Talk Quesada forum

Hi All , we have recently purchased a property in Dona Pepa .... we are totally new to this and very 'green' to this whole experience so any help would be greatly appreciated .

I have been looking around this forum for the past 12 months or so and find it extremely useful but with all the will in the world I feel I am now going around in circles .
So thoughts id try a one stop post and hopefully you can all help ....
With this being a holiday home we have been told by the Estate Agent that we do not need gas , therefore I'm wondering who its best to use for water and electric (do they even have more than one vendor for these utilities ??)
House insurance ... can anyone advise a company and what I should be looking at paying - as I have mentioned we are a bit green and wouldn't want to be paying anymore than we should be ??

We would also like to have the ability to watch English TV , we have been told we are in a fibre enabled area , so what is best please ?
Do we need a box ? a Smart Tv ? a Fire stick ?

We also have an alarm in the property but unsure if its working or now , can anyone advise a good alarm fitter / repairer ?
Last but not least ... how do I come down a line when I type on here ... I press enter and it just goes to the line above .... I'm obviously doing something wrong .
Many thanks in advance for all your help ....
Gandy

Water will be connected and you will need a contract with Hidraqua. Be aware that the standing charges will be higher than the cost of the water and will be in the region of 40 euro a quarter even without using the water.
Electricity will also probably be in and you will need a contract with, probably, Iberdrola. Note that their are other companies but you will still pay for the connected supply with Iberdrola (collected by whichever company you go with) and the standing charges will be anything from 20 to 40 euro a month depending on your contracted supply.
The solicitor you use should sort out the connections plus the standing orders to pay the bills. They should also set up a standing order to pay your council tax (with SUMA and collected annually) your rubbish collection charge (again with SUMA and collected annually) and ask them about your non-resident income tax which is again paid annually.

Lots of insurance companies for house insurance. Make sure the ones you go with cover a holiday home with protracted levels of absence. We are with Linea Directa and pay 190 euro a year but we are permanent residents with a higher level of possessions than a holiday home would have. We've never had to make a claim so I couldn't say what they are like if anything does happen. Pretty sure you'll get lots coming on telling you which ones to avoid.

English TV. As you will only be using it for holidays, you can either have a satellite dish installed (all UK freesat channels and no monthly payment) or sign up with a company that does switch on/switch off services. It means you only pay for TV and internet for the month you are actually there. Telfy does fibre optic and dvblab will provide a pretty good service which you can switch on and off. Lots of other companies in the area. Depending on the system and your TV will determine if you need a box or not (lots of TVs now have built in satellite decoders as well as the freeview one. You can't get freeview but it will enable you to watch Spanish digital TV which has lots of English programmes and a dual language facility to switch from Spanish (dubbed) to original language. Just be aware the Spanish TV is swamped with adverts.

The alarm system could have been installed but not connected. There should be a sticker with a number to call or you can get a different alarm company to set it up. Again, quite a few alarm companies touting for business in the area.

One piece of advice, once you move in get all the locks changed. You'll find there are loads of keys to your property hanging around with builders, estate agents, traders and so on. Change the locks as newly purchased property has been the target for burglars in the past.

No idea why your cursor goes up instead of down when you press return. Some sort of setting on your browser maybe?

Thank you VERY MUCH your a star

Gandy

Gandy1976 wrote:Thank you VERY MUCH your a star


Gandy

he certainly is

Marcliff knows everything, don't know what we'd do without him. Thank you for all your knowledge.

Marcliff

You are like an encyclopedia of knowledge. Love reading your replies as they are so factual and true. Well done to you and keep it up. We appreciate it.

I’d just add that an iptv (Mag) box with annual subscription will receive all the channels you want. They work fine with fibre-optic internet. An Amazon UK firestick will also work with internet. A Smart tv will most likely have an Amazon app however - you just have to enter your password.

As a holiday home you will be best to arrange a switch on switch off Internet. There are a few mentioned on this topic. Personally for our holiday home we use http://www.dvblab.com (one off fee for router fitting and then around 19€ for the month switch on for Internet) and find it works perfectly well but there are others to choose from.

Thanks very much for all yoir replies .

Please keep them coming , forwarned is forarmed so they say ......

Thanks again

Gandy

For holiday home insurance go to English comparison sites like Go compare, compare the market. Etc. Far superior cover and sums insured with policies in English and English call centres!