We are buying an off plan property which has taken over 18months so far...I know it is Spain!! We have now been told by the developer that despite applying to the local town hall 2 years ago, there is no progress on connecting a water supply. The apartments are in a village, part of the decision to buy was that the infrastructure was already there!!
Their proposed solution is to put large "temporary water tanks" in the underground parking area (we have paid 11000 euros for that parking) and that trucks will fill the tanks weekly. They say they will install pumps to take the water to the apartments.
QUESTION: Can we refuse to take over the property until the permanent water supply is done?
Can we demand our money back and go and buy a property already connected?
When asked who would pay for the weekly water delivery...they were vague.
When asked how long until a permanent supply was in place....even more vague.
Can anyone offer any advice?
Thanks in anticipation, Linda

I am afraid that is the chance you took buying off plan.
As you say this is mañana Spain.
You can demand what you like, but apart from lining the solicitors pocket I doubt if you will achieve anything else.
Did you have a guaranteed habitation date ?
Only your solicitor will be able to advise you on the next move.
good luck John.

You need to do a little fact finding. Don't trust what the developer tells you. Go to the town hall and find out what the situation is with the water supply. Try and find some of the other owners to see what, if any action they are taking.

Did you buy direct from the developer or through an agent? Are they selling other properties at other locations? Do a little digging on their history.

Thanks sibsie. We are going over in September and will go the the town hall. We bought via an agent and will be discussing further with them on Monday. The developers have others in the area and apparently need our cash to commence phase 2 of another development. The phase one was completed without any major problems and having spoken to owners, they were largely happy...another reason for buying with this developer.
Our completion date (on the contract) is July 2005...they now say this was a mistake and should say December 2005!!

Now the suspicion is setting in we are seriously considering cutting our losses but that is a VERY expensive option and a huge disappointment as we hoped to retire there in 2 years time.

I'm not sure I'd leave it til Sept if there's a chunk of cash at stake. Any chance you can get over sooner to see exactly what's going on?

Did you use a lawyer for the purchase? Is your sales contract in English as well as Spanish?

How many payments have you made so far? Is it just the final payment left?

I agree with Sibsie, I wouldn't wait till Sept.
Hope you don't mind my input,

From experience we know that the Water Board in Spain do not issue water licences in the summer June to September depending on regions, due to heavy water consumption.

You will need to go to your water board first to check out what is the problem, then go to the Town Hall (as suggested by Sibsie) with your property paperwork (whatever you have), showing the developers details etc..

Has the electricity supply been connected already or will there be a problem, if so, how would the water be pumped upto the apartments?

If your contract states July 2005, mistake or no mistakes (so easily said!), and they tell you that the new completion date is December 2005, you may wish to advise the developer/agents that you will be charging them a penalty of Euros....per day for each day over the official July completion date. You will need a solicitors letter, both in English and Spanish to that effect, the charge could be i.e. Euro 50 per day = Euros 350 per week, which, could be in effect the cost of renting a property short term in the UK while you are waiting to move to Spain. On top of that you could also counter-charge them for "storage" costs, from the July date, as you will have of course booked your removal company and will be putting your belongings in storage till you can take ownership of your property.

Re Water Storage tank, we do know of many people who have used these till they were connected to the mains, I expect that the cost of refilling would have to be met by yourselves.

You certainly need to seek legal advice before going any further.

Cheers!

Check your contract for any clauses relating to actual connection to mains utilities.

A significant change in completion date is a pretty standard issue and you should check your contract for penalty clauses etc that you can now kick into action.

Regarding the water; the supply of water in Spain is nothing like the UK. Whilst having the same sort of regulation, supplies can come from anything from private or local community owned wells to council supplies, and large corporations - UK style.

You need to get in touch with the local council first of all and clarify the situation, they will probably be very helpful.

As for water - water by truck can be expensive - again this is dependant on where you live and what prices are in the area.

You need to find out exactly who is going to pay to have temporary supplies trucked in.

As others have said, you need to be on the ball with this and dealing with it , in person, on the ground, now.

A solicitor is going to be a point of call, but get to the council and find out what their position is first.

Thanks to all for the prompt and valuable advice. I have faxed ALL purchase information to a lawyer in Spain this morning and our agents are speaking to the builders today. I have also been in touch with several other purchasers over the weekend who are doing the same.
Very frustrating as we only came back from Spain a week ago and were unaware of problems then!
If needed, we will get over to Spain again before September.
We are incurring storage charges etc as originally we were told the property would be ready in April and have had most of the furniture etc sitting at the overseas removal company since early May!
Will keep you informed of the outcome in the hope that others will not have this problem to deal with in the future(but I guess this is not the first time)

Hi Linda
I have just joined the forum so am quite new to this so don't know whether I'm using it proper but anyway here goes. I'm sorry I do not have the answers to your questions and have only just learnt of such problems. I wondered whether you could put me in the picture as I bought my property on block 1 through parador properties back in Sep 03 and am unable to get any information or advise from them. I don't even know when the properties are expected to be ready, originally I was told Dec 04 and then July 05, but obviously not, Parador have now told me December 05. I'm feeling a bit like yourself wondering whether its possible to get the money back and look elsewhere, the only problem with this though is that properties have gone up so much since we secured ours. Anyway I'llleave it at that and hope to hear from you soon.

Sue

Hi Sue,

I have sent you a private message, if you have a look in your email inbox it will give you the link to the message. Any probs accessing it, leave another message on the forum.

Kind regards,

Linda