The General Chat Thread (2024)

SandwichShortOfAPicnic said:
Buying a place is a conversation Mr SSOAP and I have on a loop endlessly but the laws in Spain on squatters mean your utterly powerless to remove anyone who's been in there more than 24 hrs (and to prove that it's over 24hours they tend to just place a few dirty plates about the place).

Holiday homes of foreigners are the most targeted because they are empty often.

The govt, the local councils and the police are on the side of the Spanish squatters because "Why do you have two homes when this person has none?"
I've heard one council actually keeps a list of these homes as a solution to homelessness.


There are professional gangs that make a living out of changing your locks and duping renters with fake contracts.

You can arrive and find your squatter utterly shocked that the contract they signed and the rent they've been paying is a racket and then the thieves will tell them they're perfectly within their rights to stay.

You can then spend up to 20 years trying to evict them (it averages 7years) and when you do out of spite they'll break back in and it starts all over again.

I could tell you many many horror stories of people simply having to give up and let their property go. It's a story you'll see often in the expat newspapers 😞

You have to live here full time if you want to know your house is safe and the 90 day rule means that can't happen.

So you can see why I'm not keen to spend 300k on a little two bed I could easily lose.

The landlord would not sell this place, he adores Salobreña (as do we) and his family all have their own holiday houses next to the beach so they all meet here and spend the summer socialising together. He has this one lined up for his children when they grow up.


Anyway a really good thing- after JAS_OH1 suggestion of shelving for storage it suddenly dawned on me there's a small shower room directly opposite the kitchen (literally two steps) and it never gets used because who wants to shower downstairs right next to the front door when all your clothes and ablutions have to be completed upstairs anyway?

So there we have it cookingbites has saved me and enormous amount of grief and I can see it working well as a solution so thankyou!! 😘
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My parents didn't have any of those issues with the home they purchased in Tenerife (town). But perhaps it is different on the islands?

They have since had to sell it, but that's because of financial issues after being stranded in Australia for 6 months during covid with only summer clothing and 6 weeks medication each. There was only so much we could help them out with buying them a lot of towels, bedding, and kitchen utensils, pots & pans and a dyson air purifier (hot cold one) amongst other things like a 6 month loan of our main vehicle, setting up doctors, medical expenses and helping them navigate the visa issues that arose.
 
I hate 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜. I need that hammer. Right now they are crawling out of a double socket in the bedroom. How am I meant to spray that? Really?. I've plugged an unused extension lead into it, but done of the smaller ones are still managing to get out because they're is a recessed part of the socket that they are able to crawl out of. (They were crawling out of the bit you actually of the plug into. )

1726397595063159425867450922394.jpg


They are still crawling out and that's right next to my side of the bed!

I am going to have to find that game of mine and get rid of some aggression towards 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜
SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT

Yep that feels better.
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
My parents didn't have any of those issues with the home they purchased in Tenerife (town). But perhaps it is different on the islands?

They have since had to sell it, but that's because of financial issues after being stranded in Australia for 6 months during covid with only summer clothing and 6 weeks medication each. There was only so much we could help them out with buying them a lot of towels, bedding, and kitchen utensils, pots & pans and a dyson air purifier (hot cold one) amongst other things like a 6 month loan of our main vehicle, setting up doctors, medical expenses and helping them navigate the visa issues that arose.
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Tenerife and Spain are not governed the same way.
The law on protecting squatters in Spain only changed in 2020 and it took a minute or two for it to fully exploited so your parents (if Tenerife is covered by the same rules) will have missed it.
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
Right now they are crawling out of a double socket in the bedroom. How am I meant to spray that?
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We used to have that problem in Texas, and the way the pest control folks dealt with wall sockets and light switches was to use these little straws, about an inch long and the diameter of a coffee stirrer, filled with poison.

They’d pop off the outlet cover, set a few of those in each one, and back on with the cover.

Here, I’m able to by liquid ant killer in a droplet bottle, and for hard-to-reach places, drops can be placed on little strips of cardboard (it’s a gel, and I actually use the cardboard material from the packaging - it’s about the thickness of a playing card, so it’s easy to cut to fit) and slipped into the outlet receptacle.
 
TastyReuben said:
We used to have that problem in Texas, and the way the pest control folks dealt with wall sockets and light switches was to use these little straws, about an inch long and the diameter of a coffee stirrer, filled with poison.

They’d pop off the outlet cover, set a few of those in each one, and back on with the cover.

Here, I’m able to by liquid ant killer in a droplet bottle, and for hard-to-reach places, drops can be placed on little strips of cardboard (it’s a gel, and I actually use the cardboard material from the packaging - it’s about the thickness of a playing card, so it’s easy to cut to fit) and slipped into the outlet receptacle.
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That's handy to know. We've had a few thoughts about dealing with them. The most likely solution at the moment is to drill a 2mm hole at the top of the wall just under the architrave, insert one of the 9 month protection cans with a nozzle on it very similar to that of WD-40, a long thin straw, and empty the can into the wall space. Fill in the hole with polyfiller.

We do have some of that liquid poison as well, we've also got a dust insecticide powder which would likely be safer in the immediate area of electrical wires. It's hydrophobic and whilst expensive, it exceptionally good (called Coopex). I don't like using these things, but they're are times when you have to and I think we've exceeded that parameter!
 
SandwichShortOfAPicnic said:
Tenerife and Spain are not governed the same way.
The law on protecting squatters in Spain only changed in 2020 and it took a minute or two for it to fully exploited so your parents (if Tenerife is covered by the same rules) will have missed it.
Click to expand...
My parents didn't sell up until 2022.
 
TastyReuben said:
We used to have that problem in Texas, and the way the pest control folks dealt with wall sockets and light switches was to use these little straws, about an inch long and the diameter of a coffee stirrer, filled with poison.

They’d pop off the outlet cover, set a few of those in each one, and back on with the cover.

Here, I’m able to by liquid ant killer in a droplet bottle, and for hard-to-reach places, drops can be placed on little strips of cardboard (it’s a gel, and I actually use the cardboard material from the packaging - it’s about the thickness of a playing card, so it’s easy to cut to fit) and slipped into the outlet receptacle.
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I've never seen that, just the traps. Can you please post a picture of the box?
 
First day working at school, a thief stole 2 wallets, from 2 cleaning ladies.
So now, I carry my bag with all the basic important stuff to the bathroom, teachet's room, anywhere...

In 7 y me working here, not one such incident.

Obviously times change, or whatever it is...
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
My parents didn't sell up until 2022.
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As I said it's taken a while for it to be fully exploited and Tenerife may even have different rules on eviction to mainland Spain 🤷‍♀️
Plus they are only interested in areas where people go for employment they can walk to or have easy transportation links.
Tenerife is not one of those places.
As you know a lone experience of having no hassles isn't an indication of the bigger picture.
 
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