Bonus & Wendy's Big Adventure . . . .

[barrykm]

Damn..!?

 

Best wishes for sorting this out.

[Bonus]

"The Long and Winding Road Part 3" should be online tomorrow. . . .

 

Today our architect, Pedro Miguel has spoken to the lawyer representing 75 year old Alberto and his rather unsavoury daughter Maria Pilar and apparently we are making headway. . . . ;-)

 

 

Meanwhile, we've had so many encouraging messages and support from you guys that I wanted to just assure everybody that we are fine :-)

 

We are still happy that overall our motivation for doing what we are doing and the decisions we've made so far have been good for us. We are living in a beautiful part of an amazing country. We have mountains all around us, 700km plus of maintained trails to ride, well kept and quiet roads to road-ride on, rivers clean enough to swim in and it doesn't get dark until 10pm in at the height of summer!

 

We may have one awkward neighbour left to deal with but we know that we will get there eventually and more important than him, we have so many other neighbours who have welcomed and accepted us - like we were long lost family. Ramon the old Friendly Farmer and his with Rosa are amazing. We have our furniture and belongings in one of their barns. They give us casa-wine (from their own vineyard), eggs, fruit, vegetables and (according to Wendy) the most amazing home pressed olive oil she's ever cooked with. We eat with them several times a week and when we got soaked walking in the rain they lent us dry clothes to wear! I think Rosa would have even dried us if we'd let her! Yesterday I drove Ramon to the local garage to pick up his car and on the way we were discussing the delays in getting planning permission and how we were going to end up renting our apartment for longer than we'd originally budgeted for - today we went to their house for lunch and Rosa told us that there was room for us in their house if money gets tight. They have spare rooms and more than enough food. If we need to stay there we can do - for as long as necessary and for free.

 

Ramon Jr, our nearest neighbour, may not be talking to his dad at the moment but he and Sonia always talk to us. I use his outside power socket when I need electricity and his garden hose when I need water. He doesn't want anything from us in return - he's just happy to help.

 

Good friends, and good people to have on your side.

 

Life gets a little worrying and frustrating at times, but maybe if it was too easy it would be boring!

 

Bonus & Wendy.

Edited September 8, 2016 by Bonus

[Gen]

"The Long and Winding Road Part 3" should be online tomorrow. . . .

 

Today our architect, Pedro Miguel has spoken to the lawyer representing 75 year old Alberto and his rather unsavoury daughter Maria Pilar and apparently we are making headway. . . . ;-)

 

 

Meanwhile, we've had so many encouraging messages and support from you guys that I wanted to just assure everybody that we are fine :-)

 

We are still happy that overall our motivation for doing what we are doing and the decisions we've made so far have been good for us. We are living in a beautiful part of an amazing country. We have mountains all around us, 700km plus of maintained trails to ride, well kept and quiet roads to road-ride on, rivers clean enough to swim in and it doesn't get dark until 10pm in at the height of summer!

 

We may have one awkward neighbour left to deal with but we know that we will get there eventually and more important than him, we have so many other neighbours who have welcomed and accepted us - like we were long lost family. Ramon the old Friendly Farmer and his with Rosa are amazing. We have our furniture and belongings in one of their barns. They give us casa-wine (from their own vineyard), eggs, fruit, vegetables and (according to Wendy) the most amazing home pressed olive oil she's ever cooked with. We eat with them several times a week and when we got soaked walking in the rain they lent us dry clothes to wear! I think Rosa would have even dried us if we'd let her! Yesterday I drove Ramon to the local garage to pick up his car and on the way we were discussing the delays in getting planning permission and how we were going to end up renting our apartment for longer than we'd originally budgeted for - today we went to their house for lunch and Rosa told us that there was room for us in their house if money gets tight. They have spare rooms and more than enough food. If we need to stay there we can do - for as long as necessary and for free.

 

Ramon Jr, our nearest neighbour, may not be talking to his dad at the moment but he and Sonia always talk to us. I use his outside power socket when I need electricity and his garden hose when I need water. He doesn't want anything from us in return - he's just happy to help.

 

Good friends, and good people to have on your side.

 

Life gets a little worrying and frustrating at times, but maybe if it was too easy it would be boring!

 

Bonus & Wendy.

I think we should all pop a bottle of bubbly once you guys have the go ahead..

[DIPSLICK]

i will not lie

Even with your bumps and your drama, you guys sound like you are in a fantastic place and I really hope that light at the end of the tunnel is closer than you think, you are very lucky to have found your new "extended family" I'm sure all the bumps are made soooo much easier with that type of support,,,,,,,

Keep on grinding

Keep the soapie coming

[Pulse]

Glad to see you have so much support around you.

Truely believe you'le be living your dream soon...

 

Can't wait for episode 3 of 'The days of your new lives'

[Bonus]

Car hunting . . . . I've been putting this off because I knew it would ba a PITA, but we're going to have to get a LH Drive Spanish car soon.

 

What is it with car-sales website search engines that you say specifically the area you live in and it throws up cars 2000 miles away????

[Bonus]

"The Long and Winding Road Part 3" . . .

 

Today we finalised a draft agreement between ourselves and our neighbour Alberto. His lawyer will prepare the agreement for us all to sign on Monday morning at our architects office. Our architect, Pedro Miguel, assures us that once this is signed on Monday there is no reason for the council not to issue us with planning permission very quickly.

 

The "Alberto issue" has not been a pleasant one. The planning objection with Pepe was a nuisance and a worry but it was never really unpleasant and with hindsight it was worth getting it sorted out before rather than after we did our renovations - because vehicular access to our front garden in essential. This latest issue has just been unpleasant.

