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The grumpy thread


outlaw118

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1 minute ago, Pieman said:

That's because the British, in general, just cannot ever be arsed to do anything.

The alarm fitter has just left the house after fitting a CCTV and monitored alarm system. Contract sorted out by email, and my mate there to oversee it. Not bad, just 5 hours from seeing the contract for the first time and it being up and running!

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Ominous smoke from my MIG welder. I only tacked one bolt on. Was fine yesterday, welded for hours. Possibly why it's tired today.

Fans not working, supposed to have an overload cut out though. Will steal a fan from my smaller welder and hope for the best. Just paid £90 for a torch and lead .

Finished my ice lolly now, will have another try.

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1 hour ago, Jerzy Woking said:

My house purchase in Spain went through yesterday, so the property is now legally mine, which is brilliantmine.

Major grump is I am not allowed to travel there at the moment due to travel restrictions in France and Spain. Hopefully things will change soon.

Second grump is that despite a quite severe lockdown, the Spanish sorted everything out legally without and issue. But the solicitors and agents acting on the sale of my UK house say they can do nothing until the lockdown is lifted. My buyer is livid with them all, as the sale was agreed in Feb and she is desperate to move in.

There's no government restriction on house sales, so has one of the solicitors decided they can't be arsed doing their job?

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2 hours ago, Jerzy Woking said:

..... the solicitors and agents acting on the sale of my UK house say they can do nothing until the lockdown is lifted. My buyer is livid with them all, as the sale was agreed in Feb and she is desperate to move in.

 

31 minutes ago, somewhatfoolish said:

There's no government restriction on house sales, so has one of the solicitors decided they can't be arsed doing their job?

The problem here is one of interpretation: house sales are not considered to be essential business so Estate Agents (certainly in greater London) have, to a man, all closed down their offices and are trying to operate online only. Thing is, if you've got a house to sell (and I've got two Probate properties to get rid of), the agents won't come and visit or take measurements / photos because they don't want to breach the current regulations, so that means sellers are fucked for now. Buyers are also arguably fucked because the regs also mean that property visits are a no-no at the moment, and amateur photos on a website are no substitute for going round there and seeing it for yourself.

And if there's no proper transaction activity going on, conveyancing solicitors have no meaningful work to do, so they're fucked as well

Even the bigger Firms may end up with a cashflow problem

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27 minutes ago, somewhatfoolish said:

There's no government restriction on house sales, so has one of the solicitors decided they can't be arsed doing their job?

According to BBC there are 373,000 house sales/purchases  (worth £82b) on hold, but no real explanation as to why everyone one is on hold. Or do they mean there are 373,000 houses on the market for sale? Not quite the same thing

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52453502

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28 minutes ago, somewhatfoolish said:

There's no government restriction on house sales, so has one of the solicitors decided they can't be arsed doing their job?

Probably a web solicitor, when I last sold a house eastern europeans bought it, they hadn't got a clue what to do , despite advice not to from our estate agent they decided to use a web solicitor , it was a pain in the arse , our solicitor emailed them and they replied by post every single time so every question was 3-4 days for a reply , completely uncontactable by phone so it probably took a month longer than it should've, in the end the buyer had to drive to their office which was 60 miles away and bang on the door to get them to do anything.

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24 minutes ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

 

The problem here is one of interpretation: house sales are not considered to be essential business so Estate Agents (certainly in greater London) have, to a man, all closed down their offices and are trying to operate online only. Thing is, if you've got a house to sell (and I've got two Probate properties to get rid of), the agents won't come and visit or take measurements / photos because they don't want to breach the current regulations, so that means sellers are fucked for now.

That's bullshit though, there's no mandate from the govt to close/cease going about your business if there's no other way of doing it i.e. WFH, which clearly applies to EA-type stuff. The government guidance on distancing etc is clear enough, they obvs just can't be bothered staying solvent.

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10 minutes ago, somewhatfoolish said:

That's bullshit though, there's no mandate from the govt to close/cease going about your business if there's no other way of doing it i.e. WFH, which clearly applies to EA-type stuff. The government guidance on distancing etc is clear enough, they obvs just can't be bothered staying solvent.

I haven't yet found an Estate Agent who is willing to come and assess my two properties under current conditions. If you know of any in the West London area that are willing to make non-essential journeys, etc. please do let me have their details.

