsh – or even the British. It seems that no one can quite describe what being English is all about.
I would recommend a trip to Henley in the springtime. That’s English. Which is odd really, because the place is full of Poles.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Casas Ilegales
Me parece muy mal momento para hablar de “casas ilegales” en Zurgena y demás pueblos del interior de Almería donde residen - sobre todo - jubilados ingleses. No lo digo porque se trate de los ingleses, que han comprado casas donde jubilarse en nuestra bonita y soleada provincia, sino porque son precisamente los del norte de Europa los que suelen comprar en estas urbanizaciones que se construyen en el interior de Almería sin más. Los españoles están sufriendo mucho con el tema de la vivienda, entre el alza de los precios, el subida del tipo de interés de las hipotecas, el estado de la economía europea y el consecuente incremento de los despidos en casi todos los sectores. Los apartamentos en las grandes ciudades están sobrevalorados en un veinte por ciento y, mientras que los vendedores no empiecen a bajar sus precios, los compradores van a esperar.
Los mismos españoles, si compran “una segunda casa”, suelen hacerlo en la costa. Su idea es venir para ocuparlas durante un par de semanas en el verano y un par de días en la Semana Santa. Una casa así está considerada como una inversión.
Para los ingleses es algo diferente. Su nueva casa en Almería es, sin duda, una inversión, el fruto de sus ahorros o de la venta de su vivienda en Inglaterra, pero es, al contrario que para los españoles, su casa principal. La mayoría de los ingleses (alemanes, noruegos, holandeses, irlandeses y etc.) están aquí para pasar su jubilación. No piden gran cosa de España: un poco de sol, paz y tranquilidad y en cambio, traen muchas divisas que contribuyen a paliar la cada vez más débil economía nacional.
Debería de ser considerado como un chollo para España. Dinero que entra a cambio de que nada sale: mucho mejor que la exportación de productos o bienes al extranjero.
Es también interesante para las arcas públicas de los municipios. Las licencias y permisos ayudan a mantener bajos los impuestos locales, porque no hay que olvidar que alguien tiene que pagar las facturas de cada mes. También, evidentemente, genera puestos de trabajo.
Pero luego se despierta la política. A nivel local los de la oposición dicen “pero no conocen o respetan nuestras costumbres”, mientras que el coro de la política regional reclama que “vamos a vengarnos de estos pueblos que no son de nuestro partido”, como pueden pensar tanto el alcalde de Vera como el de Zurgena, ambos del Partido Andalucista.
Este acoso político no sería, quizás, tan importante si no fuese por el hecho de que el tema ha salido fuera de los municipios afectados. A pesar del ayuno de información en España (La Razón ha sido el único periódico nacional en tocar el tema de las consecuencias), el tema del derribo (inmoral, si no ilegal) de una casa en Vera y las secuelas han llegado al mundo entero. La televisión británica, tanto BBC como ITV, la Bloomburg, la tele alemana, la noruega, la prensa de toda Europa y hasta la americana y australiana ha comentado este tema, y tres meses después, siguen comentándolo. En los dos primeros días de la semana pasada, por ejemplo, me llamaron la ITV, la BBC, y hasta una radio americana interesados por este asunto.
La justicia nacional no se mueve muy rápido, como todos sabemos. Los Prior, jubilados, viejos, viven ahora en una caravana donde posiblemente vivirán el resto de sus días. ¿Cuánto tiempo tendrán que esperar antes de recibir alguna compensación? Varios años evidentemente.
Luego, tenemos casos de expropiación, compra forzosa, el escandaloso “land grab” (urbanización forzosa), hipotecas a terceros, permisos de construcción ilegales, fraudes, sobre-valorizaciones, leyes de urbanismo contradictorias, viviendas sin terminar, faltas de “licencia de primer ocupación”, estafas y otros temas del estilo. Todo esto contado con detalles en la prensa extranjera. Es evidente que el comprador extranjero, cartera de billetes en su mano, lo piensa más de dos veces antes de venir a comprar una casa.
Por si no fuese suficiente, ahora es más difícil empadronarnos que antes. Antes de subir al ayuntamiento para inscribirnos, nosotros los “europeos” tenemos que registrarnos en el “Registro Central de Extranjeros” en la capital de provincia donde, después de varios días de cola, nos dan un papel que ni siquiera nos vale como “tarjeta de identificación” ya que la “tarjeta de residencia del régimen comunitario” ha sido suprimida. Los ayuntamientos también sufren esta situación por tener aún más habitantes que nunca que no figurarán (ni piensan hacerlo) en el padrón municipal. ¡Chapeau!
Con la situación económica actual, lo último que se debería imaginar aquí es intentar asustar a los posibles compradores del Norte de Europa.
No todos podremos comer conejo.
Los mismos españoles, si compran “una segunda casa”, suelen hacerlo en la costa. Su idea es venir para ocuparlas durante un par de semanas en el verano y un par de días en la Semana Santa. Una casa así está considerada como una inversión.
Para los ingleses es algo diferente. Su nueva casa en Almería es, sin duda, una inversión, el fruto de sus ahorros o de la venta de su vivienda en Inglaterra, pero es, al contrario que para los españoles, su casa principal. La mayoría de los ingleses (alemanes, noruegos, holandeses, irlandeses y etc.) están aquí para pasar su jubilación. No piden gran cosa de España: un poco de sol, paz y tranquilidad y en cambio, traen muchas divisas que contribuyen a paliar la cada vez más débil economía nacional.
Debería de ser considerado como un chollo para España. Dinero que entra a cambio de que nada sale: mucho mejor que la exportación de productos o bienes al extranjero.
Es también interesante para las arcas públicas de los municipios. Las licencias y permisos ayudan a mantener bajos los impuestos locales, porque no hay que olvidar que alguien tiene que pagar las facturas de cada mes. También, evidentemente, genera puestos de trabajo.
Pero luego se despierta la política. A nivel local los de la oposición dicen “pero no conocen o respetan nuestras costumbres”, mientras que el coro de la política regional reclama que “vamos a vengarnos de estos pueblos que no son de nuestro partido”, como pueden pensar tanto el alcalde de Vera como el de Zurgena, ambos del Partido Andalucista.
Este acoso político no sería, quizás, tan importante si no fuese por el hecho de que el tema ha salido fuera de los municipios afectados. A pesar del ayuno de información en España (La Razón ha sido el único periódico nacional en tocar el tema de las consecuencias), el tema del derribo (inmoral, si no ilegal) de una casa en Vera y las secuelas han llegado al mundo entero. La televisión británica, tanto BBC como ITV, la Bloomburg, la tele alemana, la noruega, la prensa de toda Europa y hasta la americana y australiana ha comentado este tema, y tres meses después, siguen comentándolo. En los dos primeros días de la semana pasada, por ejemplo, me llamaron la ITV, la BBC, y hasta una radio americana interesados por este asunto.
