I think this is very true. But it means that those of us who are good tenants get tarred with the same brush which is a shame. We have rented for a long time now and have always paid the rent and bills on time. We have looked after the houses as though they were our own and left them cleaner than when we went into them! I approached some estate agents to see if the owners of any houses for sale would consider renting them out but most of them arent interested as they would rather have the commission on the sale and if the owners are in the UK you have no way of contacting them. I have even tried putting notes through doors of ones for sale in the hope that the owners may see them if they return! Desperate times!!

we have a nice 3 bed house in benijofar for rent send mel an email at [email protected]

Hi Dave
we have a large property on Quesada that we are considering letting from Oct to April. if you want to post your email adress and requirements I can contact you with a response.

What dates are your friends looking for in the summer, weve just had a cancellation for early july due to redundancy (sign of the times im afraid)

Also Dave as a villa owner who has successfully rented out for some seven years now I would point out that I am so very offended when people contact me asking me to drop the rental price considerably or ask can they have two weeks for the price of one. I am further offended when they try to off set that by saying weve had a look at you property and its beautiful, or stunning, or weve fell in love with it. Yes, it is all of those things and its cost me a lot of money to make it that way so that my much valued guests have somewhere nice to stay so thats why I cant understand people who ask for such ridiculous discounts, and the old addage well surely getting some money for it is better than none, well no im sorry but that is just not the case.

A sensible discount for a late booking yes of course and thats fine but to be expected to do any more than that is unreasonable.

Also I think owners are finding it very hard to trust these days. We recently had a bizzare experience, we returned to our villa to find someone had been staying in it unbeknowns to us, what a terrible feeling, but worse than that we had more than one keyholder and as result we had to wipe the slate clean, free ourselves from the keyholders and start again. We dont know (yet)who was responsible for allowing that let but my god what a despicable and dirty trick and maybe thats why less and less owners are prepared to rent.

I hope this throws a bit of light on things for you Dave and I agree the minority have really spoiled things for the majority of good tenants

And thats another thing that, as a tenant, is really annoying - owners who want a long term let in the winter and then holiday lets during the summer. I have seen some lovely houses that have been quite expensive but they are only available for winter months - why would I want to pay the premium for a nice house with a pool when really I never get to use the pool as its too cold (and yet Im still expected to pay for the pool man each week!!). I can appreciate owners wanting to maximise their investment but I would NEVER go into a property knowing that I can only have it for 6/7 months over the winter. I think that I would rather have someone in long term who will look after the property rather than loads of different holidaymakers some of whom dont look after the property (I used to rent a property out for holiday lets and the state it was left in sometimes was disgusting....) - I guess if you have people who come back year after year they are more likely to look after it ?

I know where you are coming from with regards to the rents and with regards to holiday lets I am surprised that people do this but there are some properties out there that people just want extortionate rents for. There is a recession at the moment and people need to bear this in mind and be realistic. There is a house close to me which the owners want 950€ per month (through an agent) for - its a similar size to the one I am currently in which I pay €600 for - we looked at it around 12 months ago and it has been empty since then. I recently enquired about it again for a friend and asked the agent whether they would accept a reduction on the price and was point blank told no. Surely they would be better accepting say 850€ and having someone in it and earning an income from it?

Two sides to every argument I guess!!

Your story ´we love it here´ goes to show that there are also dodgy agents / keyholders out there too - I guess you never find out what someone is like until youre involved with them as either a tenant or a keyholder. I do know of one property a few years ago where one of the agents staff members was living in it whilst telling the owner they were struggling to rent it out! He turned up and found it was being lived in too!!

Hi Richard
I hear where your coming from on so many levels and I do symapthise but even when you get down to those rental properties via an agent, believe me that hike in the rent doesnt go to the owner,often the owner wont even be aware of the total increase and even if they are thats the agents cut give or take a few quid it doesnt go into the owners pocket.

It truly is a very sorry situation at the moment but I will say this, in the 7 years I have been renting, apart from the 1 incident I posted yesterday, I have been very very lucky with my tenants, they have left my property in a very good state and id like think thats because they found it in a very good state to begin with.

Also Richard with regard to paying for property with a pool in the winter months heres another example for you, My dad took a tenant for 12 months who didnt want to pay the pool man in the winter for reasons you have just explained, so being a very decent man, my dad had a chat with the pool guy and explained the tenants circumstances, mainly to show willing and a commitment to the prospective tenant. The outcome was the pool guy told my dad to f off, said he was insulted and offended, reminded my dad that he showed up week in week out (which he did) so why should he be messed about. He said you either want me or you dont, im not coming as and when it suits your tenant ! So you see richard you are indeed correct there are two sides two every story but owners do have committments too and if the owner doesnt live there year round, then they are absolutley dependant upon those people who do provide them with a service all year round.

Its like my tenants who say oh we dont want the clean well do it ourselves, well im sorry but its not that easy, my cleaner does a fabulous job and I need her as much as she needs her wages so if I start to pick and choose and bin her and her wages off every other week shell tell me to f off as well im sure and she would be right to, you cant just pick people up and then drop them, after all they need the money and the consistency the same as everyone else.

I really do hope Richard this gives you a genuine insight as to what owners are up against too. Many of us are very genuine and not at all greedy but we do have a responsibility to those who work for us and that comes at a price.

