lynnxa

yvw

cajam31

Do you know the landlord or just the agent? if you know the landlord might be worth telling them that the contract you signed in english didnt mention it but now you've discovered you liable for it, they might say dont worry rather than risk having an empty house at this moment in time.
If it makes you feel any better I bet we all did silly things when we first came over without realising, I know i certainly did

carter71

Yes, we've all done silly things. It's how we all react to those things that determines whether we cope or not.

I think Brits love to apportion blame, it's in the blood. Just picking on a few threads tonight it's easy to blame the estate agent, the lawyer, the landlord, the town hall, the bank, or perhaps the British government and their incredible exchange rate policy as to why things just didn't work out. That approach may work in London or New York, it might even win you friends or a promotion, but it doesn't work here when all you get in return is a shrug of the shoulders. Circle of influence vs circle of concern.

I've met several Brits that point-blank refuse to ever accept any personal responsibility for anything in life. They don't seem to achieve anything but a desire or need to return to England.

I've also met Brits that held their hands up, accept their mistakes (some very expensive), just put it down to experience. They moved on, and are the ones still running profitable businesses here, or settled happily with ther family.

Living in Spain can be tough. Even after years here, I'll get a day when I'm tied up in the middle of some Spanish bureaucratic nonsense and then I find I just can't get the words out because I'm tired or stressed...

I've even given those days a name... I call them Fridays

painterhombre

well thank god its saturday then!!!!!!

yep, hands held up, we made a small mistake by not getting a spanish speaker to look at the contract, but at least its not an expensive mstake. Yep, my fault, but as i said earlier, es la vida!!!!!!! i wont lose any sleep over it, just a bit cheesed off about it but doesnt matter, far more important things to think about now

digdug

i'd speak to the owner if you can, and explain your view. €40 may not be much right now, but its saving the owner almost €500 a year! its obviously pissed you off, see if you find a friendly gestor in the next few weeks and see if they could check the 2 contracts for a fre drink or 2 and see what they come up with.
i know the place was rented through an estate agent, but is the owner registering his rental earnings? if not, you may have a slight upper hand.

we got ripped off in a rental a few years back, and some things went wrong with electricity problems, the basement flooding and leaks in the ceiling and bathroom (in a new build...) and a neighbour who went buck spastic about us having cats and threatened to poison them (the agent told us the urb was animal friendly), so we had to keep them indoors. in the end, we gave the owners a months notice, and moved out,as they werent legally renting the property anyway.

lynnxa

thing is the english 'version' holds no water legally, so it really doesn't matter if it's not clear

good point about the owner possibly not registering earnings though - might just be worth a chat

jackytoo

The amount of 480 euro per year sounds a bit high for a rural property Although I do not know the area.

mikelincs

we rented a total of about 6 properties while over in Spain, and in NONE of them did we have to pay anything more than utility bills, water, electricity and gas, where supplied, in some cases we only paid for the used electricity and gas, not the standing charge, as the owner would be paying that, even if there was no tenant. I suppose it depends on supply and demand, on the coast, plenty of places available for renting, so they have to keep the apparent costs down.

painterhombre

well hopefully if i can convince the Mujer, next year we can buy somewhere else, once we are more settled. It was ALWAYS going to be a risk choosing somewhere unseen on the net but we were put into a position where we had literally no choice, so be it i guess!

not a major disaster and could have been worse and yes i have learnt a lesson. It will do for now and least its onyl renting, we have no fear of bulldozers turning up tomorrow!

weve learnt from it, well i have anyway, and to be honest for an extra 10 euros a week we have to pay, taking the bitch to court would, from experience, cost me far more time and money than 10 euros a week.

es la vida, we wont do it again