Heart FM’s Lee Jay Interviews David Laver

Lee Jay of Heart FM Spain interviewed our Estate Agent David Laver last month so here is a copy of the interview for those of you that missed it. Tune into Heart FM on 95.7FM in the Alhaurín El Grande area or listen online at http://www.heartfmspain.com/. Our thanks go to the staff at Heart FM for providing us with the recordings.

Defend Your Consumer Rights!

FACUA Logo

Have you ever been a victim of fraud here in Spain? Have you ever bought a defective product, been refused a refund and not known where to go for help? Fear not as help is at hand in the form of the consumer body FACUA.

FACUA-Consumers in Action is a spanish non-governmental and non-profit organization dedicated to the defence of consumers’ rights. FACUA develops international cooperation actions with several consumers organizations to fight abuses and frauds in a globalized market.

Fight Against Fraud

FACUA (Federación de Asociaciones de Consumidores y Usuarios de Andalucí­a) has a dedicated Website, which is also available in English, Italian and French, and it covers a wide range of consumer info from cars to electricity bills to mobile phones to dentists. If you are looking for advice or want to know which person you need to complain to then visit https://www.facua.org/es/english.php.

Sellers Beware! (part 1)

David Laver

KNOW WHAT YOU OWN! The most important commodity for any real estate business has to be the quality of property available to their clients. Not only the location & price but more than ever the legal information supplied at the time of sale.

It seems that each week there are more requirements from the Junta de Andalucía, local authorities and banks for the type of paperwork owners have to supply to complete the sale of their property. The reality for many owners is that a property that was purchased as recently as 18 months ago, may not have been correctly registered and is currently likely to have problems with this new legislation.

This was mostly due to an uncertainty over what was required by the Land Registry office and the Junta de Andalucía for the correct registration of property in the countryside. The laws were very ambiguous and therefore open to a different interpretation by everyone. Over the past 18 months this uncertainty has been removed and there are now very specific guidelines regarding the correct registration of rustic property (property in the countryside). Everyday we have owners asking us to list their property for sale believing that it is correctly registered. Unfortunately for most properties this is not the case. 

Check Housing Paperwork

A look at the most recent Nota Simple will tell you what is registered in reality. The information reflected in this document must match the property to include all outbuildings and most importantly the swimming pool. The Nota Simple is the document that the buyer’s solicitor or bank will ask for at the time of sale. Any discrepancy between what is being purchased and what is registered will create a problem. In many cases things such as swimming pools, garages and extra living space have been omitted from these documents, where this does not make the property illegal it means that the property is not properly registered and therefore is not ready for sale.

Many rustic properties were sold with building licences which enabled the construction of storage sheds. These properties were then sold as houses, many with unlicensed pools.  As recently as a couple of years ago this was accepted as normal practise. With the Junta de Andalucía now taking a firmer stance on the legislation for country property, it is now impossible to sell this type of property as a house and most banks will no longer give mortgages on this type of property.

Up until the summer of 2009, it was an easy but expensive process to rectify this error using a Certificate of Antiquity (Certificado de Antigüedad) in all rustic areas. This entailed an architect measuring the area that had not been registered in the original Escritura and confirming that it was more than 4 years old. With the new plans stamped by the Spanish School of Architects, the Nota Simple could be corrected. Unfortunately for some owners who have this issue, a tightening of legislation in the Land Registry means they will be unable to use a Certificate of Antiquity to have the Nota Simple changed.

Protected Rustic Land

Rustic land is divided into two types: one is Normal Rustic (suelo no urbanizable) and the other is Protected Rustic (suelo no urbanizable protegido). Up until the summer of 2009 it was possible to register the extra build on both types of land. Now however, the Land Registry will no longer allow any new registrations on Protected Rustic land. This means that if you own a property on Protected Rustic land and you have an unregistered pool or extra metres built, you have no way to register them and you will find it very difficult to sell.  Perhaps more importantly there is the constant risk of a substantial fine for having a swimming pool or extra meters that are not registered.

The required process to register the property correctly is using the Certificate of Antiquity. Although it seems a little unfair to have to pay to correct paperwork that should have been correct at the time of the original purchase, it will allow for the sale process to take place and allay any fear of a fine from the Junta de Andalucía.

We strongly advise anyone who currently has a property with any unregistered living space or a pool to seek legal advice as it seems that everyday a new piece of legislation arrives, stopping owners from registering their property. The simple fact is that if it is not registered properly, you can not sell and will have the constant threat of a hefty fine.

If you are in any doubt about the registration of your property, it is a simple process to obtain a new Nota Simple from your local Land Registry (Registro) or Ideal Country Property can order them on-line for you at a small cost.

300€ Discount On Securitas Alarm System

WE ARE AUTHORISED REPRESENTATIVES OF SECURITAS DIRECT SPAIN.

Securitas Basic Alarm Pack

Landlines In The Campo

The Vodafone shop in the “La Trocha” shopping centre in Coín can help you set it up and they have English speaking staff, which is a bonus if you don’t speak much Spanish. Maybe now it’s time to start saying “Adiós Telefónica”!