La justicia nacional no se mueve muy rápido, como todos sabemos. Los Prior, jubilados, viejos, viven ahora en una caravana donde posiblemente vivirán el resto de sus días. ¿Cuánto tiempo tendrán que esperar antes de recibir alguna compensación? Varios años evidentemente.
Luego, tenemos casos de expropiación, compra forzosa, el escandaloso “land grab” (urbanización forzosa), hipotecas a terceros, permisos de construcción ilegales, fraudes, sobre-valorizaciones, leyes de urbanismo contradictorias, viviendas sin terminar, faltas de “licencia de primer ocupación”, estafas y otros temas del estilo. Todo esto contado con detalles en la prensa extranjera. Es evidente que el comprador extranjero, cartera de billetes en su mano, lo piensa más de dos veces antes de venir a comprar una casa.
Por si no fuese suficiente, ahora es más difícil empadronarnos que antes. Antes de subir al ayuntamiento para inscribirnos, nosotros los “europeos” tenemos que registrarnos en el “Registro Central de Extranjeros” en la capital de provincia donde, después de varios días de cola, nos dan un papel que ni siquiera nos vale como “tarjeta de identificación” ya que la “tarjeta de residencia del régimen comunitario” ha sido suprimida. Los ayuntamientos también sufren esta situación por tener aún más habitantes que nunca que no figurarán (ni piensan hacerlo) en el padrón municipal. ¡Chapeau!
Con la situación económica actual, lo último que se debería imaginar aquí es intentar asustar a los posibles compradores del Norte de Europa.
No todos podremos comer conejo.
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
¡No Quejas!
In Algorfa - an obscure village south of Torrevieja on the Costa Blanca - a British home owner has made a few too many complaints about his builder and this has been the builder's revenge.
See the full story at http://www.algorfa.co.uk/PreviousNewsletters/Algorfa-news20.html#Algorfa435
See the full story at http://www.algorfa.co.uk/PreviousNewsletters/Algorfa-news20.html#Algorfa435
Monday, April 07, 2008
Crisis? What Crisis!
The ‘building crisis’ is affecting Spain. From a country that apparently built more houses in the past few years than Britain, France and Germany combined, Spain has moved to a country that is in a deep and probably extended crisis. All this in just a few months. The reasons given – if the Spanish authorities even admit to the deep problems which are so much in evidence – are all to do with exterior forces. The sub-prime rate; cheap mortgages in America; the high value of the Euro against the Pound; the war in Iraq, the price of petrol and so on.
But, the fact is, Spain just built too many houses. If I might distinguish ‘proper’ houses from ‘holiday homes’, I would say that the average (overpriced) apartment in, for example Madrid, is now almost impossible to sell and many property agencies are now closing their doors. Prices need to fall, according to economists, by around 20%, but it’s always easier to hold on… just a bit… longer.
With mortgages drying up, foreclosures, debts falling due, massive layoffs in the workplace (a forecast of as much as a million more to join the ‘unemployed’) and the cost of living in Spain rising by over 4% annually, many householders are feeling the pinch. To be obliged to take a bath of twenty percent on a major investment like a home – even if a buyer could be found – is a depressing situation to be in.
Meanwhile, many of the largest construction companies in Spain are either going spectacularly bust, or they are busy building urbanisations and tower blocks in places like Morocco and Brazil.
Then we come to the problem of the costas.
Spain has never seemed to recognise the large amount of money which is pumped into the country by the foreign residents: particularly los europeos. There are something over a million northern Europeans living in Spain, many if not most living on pensions from abroad. These settlers have bought a house, bought a car, furniture, white goods and so on. They buy food, clothing and a few gins and tonics all on money continually being brought in from their own country. Most banks in Mojácar, where I live, will admit that around 75% of all of their clients are from Northern Europe. One study suggests that just the British residing in Spain bring in to the country six billion euros a year.
In exchange for some sun and a little peace and quiet.
But, things are far from peaceful and quiet. Not only has a British-owned house in Vera been very publicly demolished – like a bolt of lightening from Seville – but now it appears that some of the British who bought their homes in good faith, with no thought of their life’s savings being in any way under threat, are now living with the very real concern of being reduced to living in a tent. There won’t be any compensation if this happens as most companies here are registered with a capital of just 3,000 euros. The government won’t pay out in some spectacular gesture of kindness and any claim under law is treated here practically with derision.
Which is why the Northern Europeans need some representation in Spain – an almost impossible ambition. There are, it is true, a couple of foreign councillors here and there: Almería has two, one in Zurgena and the other in Mojácar. They at least are keenly aware of the concerns of the foreign householders. There is a local political party, ‘Ciudadanos Europeos’, which seeks to look after the interests of this powerless yet wealthy group and there is the ‘Abusos Urbanistos – No’ based in Valencia, with a local group in Albox – which is doing sterling work in defending the europeos and reporting property concerns to the European Parliament.
Spain, heedless of the monies coming in from London and Berlin, is now apparently determined to kill the golden goose. We are now faced with even more obligations to get onto our town hall registries than even the immigrants from the Third World. We no longer have ‘residence cards’ but must carry a wallet of paperwork for identification. Wasn’t ‘Europa’ about union, protection and ease?
The number of people coming out from Northern Europe is drying up anyway, but now they are concerned with not losing (what’s left of) their money. They’ve seen the reports of the British and German television and read the papers in Norway and Belgium. They know and they worry about 'illegal' homes, demolitions, expropriations, 'land grab', scams, fraud and other property questions. Perhaps they’d be better off living in Cyprus!
Recently, the mayor of Torre Pacheco in Murcia was arrested for granting illegal licences. Another mayor in Huelva is now behind bars. Practically the entire Marbella town hall has now ‘done time’. Locally, the mayor and several other professionals in Zurgena spent a few days in jail last week and are now under investigation. Other towns, including some controlled (or should that read ‘protected’?) by the PSOE are similarly full of illegal homes: Carboneras, Albox, Huercal Overa and Arboleas…
Recourse under law? There are currently over 1.5 million court cases in the system. In Andalucía the courts are so broken down that a leading judge has said it could take years to fix, but ‘only if we adopted a more efficient and European system of justice’. Fat chance! On top of that, Spain is just coming out of a sixty day strike for the funcionarios de justicia – the secretaries and gofers in the justice system. Add at least another year onto your court case.
But, the fact is, Spain just built too many houses. If I might distinguish ‘proper’ houses from ‘holiday homes’, I would say that the average (overpriced) apartment in, for example Madrid, is now almost impossible to sell and many property agencies are now closing their doors. Prices need to fall, according to economists, by around 20%, but it’s always easier to hold on… just a bit… longer.