 

In a nutshell . . . .

 

the architect designed our property so that the north-west facing wall of our "tower" (shown in black on the sketch) which faces the mountains and has the best views, would contain six windows. 2 on the ground floor - lounge and dining room, 2 on the middle floor - bedrooms, and 2 on the top floor - bedrooms. In order for the council to grant us planning permission to put windows into that wall (which currently has none) we would either need to own the land marked with green stripes or have permission from the person that did to do so.

 

According to all the existing documentation, we do own the land but our neighbour, who owns the land marked "Field", disputes this fact, claiming that the existing documentation / agreement was incorrectly drafted back in 2008. He has flagged up this dispute between the two of us to the municipality will now not proceed with our building license until the matter is resolved.

 

So we find ourselves between a rock and a hard place. Firstly the municipality will not proceed with any dispute active. We are told that our documentation is good and that we can go to trial and almost certainly win - but it could take a year or more to get there. Meanwhile the project will just sit. Alternatively we can concede that the land belongs to Alberto, we would have to sign an agreement saying so and he will sign an agreement allowing us to put our windows into our wall and will sign over to us a strip of land tight against the wall of the tower allowing us to get between the road and our back garden (plot 152). With this agreement the municipality would be happy and we should have our planning permission very shortly.

 

We're not happy. It feels too much like we're being "blackmailed" by someone willing to "sit it out for as long as it takes" but the advice of our architect and all of our friends is to "sign the agreement and get on with our lives".

 

We have to decide by 11:30 Monday morning and either sign or not. So we have the weekend to decide . . . .

 

 

... oh and tomorrow is Wendys Birthday!

 

:-)

Edited September 17, 2016 by Bonus

[Pulse]

It pains me when stuff like this happens. He probably knows that he is wrong, but also know that you cannot afford to just sit it out...

 

Happy B'day Wendy!!!

Edited September 17, 2016 by Pulse

[Matchstix]

I am one of those people who would want to fight out of principle. And hopefully make Alberto pay all the legal cost and time lost if you won.

But that's just me

[Gen]

"The Long and Winding Road Part 3" . . .

 

Today we finalised a draft agreement between ourselves and our neighbour Alberto. His lawyer will prepare the agreement for us all to sign on Monday morning at our architects office. Our architect, Pedro Miguel, assures us that once this is signed on Monday there is no reason for the council not to issue us with planning permission very quickly.

 

The "Alberto issue" has not been a pleasant one. The planning objection with Pepe was a nuisance and a worry but it was never really unpleasant and with hindsight it was worth getting it sorted out before rather than after we did our renovations - because vehicular access to our front garden in essential. This latest issue has just been unpleasant.

 

In a nutshell . . . .

 

the architect designed our property so that the north-west facing wall of our "tower" (shown in black on the sketch) which faces the mountains and has the best views, would contain six windows. 2 on the ground floor - lounge and dining room, 2 on the middle floor - bedrooms, and 2 on the top floor - bedrooms. In order for the council to grant us planning permission to put windows into that wall (which currently has none) we would either need to own the land marked with green stripes or have permission from the person that did to do so.

 

According to all the existing documentation, we do own the land but our neighbour, who owns the land marked "Field", disputes this fact, claiming that the existing documentation / agreement was incorrectly drafted back in 2008. He has flagged up this dispute between the two of us to the municipality will now not proceed with our building license until the matter is resolved.

 

So we find ourselves between a rock and a hard place. Firstly the municipality will not proceed with any dispute active. We are told that our documentation is good and that we can go to trial and almost certainly win - but it could take a year or more to get there. Meanwhile the project will just sit. Alternatively we can concede that the land belongs to Alberto, we would have to sign an agreement saying so and he will sign an agreement allowing us to put our windows into our wall and will sign over to us a strip of land tight against the wall of the tower allowing us to get between the road and our back garden (plot 152). With this agreement the municipality would be happy and we should have our planning permission very shortly.

 

We're not happy. It feels too much like we're being "blackmailed" by someone willing to "sit it out for as long as it takes" but the advice of our architect and all of our friends is to "sign the agreement and get on with our lives".

 

We have to decide by 11:30 Monday morning and either sign or not. So we have the weekend to decide . . . .

 

 

... oh and tomorrow is Wendys Birthday!

 

:-)

Ag no man.. jis that is a bugger up..what if you sign and Alberto decides to sell that part of the land? [emoji33]

 

 

This Alberto is a real piece of work[emoji35]

Edited September 17, 2016 by Gen

[Matchstix]

What about buying the land from him, then take him to court for selling something that he does not own?

[Bonus]

Ag no man.. jis that is a bugger up..what if you sign and Alberto decides to sell that part of the land? [emoji33]

 

 

This Alberto is a real piece of work[emoji35]

 

 

If we sign the agreements, the access strip next to the tower will always be ours. No worries there.

[Bonus]

What about buying the land from him, then take him to court for selling something that he does not own?

 

I like your thinking . . .  ;-)

[Gen]

If we sign the agreements, the access strip next to the tower will always be ours. No worries there.

Okay that's good to hear.

[DuncanCT]

Can't you make for prevision for a window and then once the land dispute has been resolved pop out the brickwork and you have your window back?

 

Like this...

 

[Bonus]

Can't you make for prevision for a window and then once the land dispute has been resolved pop out the brickwork and you have your window back?

 

Like this...

 

window-bricked-up-old-building-36882235.jpg

 

The bedrooms only have one big window each, so we wouldn't get planning permission for bedrooms "without windows". Would def have worked if there was more than one window per room though :-)

Edited September 17, 2016 by Bonus