About Us Page 2

The builder started by laying the floor tiles at one end of the property, he laid approx 80 sqm of tiles and then realised they had laid them wrong and they would not flow correctly through the rest of the property. Needless to say they were removed and discarded, in turn leaving only just enough tiles, literally to finish the property. This is a very important point to understand, in that at the end of the build and when we moved in, there was undoubtedly going to be some snagging for the builder to do. Namely there are about 12 tiles that have been cracked or chipped throughout the property, caused by the malpractice of the builders labourers and that now require replacing. But because of the original incompetence of the builder when laying these tiles there are not any left to replace them with. This is easy to resolve I hear you say - buy some more!! The problem is that tiles are made in batches, meaning that there are slight colour differences between each batch and therefore we now will have to either take all the floor tiles up and start again, which is completely impractical. Or put up with different colour tiles around the house - which is what we have been force to do. Unfortunately there is no recompense from the builder for his original mistake and he still hasn't changed these tiles and we have been living there for well over a year now.

The windows were fitted just after the tiles were laid, and to our dismay they were nothing like the ones we thought we were having. A year before we were taken to a company that we knew makes a really good window, we chose the window we liked and thought it to be good quality. When they arrived to fit the windows we realised we had been bamboozled, the builder had shown us a good quality window and then supplied a crap window from another company. A word of warning to anyone building a property, ensure that you are shown the product that's being fitted into your property. The problem is that our builder was only contracted to supply windows and it does not state the quality of said windows, so we had no choice but to accept them.

Nearly a month passed by, the windows were in and the tiles were near enough finished, only areas such as shower floors which were to have mosaic tiles and places that needed to be finished around, like conspicuously missing baths and boilers. We asked the builder to start supplying the sanitary ware etc. The builder stated that he would sort it out with the plumber and get him to start as soon as he can. We waited and waited for things to start, they didn't!! We eventually bit the bullet and contacted the plumber direct, he informed us that the builder had not contacted him and he could not start our second fit for sometime. He would order the sanitary ware straight away so that it would be there for when he could start. Two weeks later the toilets and sinks arrived and we in the meantime purchased all the bath, sink and shower taps. The plumber eventually turned up and started fitting the sanitary ware, we asked him where the baths were because they had not been delivered. The Plumber stated that there was a long order time on the baths and the suppliers he was using did not have them in stock. Two weeks later the plumber arrived on site with what appeared to be the baths, but on closer inspection they were the wrong ones, they were the correct make and model, just the wrong size. They were returned and then we had to wait a further three weeks for the next bath delivery, when these arrived we inspected them only to find to our dismay they were the correct model, make and size but not the correct quality and these went back as well. We waited a further month for the baths, when we were told by the plumber that the company he had ordered them from had gone bankrupt and they had stolen his money. We refused to stump up anymore cash and insisted he sort it out whatever way he could. He told us that he had ordered them from another company and they would be delivered as soon as they came from the manufacturers. He gave us the number of the company, so we could call them and clarify a delivery date. Initially the company appeared to be telling us as it was, but then all things went wrong and they started being rude to us because we kept ringing them for information and eventually he told us to fxxx off, another month wasted. Unfortunately, we tried to contact the plumber with this news, but he had changed telephone numbers and were unable to contact him. He had 8000€ of our money, consisting of 5000€ for the supply and fitting of the kitchens (another story all together) and 2,200€ as a deposit for the boilers and 800€ for the baths and to cap it all he hadn't start fitting the sinks or toilets and we didn't have the baths that we had paid for. He had fortunately finished other parts of the plumbing that he was contracted to do, but by no uncertain terms had he finished.

Dismayed and disillusioned, we eventually employed another plumber to carry out the rest of work and order the baths and boilers. This plumber also made a mistake with the baths and ordered the wrong ones, but this time they were swapped with ease, but still took another month to get the correct ones. This plumber - Fernando from Prointec, not only spoke English, he did a fantastic job and finished the work the other incompetent plumber could not. Needless to say we paid for this bill as well and would expect to have it taken from the final contractual payment - or so we thought.

In all this time the other work was continuing at a snails pace, we asked the builder where the doors and wardrobes were and when they were due to be fitted. Earlier in the year we had been taken along to the door company and were shown the style of doors in the contract. We did not like them and decided to upgrade. We were informed that the upgrade would amount to a 3,000€ increase in the cost and we would need to pay that before the doors were supplied. We dutifully paid the extra and then waited for the arrival of the doors, a month went by and nothing was forthcoming. We went back to the supplier and asked what the problem was! He stated that the builder needed to come in and pay 50% of original bill before he would supply the doors. We asked the builder to do just that and pay the required 50% so the doors could be supplied and fitted. We went in every week to see if the builder had paid - he hadn't. Another month went by and nothing happened, so we took the bull by the horns and paid the builders 50%, within the following two weeks the carpenters were fitting the doors and wardrobes. Once again the bill we paid for the builder would come off the final contractual payment - or so we thought.