With mortgages drying up, foreclosures, debts falling due, massive layoffs in the workplace (a forecast of as much as a million more to join the ‘unemployed’) and the cost of living in Spain rising by over 4% annually, many householders are feeling the pinch. To be obliged to take a bath of twenty percent on a major investment like a home – even if a buyer could be found – is a depressing situation to be in.
Meanwhile, many of the largest construction companies in Spain are either going spectacularly bust, or they are busy building urbanisations and tower blocks in places like Morocco and Brazil.
Then we come to the problem of the costas.
Spain has never seemed to recognise the large amount of money which is pumped into the country by the foreign residents: particularly los europeos. There are something over a million northern Europeans living in Spain, many if not most living on pensions from abroad. These settlers have bought a house, bought a car, furniture, white goods and so on. They buy food, clothing and a few gins and tonics all on money continually being brought in from their own country. Most banks in Mojácar, where I live, will admit that around 75% of all of their clients are from Northern Europe. One study suggests that just the British residing in Spain bring in to the country six billion euros a year.
In exchange for some sun and a little peace and quiet.
But, things are far from peaceful and quiet. Not only has a British-owned house in Vera been very publicly demolished – like a bolt of lightening from Seville – but now it appears that some of the British who bought their homes in good faith, with no thought of their life’s savings being in any way under threat, are now living with the very real concern of being reduced to living in a tent. There won’t be any compensation if this happens as most companies here are registered with a capital of just 3,000 euros. The government won’t pay out in some spectacular gesture of kindness and any claim under law is treated here practically with derision.
Which is why the Northern Europeans need some representation in Spain – an almost impossible ambition. There are, it is true, a couple of foreign councillors here and there: Almería has two, one in Zurgena and the other in Mojácar. They at least are keenly aware of the concerns of the foreign householders. There is a local political party, ‘Ciudadanos Europeos’, which seeks to look after the interests of this powerless yet wealthy group and there is the ‘Abusos Urbanistos – No’ based in Valencia, with a local group in Albox – which is doing sterling work in defending the europeos and reporting property concerns to the European Parliament.
Spain, heedless of the monies coming in from London and Berlin, is now apparently determined to kill the golden goose. We are now faced with even more obligations to get onto our town hall registries than even the immigrants from the Third World. We no longer have ‘residence cards’ but must carry a wallet of paperwork for identification. Wasn’t ‘Europa’ about union, protection and ease?
The number of people coming out from Northern Europe is drying up anyway, but now they are concerned with not losing (what’s left of) their money. They’ve seen the reports of the British and German television and read the papers in Norway and Belgium. They know and they worry about 'illegal' homes, demolitions, expropriations, 'land grab', scams, fraud and other property questions. Perhaps they’d be better off living in Cyprus!
Recently, the mayor of Torre Pacheco in Murcia was arrested for granting illegal licences. Another mayor in Huelva is now behind bars. Practically the entire Marbella town hall has now ‘done time’. Locally, the mayor and several other professionals in Zurgena spent a few days in jail last week and are now under investigation. Other towns, including some controlled (or should that read ‘protected’?) by the PSOE are similarly full of illegal homes: Carboneras, Albox, Huercal Overa and Arboleas…
Recourse under law? There are currently over 1.5 million court cases in the system. In Andalucía the courts are so broken down that a leading judge has said it could take years to fix, but ‘only if we adopted a more efficient and European system of justice’. Fat chance! On top of that, Spain is just coming out of a sixty day strike for the funcionarios de justicia – the secretaries and gofers in the justice system. Add at least another year onto your court case.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Some Time Spent in Pamplona
Pamplona is the capital city of Navarra, in the north of Spain. The province is also an autonomy. Navarra was once a larger area, stretching as far north as the Atlantic coast in the area which is now the Basque Country. This happy time was when Sancho el Fuerte ran things - from 1000 to 1036 AD, and on the back of this, the Basque nationalists consider that Navarra is not only part of the Greater Basque Country, along with three French provinces and the three current Basque provinces, but that Pamplona is the hereditary capital.The top picture looking west is the view from my hotel, the 'Toq H'.
The southern part of city is rather tame, with wide avenidas and plenty of space and always a sight of the surrounding hills. Walking up Pio XII one will eventually get to a large park with an old fortress on it. This efectively divides the new town from the old - the area famous for its bull-runs, the San Fermines in July and the Hemingway bars.
The main square in the 'old town' is breath-taking with narrow streets branching out and a presence of Basque speakers. The famous café pictured here is the Iruña, which means 'Pamplona' is Euzkera (Basque).
I've spent a week so far, when not visiting the massive hospital complex to the south of the city, wandering around the streets and looking for a large black Basque beret ('txapela') in my size. Also looking for something to read in English, but there is little tourism outside the famous fiesta in a few months time and the book shelves are a bit empty so I have been reduced to thundering through 'War and Peace'.
The city has a system of special pedestrian traffic lights at some of the crossways which show a kind of 'count-down' to cross the street, which, at least for a country rube like me, seems sensible. You can huddle in a shop entrance out of the rain and wait for the timer to approach 'green'. On other zebra crossings, where there are no lights, often on roundabouts and in difficult corners, the cars actually stop as you attempt to cross - unless of course the motorist happens to be visiting from Almería. So far I've been safe.
The banks here offer 'ethical investment' which was all the rage in England about thirty years ago. It means that your money won't be invested in paying children in Cambodia tuppence an hour to make running shoes. I know - it never caught on in England either...
The city is full of Guinness bars, very fashionable. I asked for a Guinness in one, much to the barman's surprise. There's one 'English Bar' nearby where I'm staying called something ethnic (can't remember what), but it should be avoided as it is for fruits. Cor what a surprise I 'ad there! In the hospital café you wash down your beer with a 'vegetable sandwich' which usually has one leaf of lettuce, a suspicion of tomato and a huge plug of tuna mayonnaise. Very good too.
I found a Mexican restaurant last night and felt the better for it.
There's a large store down the road from here which sells all those things one forgets to take on an extended visit to foreign parts, like these rather nifty running shoes I've bought to help me get about. The streets are full of nuns and priests who all look benignly on as I canter past with my guidebook.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Blevins Franks - Independent Financial Adviser
Blackstone Franks - now known as Blevins Franks - started out its rise in Spain together with The Entertainer. This was in 1985. In those days, Mike Connolly the manager of the paper gave them a free page in all editions in the hope of raising more financial advertising. There would be an advert with some 'caution' or 'warning', together with an article - as often as not, written by Bill Blevins. How much advertising came from our paper running the Blackstone Franks loss-leader? Well, we started a monthly financial insert called 'Blue Chip' on the back of the various banks, money-lenders, IFAs and the occasional scoundrel that preyed on the Brits.