And for those of you that DO have a regular landline and Internet, you should consider the possibility of using VOIP to make cheaper telephone calls. The Federal Communications Commission defines VoIP as “a technology that allows you to make voice calls using a broadband Internet connection instead of a regular phone line.” Certain VoIP providers may limit you to calling only people using the same service, but others open it up to anyone with a phone number – local, long distance, international and mobiles. Some services now include VoIP adapters for use on regular phones too.

As a final mention, something worthy of note is the Blog by Javier Prenafeta. He states regarding this service: ‘the quality of this service compared to a land line is not the same, there can be problems with coverage, outgoing calls will display the mobile number (not the associated land line number), and the price of calls to non-geographical numbers is a lot higher than normally expected with a land line.’

We Have Moved Offices!

New ICP Office

If you have ever visited our old office on the Cártama road in Alhaurín El Grande, you will know that we were already long overdue for a move. The office seemed to get smaller and damper by the month! Now we have a lovely, shiny, bright & spacious new office that is not only better for us but also for our clients. We even have two new sofas, in ICP trademark Orange, for you to sit down and relax whilst you wait.

The move went well after weeks of intensive preparation. The new office needed four coats of white paint to cover all the old green, blue, red and black paint that was used by the previous tenants! We have a new alarm installed and are now Authorised Agents for “Securitas Direct” alarms, which means we can give you a great discount on a similar installation in your own home or office.

Where exactly are we located? Just two minutes walk from our old office. We are on Calle Gerald Brennan, number 83 in what was the old “Videoclub Milenium”, next to the “Casa Paco” Fish Restaurant and directly facing “Cafetería Fahala”. If you get to the BP Petrol Station then you’ve gone too far!

Málaga on Yellow Alert for Temperatures Up To 36ºC

Málaga Beach

There are few clouds in the sky over Málaga again today and this will contribute to the temperatures increasing slightly according to the AEMET (State Meteorological Agency).

The minimum temperature recording during the wee hours of the morning was 26ºC and they are predicted to rise up to 36ºC. That is why AEMET have put the Costa del Sol on Yellow Alert (important risk) between the hours of 12 noon and 7pm today.

If you are planning to visit the beach today, then here are a few things to keep in mind to make your trip a pleasurable one:

• Use sunscreen but bear in mind that it wears off, gets rubbed off and also comes off with perspiration and there goes your protection so APPLY IT OFTEN!
• Wear a wide brimmed hat – even better if it is an anti-UV hat which covers your head, face and neck.
• Seek shade during the hours of 10:00-17:00 (10am-5pm).  That’s why it is good practice to take a big golfing-style umbrella with you. Anti-UV umbrellas will give you UV protection, and will cut some intensity of the sun.
• Use these methods of protection every day, not just when the sun is shining.  Clouds are do not protect you from ultra-violet rays that can cause skin cancer.

Local Bus Timetables

These are the new bus timetables for buses leaving Alhaurín and Coín. Other areas covered are Cártama, Fuengirola, Guaro, Málaga, Marbella, Mijas, Monda, and Tolox. The prices and the journey times are also included as well as the times for the return journeys.

 Please bear in mind that with the road works on the Alhaurín to Mijas road, the journey to Fuengirola and Mijas could take up to 45 minutes longer.

Alhaurín Bus Timetable OCTOBER 09 (File Size=362kb)

Coín Bus Timetable OCTOBER 09 (File Size=369kb)

To view the above files you will need Adobe Reader, which you can download for free from here:

Urb. Las Peñuelas Gets the Green Light

Road Works Las Peñuelas

Alhaurín town council has given their approval to start developing the urbanization known as “Las Peñuelas”. This will mean significant improvement in the areas between “Huertas Altas” and the southern ring road.

The area comprises of 19,000m² of land and the work has already begun next to the “Parque de la Libertad” (‘Freedom Park’, next to the roundabout at the top of the ring road heading up from the ‘Stone Cross’).

The current home owners in the area have been arguing amongst themselves about how to improve the urbanization so finally the town council itself has taken the matter into their own hands and approved the work to be done, given that it will be a significant improvement and benefit to all.

No doubt those of us who have had to travel up that bone-shaking, pothole-dodging track will be most appreciative of the new and improved tarmac, 10-metre wide road. Now that we won’t have to be constantly repairing our car suspension and tyres, what will we spend our money on?

New Underground Recycling Bins for Alhaurín?

Bins in Alhaurín de la Torre

Bins in Málaga

After approving a motion from the local Spanish Socialist party on the 21st of this month, the Alhaurín town council are going to do a study as to which areas it is viable to install new underground rubbish bins. If you’re wondering what they look like, then take a look at the photos on the right. They are very futuristic looking and have several advantages over the normal, unsightly and smelly green waste bins that can be seen on the streets. This new type of rubbish disposal can be seen in Coín, Alhaurín de la Torre and Málaga. Some of the benefits are:

• They promote recycling (thus benefitting the environment)
• It is easier to choose where to put each type of rubbish
• Bad odours are significantly reduced and suppressed
• They take up less space
• They are not as susceptible to vandalism
• They cost less to maintain

At the council meeting it was suggested that studies be undertaken to first see which areas in the town centre it is physically possible to install such bins as well as the system in which they operate. As for new urbanizations being built, this type of rubbish disposal will be the decision and cost of the promoters. It looks as if Alhaurín is finally moving into the 21st century!