Current Government guidance states, inter alia:

 

"If your home is not yet on the market

Getting your home onto the market may be more challenging than usual in this period. There should be no visitors to your home.

You can speak to estate agents over the phone and they will be able to give you general advice about the local property market and handle certain matters remotely but they will not be able to start actively marketing your home in the usual manner.

  • If you are thinking about selling, you can use this time to start gathering together all of the information you will need to provide to potential purchasers.
  • Advice for people to stay at home and away from others means you should not invite unnecessary visitors into your home, including: property agents to carry out a market appraisal or take internal photographs prior to marketing your home; and Energy Performance Certificate assessors."

 

 

I don't think it's bullshit to be following the guidance.

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My UK solicitor is 140 miles away, and up to the lockdown, everything went well conversing by email and post. As far as I can tell, they have everything to enable completion and exchange

My Spanish solicitors also closed their offices and are all working from home. I have been corresponding with her by phone, email and sending snailmail to her home address. House purchase goes through smoothly.

I understand the issues with people not being able to view houses and that agents are unable to measure and photograph potential sale properties, but surely solicitors can move on current sales rather than hold them in limbo.

 

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5 hours ago, Jerzy Woking said:

My house purchase in Spain went through yesterday, so the property is now legally mine, which is brilliantmine.

Major grump is I am not allowed to travel there at the moment due to travel restrictions in France and Spain. Hopefully things will change soon.

 

Where about is your house in Costa Blanca?

 

 

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50 minutes ago, Agila said:

Is that the wrong jacking point? Thought it would have been on osf sill just behind the front wheel.

Turns out that was the case and I was victim of the conflicting information between the instructions on the car jack and the instructions in the manual. Oh well. It's all fixed up now and everything's been put to rights.

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1 hour ago, Fumbler said:

Definitely wasn't a fun experience, that's for sure!

they are a fkin liability

had flat on the front on a master on the motorway in very shit weather

drove 2 miles on it to the next junction - it was on drivers front

rang work - yo come and fetch me call breakdown

theyll be 3 hours

i drove into a marriott  and it took more than an hour using one of those

not an experience i want to repeat - cost them my time lost deliveries and a rim and a tyre :D van was two weeks old

 

 

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17 hours ago, Jerzy Woking said:

My house purchase in Spain went through yesterday, so the property is now legally mine, which is brilliantmine.

Major grump is I am not allowed to travel there at the moment due to travel restrictions in France and Spain. Hopefully things will change soon.

Second grump is that despite a quite severe lockdown, the Spanish sorted everything out legally without and issue. But the solicitors and agents acting on the sale of my UK house say they can do nothing until the lockdown is lifted. My buyer is livid with them all, as the sale was agreed in Feb and she is desperate to move in.

 

I know the destination is not Spain but next door - travel does seem possible, this stolen quote is from 26th April from

https://britishexpats.com/forum/portugal-89/driving-back-porugal-advice-932215/page4/

 

As the OP (who managed to spell Portugal without a "t" in the subject) I thought I would report back having successfully returned to my home in the Algarve. But first I would like to thank those who offered practical advice. It was all very useful.

To recap I wanted to return to Portugal from the UK in my own Portuguese registered car which had been parked up in the UK whilst I was on a trip to Australia. Getting out of Australia had its own challenges but after several cancelled flights I got back to the UK where I stayed in self-isolation (UK style) for 2 weeks. My ferry crossing to Spain was also cancelled leaving me with only Eurotunnel as an option to get to mainland Europe.

I had done quite a bit of research, including starting this thread. One of the most useful resources was the Eurotunnel website which provides its own advice about travel to France and provides links to the French Government website where you can download the documents you may need - including bilingual versions. I had contacted the British Embassy in Spain to ask for their advice about transiting through Spain and they were, frankly, useless. They just sent me a stock reply which was all about advice for UK citizens returning to the UK. I also contacted the Portuguese Embassy in the UK and they answered my email within a matter of hours and provided me with the information I needed regarding driving through Spain.