After about a dozen years, I managed to persuade Bill Blevins to pay 100 pounds a week for his presence - not so bad on a print-run in the early nineties of 40,000 copies.
I got to know Bill quite well and to a lesser degree his partner David Franks (who, when he came to Mojácar, would put on his shorts and singlet and go jogging).
But, they are bean-counters. Money men. They follow the dosh.
When the... (*edited by Court Order*)...
In all those years - despite me starting another smaller newspaper, despite various attempts to contact them and so on - I have never heard back from Blevins Franks.
I would imagine that this is for two reasons. Both to do with money.
After about a dozen years, I managed to persuade Bill Blevins to pay 100 pounds a week for his presence - not so bad on a print-run in the early nineties of 40,000 copies.
I got to know Bill quite well and to a lesser degree his partner David Franks (who, when he came to Mojácar, would put on his shorts and singlet and go jogging).
But, they are bean-counters. Money men. They follow the dosh.
When the... (*edited by Court Order*)...
In all those years - despite me starting another smaller newspaper, despite various attempts to contact them and so on - I have never heard back from Blevins Franks.
I would imagine that this is for two reasons. Both to do with money.
Friday, March 21, 2008
Rocking Horse and Teddy Bear
There's a nice picture. The rocking horse was made about twenty years ago by a German called Mickel. All done beautifully, with wooden pegs holding it all together and leather stirrups and saddle. Truly a work of art. Mickel is a long-time resident of Mojácar and is known (just by us locals) as a master carpenter.
Now, the poor rocking horse has had twenty years of loving by a number of children. The other day I asked Mickel if he'd like to - ahem - repair him for me. He kindly said he would.
You'll find Mickel - as often as not - in the Truffy Bar (another place only known to locals).
The Bear in the photograph is 'just a friend'.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Bloody Holidays
‘And now, for those of our viewers who still haven’t decided where to go for their Easter Break…’, began the newsreader on CNN+, the 24 hour news channel, ‘we shall offer some ideas about… blah blah…’.
So now it’s a ‘right’ I suppose. We shall all have hol-ee-days. Tens of millions of cars are reversed out of garages under the apartment blocks by inexperienced drivers and driven merrily off towards the mountains, the parks, the ski-slopes and the playas. A parade? Oh Good-ee, let’s go and have a look.
With the result that a huge number of out-of-town vehicles fill the car-parks and the streets-verges. Sometimes they’ll double-park. Streams of people mill about. The parade – if there is one – is filled with folk taking pictures with their telephones (who the Hell thought of that?). So many people clog up the small event that, understandably, the local people stay at home (either that, or they’ve driven over to some other pueblo to keep the ball rolling).
We have some sort of a fiesta and, bugger me, half of Spain descend upon us. We shall have to watch it on the TV!
The only people who are glad to see the visitors are, inevitably, the shopkeepers, the restaurants and the hoteliers. But the local trade keeps the restaurants going – if they are any good. Tourists aren’t going to worry about the quality (or, if they do, there are plenty more of ‘em!). We local people won’t be sleeping in the hotels or indeed buying rubbish from the knick-knack shops: ever.
So, we have our own fiestas, parades, concerts and exhibitions ruined by huge crowds. The town hall (i.e. – us!) pays for these events which we are obliged to miss and the hotels and shopkeepers continue to pander towards a tourist trade which does little or no good for the residents.
Or do you think Mojácar really needs eight hundred bars?
At the FITUR, the international tourism fair held in Madrid in late January, Mojácar once again had its own stand. It has always had this stand since the FITUR started 16 years ago. It could go in with the ‘Patronato de Turismo de Almería’, but no. The event costs around 60,000 euros and is used to, uh, get tourists. However, the business of ‘getting tourists’ is held outside the fair, in well-appointed offices. These are the tourists which fill the hotels which are scattered along part of the beach.
These tourists provide jobs (to Ecuadorian immigrants). These tourists spend money (uh – inside the hotel). The tourists will be back next year (you think?).
In fact, when the Town Hall suggested this year that the hotels should help pay for the FITUR stand, a whip-round was held by all the hotels, collecting the princely sum of 4,000 euros.
Our town, Mojácar, has a population of about 8,000 – according to the Town Hall’s list – the padrón (which half the British population is determined not to be inscribed on). The town receives funding, licences, permits and publicly-funded repairs more or less according to its official size. In our case, 8,000. In fact, during the summer months, when you can’t park, when you have to queue, when you can’t visit the village, or go to the post-office; when the late-night noise is incessant and where the supermarket runs out of basic necessities; when we rise to 30,000 people, including illegal campers, we are still considered to be just 8,000.
So we return to the main point. Why should we waste our tax money on promoting our pueblo so that, every time something happens, we find we are squeezed out of seeing it?
So now it’s a ‘right’ I suppose. We shall all have hol-ee-days. Tens of millions of cars are reversed out of garages under the apartment blocks by inexperienced drivers and driven merrily off towards the mountains, the parks, the ski-slopes and the playas. A parade? Oh Good-ee, let’s go and have a look.
With the result that a huge number of out-of-town vehicles fill the car-parks and the streets-verges. Sometimes they’ll double-park. Streams of people mill about. The parade – if there is one – is filled with folk taking pictures with their telephones (who the Hell thought of that?). So many people clog up the small event that, understandably, the local people stay at home (either that, or they’ve driven over to some other pueblo to keep the ball rolling).
We have some sort of a fiesta and, bugger me, half of Spain descend upon us. We shall have to watch it on the TV!
The only people who are glad to see the visitors are, inevitably, the shopkeepers, the restaurants and the hoteliers. But the local trade keeps the restaurants going – if they are any good. Tourists aren’t going to worry about the quality (or, if they do, there are plenty more of ‘em!). We local people won’t be sleeping in the hotels or indeed buying rubbish from the knick-knack shops: ever.
So, we have our own fiestas, parades, concerts and exhibitions ruined by huge crowds. The town hall (i.e. – us!) pays for these events which we are obliged to miss and the hotels and shopkeepers continue to pander towards a tourist trade which does little or no good for the residents.
Or do you think Mojácar really needs eight hundred bars?
At the FITUR, the international tourism fair held in Madrid in late January, Mojácar once again had its own stand. It has always had this stand since the FITUR started 16 years ago. It could go in with the ‘Patronato de Turismo de Almería’, but no. The event costs around 60,000 euros and is used to, uh, get tourists. However, the business of ‘getting tourists’ is held outside the fair, in well-appointed offices. These are the tourists which fill the hotels which are scattered along part of the beach.
These tourists provide jobs (to Ecuadorian immigrants). These tourists spend money (uh – inside the hotel). The tourists will be back next year (you think?).