The house is now water tight and secure, all we needed now was to have a kitchen in which to prepare our meals. As you may have gathered from reading the above we had already contracted our old plumber to carryout the fitting of our new kitchens and the kitchens were to supplied by a company near Vera, going by the name of LJD Kitchens SL. Our association with LJD Kitchens started back in February 2007, when we asked them through the Plumber to quote for the three kitchens. LJD dutifully supplied the quote and we in turn agreed to contract them to supply. They then requested me to quote for a website for their company, which I dutifully did with the view that the work for the website would be deducted from the cost of the kitchens. I ensured that they paid directly for any infrastructure requirements, ensuring I was not out of pocket. Unfortunately, all that you have read before now was not completed before February 2008, except the Sanitary ware fiasco. We requested they supply the kitchen carcases as soon as possible so that we could move in. The company then requested that we pay the full 50% of the quote, amounting to 11,000€. Now this is where the problem starts, the plumber had requested we pay him 8,000€ for the deposit to secure the kitchen quote and ensure that it was not increased. As stated earlier the plumber owes us 8,000€ of which 5,000€ was for the kitchen company and of which he did not pay to them. This in turn negated the original agreement with LJD, the quote price was not held because we did not pay the full 8,000€ deposit to them. The Plumber in fact only paid them 3,000€ and kept the 5,000€ for himself and then did a runner, I will break his legs when I find him and I will find him, mark my words!!!!!

Anyway, we were left with another dilemma, we either had to pay a further 5,000€ or not get our kitchens, then we had to then pay a further 3,000€ to make up the full 50%. Confused you will be!!! The original amount of 50% should have been 11,000€!!! We paid LJD the full 50% and they then supplied the carcases, which were fitted by another person completely. We were then requested to pay another 4,500€ to help pay for the Granite worktops, but this payment only needed to be paid after the worktops had been fitted, actually we had to pay 25% after they were fitted. We declined this amount and agreed to pay a further 2,000€ now making a total of 13,000€ paid thus far. On receipt of this payment LJD said they would order the granite and it should be ready for fitting within 10 to 14 days. 14 days passed and the granite did not arrive, we called the company and asked what was going on, they said the granite had been prepared and was ready for delivery, but it had been done in the wrong colour and they were going to have to start all over again. So, we sat back a waited for another 14 days, guess what the granite did not arrive and when rang up this time they said the factory was very busy and hadn't started our granite due the time of year. The time of year is always difficult here in Spain, because if it's July (which it was) everything is on the wind down for the holiday (the whole of August). So, we accepted that this was the case and thought nothing more about it. Mid July we were becoming concerned and requested a meeting with LJD, we were due to go to UK for a couple of weeks and nothing had happened and it looked like we were going to have to wait until after August for our granite, delaying our moving in date drastically. We attended the meeting and were presented and ultimatum that if we did not agree to pay more for the whole kitchen then they would not supply anymore, they requested a further 5,000€, needless to say we argued that figure down to 1,000€. Begrudgingly we were being blackmailed and were caught by the short and curlies. We went to the UK, expecting to return to the news that the granite would be ready for fitting, oh how wrong we were - to this day we still not have that granite we ordered through LJD, nor do we have the doors to our kitchen cabinets and LJD have since folded and disappeared with our money. Although recently we have found out they are now trading again in Turre from their home address - PLEASE DON'T BE SUCKERED IN AND EMPLOY THIS COMPANY. We intend to see that this company and the people involved will never trade again as a kitchen company.

As an aside we have now had granite fitted by Tabika, a company in Vera and they were very reasonable and supplied a quality product.

In all this time the swimming pool was constructed and blatantly bodged up. Our builder was contracted to build the pool, but he sub contracted it out another company. The company employed to do the work is actually a construction company, building and promoting their villas to northern Europeans, mainly Brits. They did have quite a good reputation for their villas, although at the moment they are struggling to legalise their properties, but we don't know the full story about that. Anyway they are not pool builders and therefore they sub contracted our pool out to another company that supposedly specialised in swimming pools. Which is as to be expected, or so we thought - how wrong were we!! The pool design was decided in a meeting with Parra Mellado at which time we agreed the colour of the tiles and other extras, such as a salt water system rather than the traditional chemical system, we wanted a step all around the pool set at 1m 20cm so that people would feel safe not matter where they were in the pool. We also requested a hand rail down the centre of the stairs to offer support when entering or exiting the water. This is where the problems with Parra Mellado started, they gave us a quote for the extras amounting to more than 3,000€, they gave us a complete breakdown of the extras and relevant prices. We read the list in amazement, when you here the statement that most Spanish Companies believe that the British are loaded and will pay more than anyone else, we due to this experience can now agree. Parra Mellado requested we pay 1,200€ extra for the salt water system, which we though was quite expensive at the time, but decided to continue with is part of the quote. Foolishly we agreed and afterwards realised that they hadn't taken away the cost of the original chemical system, when we questioned afterwards they said you have signed and agreed now. We did drop a few things from the extras list because we knew them to be a lot less than they were quoting. The main one that remains in our memory was the quote for the handrail down the centre of the stairs, they quoted 1,200€ for this, we purchased it from a local swimming pool company for 70€ and Parra Mellado fitted for 60€. The fitting of which, took all of ten minutes and four bolts. those bolts were not even anodised and therefore proceeded to rust and right now have eroded away completely and therefore we now do not have a handrail.

Needless to say this was only the start of the problems with the pool construction. Whet they were building the pool, they sprayed the cement onto the walls of the pool, but they did this on the windiest day of the year. It resulted in cement being sprayed all over the place, all over our balustrades and even all the up to the top floor of the house, now this is not a easy feat, because the house is more than 40 feet up from the pool. The company agreed to clean the cement splashes off, to this date they splashes are still there.

To be continued.........