Regards

And thats why I like this forum - it gives us a chance to comment and you do see the other side of the argument. I just hope that others reading this will see both sides and maybe think about renting their properties out in the future and hopefully it will become easier to find somewhere.

I think that this is exactly what this forum is about - the chance for everyone to put their point across - there are always two sides to every story and I think this proves the case and I agree, it may make people think about the other side of the story. Good luck with your seach for a rental property!! And to the person who is renting out, are details of your property on the rentals page as we have visitors coming out all the time - some of whom stay with us and some who dont! Some of the places they have stayed in have not been very nice!! Would be nice to find somewhere a bit more luxurious to offer them....

Hi Bev
my property is advertised on this site as Villa Sarah and we do have a personal website where you can look at the property in more detail www.spainvillasarah.com

I am so glad that here on the forum we have been able to share and understand each others points of view regarding property rentals, I really hope that in the end we can all reach a common ground and make the renting experience a positive one for all concerned cause at the end of the day we all need each other and thats indisputable !!!

many thanks

Thanks - I will keep your details for when we next need them.

The other thing that I have noticed as I flick through the sites is that a lot of the same posts are appearing on each site. It seems that as I am registered on the Benijofar Life website I can post on any site in the group (and indeed have!!). Whilst I like the idea of being able to flick between the sites, it does get a bit boring seeing the same posts on each wall particularly when they are advertising posts.

Bev
I agree with your point about lack of information pertaining to each town. I guess this is down to the person responsible for each site and while its easy to preach from the floor when were not doing the job I would still say to the site providers c'mon lets have some more deatailed and purposeful information relative to each area

Thank you for your comments, it seems that you have missed all the post and information that has been sent out on the Daily Diary that explains the new feature that is being added to the site called "My Spanish Life"

On this feature everyone will be able to add information about the area as well as pictures and articles that they feel is relevant. The idea of A Spanish Life is to offer everyone a platform to share information and advise to others. So all will be able to add to these pages.

As for the same post appearing on each site, you will find that as more people join the other area sites you will have a lot more content to read and the repeated adverts will not be as common.

This sounds like a good idea - will look forward to seeing it. Do you know when it will go live?

The added bonus of tonight was that we could hear WOODY singing. He was actually on at a private do next door, but it was so nice sitting outside having our meal and wine listening to him entertaining !!

Hi,Dave! i wouldn't change a thing you know!! Well maybe one..I would have driven to Spain the first time me and my partner decided to try Spain..=) Because it's very hard here without one! Thats 1.
Second of all, do any of them have any qualification or the idea what sort of work would they be looking for, the choice of the area would depend on that. If not well they can allways try finding work at the bar or restaurant or a golf course etc..while learning spanish..They should definitely come and try it like we did.. we got some money to see us through few months here, and if we didn't make it we could allways go back..
But we did make it, and to be honest only one of them can have a good job to support a family (1200€ ish) Then if they are under 30 and want to rent theres help from government 210€! Thats very helpful! So i work, my partner is at home with 2 kids, we rent a huge flat, have a car, a dog, 2 kids-and we manage fine! I doubt we could afford all that in Uk....:)
Any more questions? I could write and write about it for ages! =) but they definitely should at least try it!

I think it would be a good move! But it all depends on their circumstances..how old are they, do they have any qualifications, are they coming with the kids..etc..
Need more details about them to suggest anything more structural.

I guess for us who have been here five years, and more, the adventure has taken some twists and turns, but the positive side is that when we arrived there were a lot of dead beats and so called professionals who had reinvented themselves and made a lot of money from the then innocent Brits. I only wish we had sites like this one up and running so that we were not ripped off by these vagabonds who have now milked the honey pot dry and moved on.

In answer to your question, If I could turn back the clock to that Sunday in February 2007 when I first arrived to start my new life here in Spain. I might do things differently, but I have no regrets moving here. I have seen many changes but the best part is that now the people who have stayed here and made it their home despite the hard times, are the true lovers of the spirit that is Spain.

Thank you for your posting, it will be interesting to see others point of view.

Give them this link http://thisisspain.info/moving-to-spain/top-tips-for-moving-to-spain/ here are some good tips. Also they just should do a research on internet about the legalities and formalities in Spain etc..:) They should come and see for themselves!

Hm..interesting question, not easy to answer..Ups and downs will be everywhere, but i'd rather have my downs in Spain than in England..

All in all life is as hard in Spain as it is in the U.K but somehow life feels better when the sun is shining.

I will suffer in the warmth of Spain rather than the clouds of he U.K

Thank you for your comments, it seems that you have missed all the post and information that has been sent out on the Daily Diary that explains the new feature that is being added to the site called "My Spanish Life"

On this feature everyone will be able to add information about the area as well as pictures and articles that they feel is relevant. The idea of A Spanish Life is to offer everyone a platform to share information and advise to others. So all will be able to add to these pages.

What a great idea, I am looking forward to adding lots of interesting things.
The forum is fine but its not for information its for chatting.
From what I have read would I be right in saying that we can have a topic that everyone can add to? So to take up the banner of Bev we can start a subject on local information where by we can all add to it as time goes by, so it becomes our own wikipedia. I can not wait, how long before it is on line?

Looking forward to a great day, good luck.
Maxine

We will see you there.. picked a flyer up for it today...