In fact, when the Town Hall suggested this year that the hotels should help pay for the FITUR stand, a whip-round was held by all the hotels, collecting the princely sum of 4,000 euros.
Our town, Mojácar, has a population of about 8,000 – according to the Town Hall’s list – the padrón (which half the British population is determined not to be inscribed on). The town receives funding, licences, permits and publicly-funded repairs more or less according to its official size. In our case, 8,000. In fact, during the summer months, when you can’t park, when you have to queue, when you can’t visit the village, or go to the post-office; when the late-night noise is incessant and where the supermarket runs out of basic necessities; when we rise to 30,000 people, including illegal campers, we are still considered to be just 8,000.
So we return to the main point. Why should we waste our tax money on promoting our pueblo so that, every time something happens, we find we are squeezed out of seeing it?
Monday, March 10, 2008
A Ragbag of Mags
In our small corner of enchantment there are more and more newspapers (or rather, ‘free sheets’) than you can shake a pair of nine euro farmacia spectacles at. Besides our own The New Entertainer, the eponymous Weenie, the Sol Times and Sol News, The Messenger, The Advertiser, the (sometimes) Talismán, The Satellite Monthly, the 89.8, the Focus, Lifestyle, The Post and the one euro ten cent Costa de Almería News... In these times of recession, when everyone must tighten their belt a notch or two, we welcome some brand new mags such as The Seaside Gazette and The Sentinella into the stable. And, blimey, here’s another one: the Community Times Mojacar! Here, move over a bit and we should all fit in...
Of course, it doesn’t stop there. There are the various Spanish titles including our own El Indálico... along with Actualidad Almanzora, The Noticias and a few others, plus of course various in-house property mags, outhouse property mags, sundry one-offs, imprints, oddities and commercial leaflets, pamphlets, flyers, posters, stickers, booklets, maps, planos and listings, together with a clutch of radios, endless web-pages, billboards and other material, all designed to ease the odd shilling out of the customer’s purse.
Of course, it doesn’t stop there. There are the various Spanish titles including our own El Indálico... along with Actualidad Almanzora, The Noticias and a few others, plus of course various in-house property mags, outhouse property mags, sundry one-offs, imprints, oddities and commercial leaflets, pamphlets, flyers, posters, stickers, booklets, maps, planos and listings, together with a clutch of radios, endless web-pages, billboards and other material, all designed to ease the odd shilling out of the customer’s purse.
No wonder the accordionists left – they couldn’t stand the competition.
A hundred different commercial propositions to help get yourself known - plus the fellow with the airplane who flies up and down the beach towing a sheet with a message written on it behind him.
Don’t knock it - it works for Coca Cola!
Curiously, this plethora of material, with purple prose very much in evidence, once away from the pirated Internet material, is surprisingly coy on local affairs. There is some coverage of local news, either collected professionally as with the Costa de Almería News, or written up as, for example, in The Messenger, recalled as in The Advertiser or the Gazette, or randomly translated in toto (as in The Weenie). Some make no mention of the area at all, which makes one wonder how much fun they’re having…
A hundred different commercial propositions to help get yourself known - plus the fellow with the airplane who flies up and down the beach towing a sheet with a message written on it behind him.
Don’t knock it - it works for Coca Cola!
Curiously, this plethora of material, with purple prose very much in evidence, once away from the pirated Internet material, is surprisingly coy on local affairs. There is some coverage of local news, either collected professionally as with the Costa de Almería News, or written up as, for example, in The Messenger, recalled as in The Advertiser or the Gazette, or randomly translated in toto (as in The Weenie). Some make no mention of the area at all, which makes one wonder how much fun they’re having…
One glossy mag is particularly disappointing: it could highlight this area with good photographs and timeless reportage (people don’t throw away glossies), but concentrates exclusively on lipstick and crow’s feet. Advertisers, meanwhile, place their promotions in the strangest places. I mean, fair’s fair: if they are watching SKY TV, then they already have a home. Right?
There are two mags that provide full listings of local businesses (Focus and 89.8) but not all local business. In the Focus (open in front of me), I find phone numbers for everything from bouncing castles to tattoo artists via radio stations (seven listed) but no mention, oddly, for mags and newspapers. It seems that solidarity is not in general supply in the world of publishing – in fact, this article excluded, you will rarely find mention of this particular cottage industry that is sweeping the English-speaking coast and hinterland of Almería. What is the reader to think?
There are two mags that provide full listings of local businesses (Focus and 89.8) but not all local business. In the Focus (open in front of me), I find phone numbers for everything from bouncing castles to tattoo artists via radio stations (seven listed) but no mention, oddly, for mags and newspapers. It seems that solidarity is not in general supply in the world of publishing – in fact, this article excluded, you will rarely find mention of this particular cottage industry that is sweeping the English-speaking coast and hinterland of Almería. What is the reader to think?
The reader? These magazines aren’t for the reader!
The customer for all these endeavours, in broad strokes, is the local business, bar, shop, restaurant, builder, gardener, phone company, SKY provider, realtor, agent, second-hand car dealer, doctor, dentist and candlestick maker. He’s the one on the sharp end. Yes, of course advertising pays: but you can’t put your message in all the options available. In fact, how do you choose? By what’s popularly read or by who’s the first salesperson who catches you.
I sometimes wonder - does the owner quake slightly as the door-bell goes? Does a small drop of sweat dribble down his shoulder-blades as a nice looking girl holding a carpeta shimmers up to his desk? I mean - customers don’t smile that much! When the phone rings, is it the wife saying to come home for lunch, the bank manager who wants to talk about the mortgage or could it be someone in telesales sat in a smoky office in Albox who wants to flog a quarter-page next to some Tommy Cooper jokes for just half price?
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
Chicken Tights
Now, there’s a dish worth trying. A blogger writes about his visit to Cordoba where he was presented in his diner by a menu in Spanish and, um, English. We’ve all been there of course – not necessarily Cordoba, but in front of a mistranslation, misprint or spelling mistake. The Spanish, for reasons unknown, would much rather be laughed at than buy some foreigner a beer and say ‘look over this translation, would ya?’.
I’ve seen glossy magazines, even mags printed by the State or the Junta de Andalucía, with heavy amounts of cash spent on them: lovingly produced photographs, superb printing, massive distribution etc… and an English translation which will make snot shoot out of your nose. In Spain, if we are going to put something down in English for the thirty million English speaking tourists or the million foreign residents that live here year round, we like to use Cousin Bertín, who once spent a fortnight in Newcastle.