Here's what happened:

I drove from north west England to Eurotunnel in Folkestone. I was surprised at the amount of traffic on the M1 and the M25 - it was nothing like the photos of deserted motorways I had seen on the BBC website. At the French passport control I presented the International Travel Certficate to Mainland France (you would need one for each occupant), my Portuguese residency certificate and, of course, my passport. In the event they weren't interested in the International Travel Certificate but were very interested in my Portuguese residency certificate. I was advised that, in addition, I would need an Attestation de Déplacement Dérogatoire (again one for each occupant and one for each day spent in France). My car was one of just 5 on the train. There were lorries and a few commercial vans as well.

Leaving the Eurotunnel in Calais was just as normal: no checks of anything else, just straight out onto the Autoroute.

I drove to south west France where I had booked a room at an Ibis hotel. Ibis was excellent and were even able to supply breakfast in a coronavirus friendly manner. Not all their hotels are open but their website has an interactive map to show where the hotels are which made it easy to find one en route. I booked through booking.com which allowed me free cancellation up to 6 o´clock on the day of arrival.

I had expected occasional police checkpoints and had assumed that maybe the gendarmerie would be situated at motorway toll booths but throughout France I saw none. I felt a little conspicuous when I had to leave the motorway to get to my hotel but again I saw no police checks - but by that time it was 9 o'clock in the evening. Most motorway service stations in France are open for toilets, fuel, machine coffee and sandwiches.

Leaving very early the next morning and driving on towards the Spanish border (nearly 4 hours away) the roads got quieter except around Bordeaux. The last 40 or 50 km felt quite lonely as I only had international trucks for company.

At the Spanish border there was no tailback - there was just one car in front of me. I presented my certificate of residency to the Spanish border officials together with a piece of ID which, in my case, was my Portuguese driving licence. They gave me an "Authority to Transit through Spain" which they dated, timed and stamped. They said I could present it if I was stopped by the police. I had made the decision to drive through Spain without any overnight stops, mainly because only certain hotels are allowed to be open in Spain. They have to be on an official list. I had considered crossing into Portugal at one of the more northerly crossing points but armed with my Authority to Transit I felt confident enough to drive to the south of Spain so I could enter Portugal at the Ayamonte/Vila Real crossing. The drive from the French border to Ayamonte can be done entirely on motorways but service areas are a bit difficult. They are open for toilets and fuel but I was unable to buy a cup of coffee during the whole journey. There were plenty of gantry signs reminding drivers that their journey must be essential and that they can expect checkpoints particularly around cities. But I saw none.

Arriving at the Portuguese border I was asked how long I had been out of Portugal (and why). I presented my certificate of residency which was photographed along with my passort and the car registration plate. I was also asked for a contact phone number. Half an hour later I was home.

I have to say that all the officials I dealt with on the way were charming and good humoured.

So that's it. If I can offer any advice to anyone contemplating the same trip it would be:

  • be prepared for any eventuality (one of my worries was that the hotel I had booked would be closed on arrival).
  • print off all the documents you need before travelling (I had even printed my hotel booking confirmation and if necessary, I could have demonstrated that I had been making my way back from Australia). It's probably a good idea to print some extra attestations for France just in case, although I believe it is now possible to complete an attestation online for whch you get a QR code to present to the police if necessary.
  • make sure you have your Portuguese residency card or certificate. You will definitely need it.
  • stick to motorways as much as possible. You will feel less conspicuous and it would be much easier to explain why you are on the road. Motorway service stations provide a relatively safe haven if you need to sleep in your car.
  • take food and drink with you.
  • drive safely!
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16 hours ago, somewhatfoolish said:

There's no government restriction on house sales, so has one of the solicitors decided they can't be arsed doing their job?

It’s not like they can go on a skiing holiday either at the moment . Which is what every single solicitor I’ve dealt with has done just before completing my house move / transfer. Usually for 3 weeks and no other fucker in the place can touch it .

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@castros_bro If I had a Certificate of Residencia I'd be OK, but I don't have one. I made the application through my solicitor in December just before I returned to the UK. I have to physically be living in Spain for three months before it will be issued.

No one in authority can answer any of my questions with any certainty, and seeing as this situation has never occurred before, everything is a "first"

@DeeJay and @Jazoli. I like Santa Pola, often go down to the marina for tapas at one of the many places along the waterfront. Been to Catral a few times, nice little town, and Delores puts on a good car show (though not this year).

 

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