Bloggers, by the way, are people who ‘blog’, that is, who write about something of interest – at least to themselves – on the Internet. There are quite a few sites that are about Spain and are written by English-speaking residents. The best of them write every day, recounting the events that affect them locally, poking fun at the Spanish customs and habits or getting on to politics (I know some heavy left wingers and rabid right wingers, but no ‘centrist’ sites, because you can’t write a wishy-washy political column, now can you?). There are other sites that recall their writer’s trips around the country, while still others are just great fun to read. An American woman married to a Madrileño… another woman farming in the Alpujarras… a third wandering around Salamanca…
There are several local (Almería) ones and, if you are up to it, of course there is a wealth of blogs (or bitácoras) in Spanish. In all, the Spanish blogs - or blogs about Spain - are a kind of tolerated samizdat written by armchair revolutionaries.
Generally, you The Gentle Reader can ‘send a comment’ to add your ha’penny’orth to the discussion at hand. Indeed, if you like sending the odd pithy remark but can’t be bothered to write to your local newspaper or to start your own page on the Web, you can always subscribe to the various ‘forums’ that are home to any number of people who are interested in Spain. There are several local ones that touch on fraud, building licences, travel, tickets, bullfights, food and the nearest decent bodega. Again, they are worth regular visits as new topics can quickly take off with interesting submissions from Joe Public who, unlike the blogger, will probably use an alias.
I’ve put a list of 130 links on The Entertainer Online, itself a ‘blog’. You should spend some time wandering around them. There are some very good and knowledgeable writers out there…
Meanwhile - pass me another one of those chicken tights…
I should point out here that this article, like a lot of this site, will find its way into The New Entertainer - a monthly newspaper I produce in Almería. Those that read the above on the blogsite will, I hope, be patient.
I’ve seen glossy magazines, even mags printed by the State or the Junta de Andalucía, with heavy amounts of cash spent on them: lovingly produced photographs, superb printing, massive distribution etc… and an English translation which will make snot shoot out of your nose. In Spain, if we are going to put something down in English for the thirty million English speaking tourists or the million foreign residents that live here year round, we like to use Cousin Bertín, who once spent a fortnight in Newcastle.
Bloggers, by the way, are people who ‘blog’, that is, who write about something of interest – at least to themselves – on the Internet. There are quite a few sites that are about Spain and are written by English-speaking residents. The best of them write every day, recounting the events that affect them locally, poking fun at the Spanish customs and habits or getting on to politics (I know some heavy left wingers and rabid right wingers, but no ‘centrist’ sites, because you can’t write a wishy-washy political column, now can you?). There are other sites that recall their writer’s trips around the country, while still others are just great fun to read. An American woman married to a Madrileño… another woman farming in the Alpujarras… a third wandering around Salamanca…
There are several local (Almería) ones and, if you are up to it, of course there is a wealth of blogs (or bitácoras) in Spanish. In all, the Spanish blogs - or blogs about Spain - are a kind of tolerated samizdat written by armchair revolutionaries.
Generally, you The Gentle Reader can ‘send a comment’ to add your ha’penny’orth to the discussion at hand. Indeed, if you like sending the odd pithy remark but can’t be bothered to write to your local newspaper or to start your own page on the Web, you can always subscribe to the various ‘forums’ that are home to any number of people who are interested in Spain. There are several local ones that touch on fraud, building licences, travel, tickets, bullfights, food and the nearest decent bodega. Again, they are worth regular visits as new topics can quickly take off with interesting submissions from Joe Public who, unlike the blogger, will probably use an alias.
I’ve put a list of 130 links on The Entertainer Online, itself a ‘blog’. You should spend some time wandering around them. There are some very good and knowledgeable writers out there…
Meanwhile - pass me another one of those chicken tights…
I should point out here that this article, like a lot of this site, will find its way into The New Entertainer - a monthly newspaper I produce in Almería. Those that read the above on the blogsite will, I hope, be patient.
Saturday, March 01, 2008
La Vieja
We have a local fiesta in late February called 'el Día de la Vieja Remolona'. It's kind of a jolly picnic in the countryside with a piñata full of sweeties (representing an old woman) which the children attack with sticks.
Here's a picture from Pepe Obradors of the aftermath.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Here be Monsters...
There is one thing that we are all to find out – sooner or later – when living in Spain. There are lots of rip-offs. Beyond paying a bit too much for a coffee, or an extra euro fifty surcharge for a brick of orange juice at the gas station, the main cons and scams are usually something to do with our ‘fellow foreigners’.
It’s so easy. ‘Hello, are you English? Me too! I speak the lingo and can show you around…’ Blah, blah.
I have been helping to distribute a magazine locally called ‘The Costa del Sol Action Group Magazine’ with its ‘Sharks Exposed’ cover. The magazine was started by a few people from down Marbella way who were ripped off some years ago by conmen calling themselves ‘financial advisers’. You sometimes see them advertising in the free press.
My favourite from the early nineties was the ostrich farms scam where you bought an ostrich for 48,000 pounds and waited for the eggs to hatch. I asked the Madrid Zoo at the time as to the going rate and was told that a pair of ostriches would cost around 600 pounds. Some people lost their shirt.
But gained some feathers.
If the reward sounds too good, then it probably is a con. Fairly obvious stuff perhaps, but the salesman seemed so nice, so sure and after all – you have to stick with your own; watch out for those Spaniards – they’ll skin you alive! Quite!
The magazine touches on some (but not all) of the Costa’s best-known financial fraudsters. That it can do so is because the editors have the appropriate proof – usually letters from the government’s financial watchdog, the CNMV – together with letters and complaints from local (often British) residents. Of course, it’s hard to sue here in Spain (takes years), is harder still when it's foreigner against foreigner (takes more years), is expensive as hell and is largely useless anyway.
As an example of the last piece. Mike Metcalf – now known as Michael Home of Royal Marbella Estates – operated a company called Eurosol back in the mid eighties in Mojácar. He would sell houses and neglect to pass on the deeds. In one case, he sold a house to John G in around 1987, and sold the escritura to someone else called Helen. I knew John and since he didn’t speak Spanish, I helped him over the years. Firstly, I found that John, Metcalf and Helen were all using the same lawyer! Then, after a long struggle to take the case to court, John G finally won his case against Metcalf in 1998 and was awarded his costs (around 48,000 euros) in an Almerian court, albeit losing the title to the house while gaining life-possession, and saw his wife die from the strain. Metcalf – who got a six month suspended sentence – has yet to pay John a penny of the money he was ordered to hand over.
So much for Spanish justice.
Cases rarely get as far as this. One must consider the time and the expense, plus the option of the scammer making a ‘quick departure’.
Lawyers aren’t allowed to do a ‘no win - no fee’ deal (of course, they sometimes do).
If you are being robbed by a non-Spaniard, and if things start to look bad for them, they can always 'do a runner'.
‘Scairdy Paints’, the major second-hand car dealer, scarpered a few weeks ago. A well-known local estate agent looks about ready to do the same thing. Rumour has it that he is actually going to Brazil!
It is indeed curious that there aren’t more whistle-blowers about. Especially now with the Internet. Most ‘forums’ won’t touch the subject of libel for fear of being sued. They don't need the hassle. On the other hand, try suing from Spain an Internet provider, with a Korean address…!
One such property forum, having presumably received various threats, has a famous ‘sticky’ which reads ‘All discussion of MacAnthony Realty International (MRI) is strictly forbidden in this forum. Posts that do not even mention the company by name, but refer to it in some other way, are also forbidden, and will be removed’. (Spanish Property Insite)
The Costa Action magazine deals in this edition with (some issues which have since been resolved 28 feb 2010), Donald Nott, unlicenced financial advisors and the truly awful ‘asset release’ scam which is doing the rounds and preys on the elderly and so on. There is some small reference to property companies – such as Palmera Properties – but as I was distributing copies in Albox saying something like ‘it’s a magazine about financial fraud’, one Englishman took a copy and answered ‘they should have a go at the estate agents’.
Many large estate agents are indeed in trouble. Viva Estates has closed all but one office. It is one of several companies that fly you out, escort you around, sell you something hot and take anything up to a 25% commission. You may have seen their cars.
The British Home Office (Ministerio del Interior) actually got involved in one case, a company called Oasis Properties had been scamming so many people that the Home Office asked the Spanish police to arrest the owner of the company and sling her in jail. In 2004, Audrey Dixon was incarcerated in Malaga for fraud. However, you can't rely on the British authorities taking an interest in your case. They won't.
Spain is currently in the shit for its 'land grab', its expropriations, its demolitions, rule-changes, land reform, illegal urbanisations and so on. The Spanish seem largely unaware of this self-damage. Unfortunately, no one will bail out the unfortunate victims. They are toast.
You can see the magazine on http://www.costa-action.co.uk/
Some other groups can help. Those that commit fraud don't like the light, and naturally the British press is always interested in writing up the 'dangers' of Spain...
Also very useful are Abusos Urbanisticos - NO , the Spanish Property Scandal Petition , Illegal Villas Spain , Corruption in Spain and of course, you can cheer yourself up with the famous detective Larry Kovaks P.I. at http://kovakspi.blogspot.com/.
The Comisión Nacional de Mercado de Valores, which lists unauthorised financial advisers in Spain, is at http://www.cnmv.es/ .
It’s so easy. ‘Hello, are you English? Me too! I speak the lingo and can show you around…’ Blah, blah.
I have been helping to distribute a magazine locally called ‘The Costa del Sol Action Group Magazine’ with its ‘Sharks Exposed’ cover. The magazine was started by a few people from down Marbella way who were ripped off some years ago by conmen calling themselves ‘financial advisers’. You sometimes see them advertising in the free press.
My favourite from the early nineties was the ostrich farms scam where you bought an ostrich for 48,000 pounds and waited for the eggs to hatch. I asked the Madrid Zoo at the time as to the going rate and was told that a pair of ostriches would cost around 600 pounds. Some people lost their shirt.
But gained some feathers.
If the reward sounds too good, then it probably is a con. Fairly obvious stuff perhaps, but the salesman seemed so nice, so sure and after all – you have to stick with your own; watch out for those Spaniards – they’ll skin you alive! Quite!
The magazine touches on some (but not all) of the Costa’s best-known financial fraudsters. That it can do so is because the editors have the appropriate proof – usually letters from the government’s financial watchdog, the CNMV – together with letters and complaints from local (often British) residents. Of course, it’s hard to sue here in Spain (takes years), is harder still when it's foreigner against foreigner (takes more years), is expensive as hell and is largely useless anyway.
As an example of the last piece. Mike Metcalf – now known as Michael Home of Royal Marbella Estates – operated a company called Eurosol back in the mid eighties in Mojácar. He would sell houses and neglect to pass on the deeds. In one case, he sold a house to John G in around 1987, and sold the escritura to someone else called Helen. I knew John and since he didn’t speak Spanish, I helped him over the years. Firstly, I found that John, Metcalf and Helen were all using the same lawyer! Then, after a long struggle to take the case to court, John G finally won his case against Metcalf in 1998 and was awarded his costs (around 48,000 euros) in an Almerian court, albeit losing the title to the house while gaining life-possession, and saw his wife die from the strain. Metcalf – who got a six month suspended sentence – has yet to pay John a penny of the money he was ordered to hand over.
So much for Spanish justice.
Cases rarely get as far as this. One must consider the time and the expense, plus the option of the scammer making a ‘quick departure’.
Lawyers aren’t allowed to do a ‘no win - no fee’ deal (of course, they sometimes do).
If you are being robbed by a non-Spaniard, and if things start to look bad for them, they can always 'do a runner'.
‘Scairdy Paints’, the major second-hand car dealer, scarpered a few weeks ago. A well-known local estate agent looks about ready to do the same thing. Rumour has it that he is actually going to Brazil!
It is indeed curious that there aren’t more whistle-blowers about. Especially now with the Internet. Most ‘forums’ won’t touch the subject of libel for fear of being sued. They don't need the hassle. On the other hand, try suing from Spain an Internet provider, with a Korean address…!
One such property forum, having presumably received various threats, has a famous ‘sticky’ which reads ‘All discussion of MacAnthony Realty International (MRI) is strictly forbidden in this forum. Posts that do not even mention the company by name, but refer to it in some other way, are also forbidden, and will be removed’. (Spanish Property Insite)
The Costa Action magazine deals in this edition with (some issues which have since been resolved 28 feb 2010), Donald Nott, unlicenced financial advisors and the truly awful ‘asset release’ scam which is doing the rounds and preys on the elderly and so on. There is some small reference to property companies – such as Palmera Properties – but as I was distributing copies in Albox saying something like ‘it’s a magazine about financial fraud’, one Englishman took a copy and answered ‘they should have a go at the estate agents’.
Many large estate agents are indeed in trouble. Viva Estates has closed all but one office. It is one of several companies that fly you out, escort you around, sell you something hot and take anything up to a 25% commission. You may have seen their cars.
The British Home Office (Ministerio del Interior) actually got involved in one case, a company called Oasis Properties had been scamming so many people that the Home Office asked the Spanish police to arrest the owner of the company and sling her in jail. In 2004, Audrey Dixon was incarcerated in Malaga for fraud. However, you can't rely on the British authorities taking an interest in your case. They won't.
Spain is currently in the shit for its 'land grab', its expropriations, its demolitions, rule-changes, land reform, illegal urbanisations and so on. The Spanish seem largely unaware of this self-damage. Unfortunately, no one will bail out the unfortunate victims. They are toast.
You can see the magazine on http://www.costa-action.co.uk/
Some other groups can help. Those that commit fraud don't like the light, and naturally the British press is always interested in writing up the 'dangers' of Spain...
Also very useful are Abusos Urbanisticos - NO , the Spanish Property Scandal Petition , Illegal Villas Spain , Corruption in Spain and of course, you can cheer yourself up with the famous detective Larry Kovaks P.I. at http://kovakspi.blogspot.com/.
The Comisión Nacional de Mercado de Valores, which lists unauthorised financial advisers in Spain, is at http://www.cnmv.es/ .
Edited. Feb 28 2010
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Nice Election - (but all I got was a lousy tee shirt)
There are elections in the air – the American ones which appear to take a year to resolve (or longer if they can’t agree on those Florida ‘chads’) and the Spanish ones, which essentially take a couple of weeks. Now, we all know and argue about Hillary, about Obama and perhaps even the Republican John McCain – who at his age ought to be staying home with his grand-children; but – hands up who is keeping up with the Spanish contests for both prime minister and, nearer to home, supreme Poo Bah of Andalucía?
I would suggest that, apart from starting the odd war which the Americans are so good at, the Spanish elections are far more important to us and our future. Nationally, we have President Rodríguez Zapatero weighing in for another round, against the apparently unsure Mariano Rajoy, he of the scruffy beard and delicate manners. That is, the socialist PSOE (plus the usual expensive ragbag of hangers on) against the PP, the conservatives. In Andalucía it’s Manuel Chaves versus Javier Arenas. Both contests have been played before and last time, the PSOE took all the laurels.
Apart from the posters, the free lighters and the logo-bearing caps, will it make any difference to us as to who wins?
Have you seen those tee shirts that read ‘Adióz’? The joke is, of course, that they refer to Zapatero, who has managed to create a culture of ‘Z’. Not just because of his name, I say, because his policies have pretty much been a ‘Z’ as well, from his ‘culture of civilizations’, his pandering to the future independent states of Catalonia, Euskadi and Galicia, to his managing to put half the country at the throats of the other half. Adiós, meaning, of course, ‘goo-bye and thanks for all the fish’.
Did you catch the pro-Zap video made by the country’s pop stars and actors who all put themselves behind the PSOE (‘no probs, mate, as long as the cheque’s good’)?
But I shan’t be wearing the tee shirt or watching the video. It might be misconstrued by those who are allowed to vote.
I feel like something out of the cartoon of the two missionaries in the pot with the tag-line ‘I say, Carruthers, the natives are restless tonight’. I may have lived here for a long time and move more-or-less in Spanish circles (as far as one can in an area like this), but I must occasionally be reminded that I am a foreigner, and there is no time like elections for that.
While the natives are getting decidedly restless, we can only watch. But what comes from these elections, both nationally and regionally, will have a large impact on our lives. We live in interesting times yet there is little we can do beyond watching uncomfortably from the cooking pot.
‘But’, says someone over a vino, ‘you can take out Spanish nationality’. True enough, but what I would like to do is to have ‘European’ nationality. First Class. A Texan doesn’t have to become a Californian to vote in Los Angeles.
What… the Yanks are more democratic than the Europeans?
Our concerns are local but the decisions about our area are made elsewhere – and apparently with no interest or concession towards the foreign residents that have pretty much made this area what it is. Of course we should participate in the bloody elections!
We are concerned about the demolition in Vera and the many other homes which are threatened. We are worried about the plan to send water from Carboneras to Barcelona (at least, my rose-garden is decidedly agitated) and we are worried about the insane plan to build a gigantic city on our doorstep – which, give or take, the local English-language press has been rather quiet about.
So, as Chaves sweeps his way to another victory in Andalucía - guaranteeing another four years of gloom for the region, and Zap and Mariano fight it out in Madrid, it becomes increasingly apparent that our small corner of enchantment is just a plaything for the powerful.
By the way, there are 144,000 Andaluces who are residents abroad and yet can vote in the Andalucian elections!
I would suggest that, apart from starting the odd war which the Americans are so good at, the Spanish elections are far more important to us and our future. Nationally, we have President Rodríguez Zapatero weighing in for another round, against the apparently unsure Mariano Rajoy, he of the scruffy beard and delicate manners. That is, the socialist PSOE (plus the usual expensive ragbag of hangers on) against the PP, the conservatives. In Andalucía it’s Manuel Chaves versus Javier Arenas. Both contests have been played before and last time, the PSOE took all the laurels.
Apart from the posters, the free lighters and the logo-bearing caps, will it make any difference to us as to who wins?
Have you seen those tee shirts that read ‘Adióz’? The joke is, of course, that they refer to Zapatero, who has managed to create a culture of ‘Z’. Not just because of his name, I say, because his policies have pretty much been a ‘Z’ as well, from his ‘culture of civilizations’, his pandering to the future independent states of Catalonia, Euskadi and Galicia, to his managing to put half the country at the throats of the other half. Adiós, meaning, of course, ‘goo-bye and thanks for all the fish’.
Did you catch the pro-Zap video made by the country’s pop stars and actors who all put themselves behind the PSOE (‘no probs, mate, as long as the cheque’s good’)?
But I shan’t be wearing the tee shirt or watching the video. It might be misconstrued by those who are allowed to vote.
I feel like something out of the cartoon of the two missionaries in the pot with the tag-line ‘I say, Carruthers, the natives are restless tonight’. I may have lived here for a long time and move more-or-less in Spanish circles (as far as one can in an area like this), but I must occasionally be reminded that I am a foreigner, and there is no time like elections for that.
While the natives are getting decidedly restless, we can only watch. But what comes from these elections, both nationally and regionally, will have a large impact on our lives. We live in interesting times yet there is little we can do beyond watching uncomfortably from the cooking pot.
‘But’, says someone over a vino, ‘you can take out Spanish nationality’. True enough, but what I would like to do is to have ‘European’ nationality. First Class. A Texan doesn’t have to become a Californian to vote in Los Angeles.
What… the Yanks are more democratic than the Europeans?
Our concerns are local but the decisions about our area are made elsewhere – and apparently with no interest or concession towards the foreign residents that have pretty much made this area what it is. Of course we should participate in the bloody elections!
We are concerned about the demolition in Vera and the many other homes which are threatened. We are worried about the plan to send water from Carboneras to Barcelona (at least, my rose-garden is decidedly agitated) and we are worried about the insane plan to build a gigantic city on our doorstep – which, give or take, the local English-language press has been rather quiet about.
So, as Chaves sweeps his way to another victory in Andalucía - guaranteeing another four years of gloom for the region, and Zap and Mariano fight it out in Madrid, it becomes increasingly apparent that our small corner of enchantment is just a plaything for the powerful.
By the way, there are 144,000 Andaluces who are residents abroad and yet can vote in the Andalucian elections!
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