Mapping Spain monthly Recap December 2024.
When I worked in Montreal I had a British boss who coined it: “Silly Buggers”. As in when someone was screwing with him, he’d snarn at them “I’m not stupid. Stop playing Silly Buggers!!”.
I love that term and I use it whenever I can.
I knew our landlord was playing Silly Buggers. And it was confirmed December 31st.
We moved into our apartment in June. Our landlords, a Spanish couple in their 60s, seemed over the moon to have us. And we were happy to have a big, clean apartment (I’ve previously written about the challenges of finding an apartment in Granada).
They came over a few times over the first couple of months to fix things up. The apartment is old and needs updating. They were always friendly and even told us that they’d invite us to their house out in the campo. But the one thing they seemed unwilling to fix was their water heater. Twice plumbers came to look at it, both of them saying the machine had to be replaced. They adjusted the machine enough to keep it working but stressed that it was a temporary fix. The landlord didn’t want to replace the machine “do you know how much it costs? Almost 3000 Euros!”.
The machine was fine over the fall. The owners came over a couple of times for a few odds and ends and asked us how long we intended to rent from them. The answer was always “at least 2 years”. We had 2 years left until we got our permanent residency and after moving in both 2023 and 2024 we just wanted to stay put for a couple of years. They seemed happy with that.
Machines breakdowns are like medical emergencies: they always seem to happen on a Friday evening before a holiday. It was the Friday night 2 weeks before Christmas when the hot water heater died. Temperatures were dipping to zero outside (we had just started using the heaters so that was probably the kiss of death for the machine). Unlike previous times, there were none of the clicking noises that indicated any signs of life. The machine was dead.
We advised the landlord. He told us that a plumber would come to look at it. He wasn’t as friendly as he was in the past. From that point on his emails became one-liners. Lissette: “do you think he’s angry at us because his machine broke down?”.
Two days later the plumber came. It took him 5 minutes to tell us that the machine was dead, that it would have to be replaced. It was at least 20 years old and, according to him, these machines usually last about 15 years. It wasn’t a surprise, he was the 3rd plumber to tell us that the machine had to be replaced. I said to him “I can’t understand why the owner didn’t want to replace it sooner, he knew this would happen”.
That’s when the plumber told us: the owners had been willing to change the machine but recently they had changed their tune because they were maybe thinking of selling the apartment.
This went against everything we had been told. We figured we’d better find out what their plans were.
We were without hot water and heating for 5 days but the plumber came back a few days before Christmas and installed a brand-new water heater.
On Boxing Day I prepaid January’s rent and confirmed payment to the landlord. I also asked him (on Whatsapp) point blank; “Our contract ends on May 31st and we’d be interested in renewing. Are you still looking to renew or do you have other plans?”
He didn’t reply. Days passed with no reply and Lissette would tell me “it’s the holidays, sometimes people don’t like to do business during the holidays”.
I told her she was wrong and that he was playing Silly Buggers.
On December 31st we woke up to a voice message on Whatsapp. In it, our landlord tells us that they are going to cancel the contract on May 31st because “family was going to use the apartment”.
Sure.
The question I have is when he would he have told us? If it wasn’t for the slip by the plumber – and us asking a direct question – he might have waited until 2 months before the contract ended before advising us. The “family will need use of the apartment” clause is the best way for a landlord to get rid of a tenant on short notice (otherwise, as I understand it, they need to give 4 months advance notice).
Anyway, the long and the short of it was that he was playing Silly Buggers.
That’s twice in 2024 that we’ve dealt with serial Silly Bugger landlords.
Our landlord in Antequera was constantly playing Silly Buggers. It was a brand-new apartment and they had rushed to complete it, taking some shortcuts along the way. The first 8 months had been full of never ending problems: electrical issues, plumbing issues, problems installing wifi (we had ‘radio wifi´ the first 2 months of our stay). There was always an excuse, always someone to blame. The breaking point came when we came back from our 2-month trip to Mexico and found the apartment riddled with mold. Green spotches on the ceiling, walls etc. And we had it good…our downstairs neighbour had it so bad that it grew on her clothes and furniture. The owners as usual had an excuse ¨there was a leak up the street and the water infiltrated the building”. The plumber had looked at me and rolled his eyes…
It had been the final nail in the coffin to leaving Antequera for Granada in May.
Honestly, Spain has been exhausting. There’s a lot of great things about the country and, speaking Spanish, we thought it would be easy. But over our 4 years in Spain nothing has come easy, whether it be dealing with landlords, noisy and intrusive neighbours, or Spanish companies (don’t get me started, Spanish customer service is the worst I’ve seen anywhere). We’ve dealt with more Silly Buggery and Tomfuckery in 4 years in Spain than in the previous 20 years combined. It’s frustrating.
I guess being the owner of a blog called Mapping Spain I should tell you that Spain is paradise and that even Spanish dog poop smells like flowers. It isn’t and it doesn’t.
I’m just being honest.
It’s January 1st and we’re faced with having to find a new apartment. That’ll be 3 years in a row that we’ve changed apartments and we were just looking forward to finally being settled in one place for a while…
Plans for 2025
Ok, got my rant out and had a mimosa. I feel better.
The big thing in 2025 is going to be getting (knock on wood) our permanent residency in Spain. That should happen in October. More on that later.
In February we’ll be doing a 3-week trip along the coasts of Almeria, Murcia and Alicante provinces. There are lots of historic cities in this region as well as interesting coastal towns. And February is always a good time: less tourists, not too hot, good pricing.
We also plan on doing a lot of day and weekend trips in the Granada region, visiting places like Montefrio, Guadix and Salobrena.
In the spring I had more travel in mind: going from Barcelona to Bilboa with a deviation through Southern France (Carcassonne, Toulouse, Bordeaux, and the French Basque). But with us having to find an apartment and move, I’m pretty sure we’ll have to put that trip on hold.
Permanent residency. In late 2025 we should get our Spanish permanent residency. As temporary residents we’ve had to have 5 years of continuous empadronamiento to qualify for Permanent Residency. Permanent residency means much more flexibility to come and go without the continuous empadronamiento requirements.
If you asked us a few weeks ago, I would have told you that our preferred option would be to maintain our base in Granada and to travel 6 months of the year. Finding a decent apartment (with good landlords) anywhere is difficult right now and we would have preferred having a base to come back to. That might still happen if/when we find a place but…
The other option is do some full-time travel without a base. We did that from 2014 to 2020 and honestly we’ve missed the lifestyle. There are still many places we haven’t been. Overseas travel would be combined with several months of travel in Spain. We’re both 58 and realize that our window for full-time travel is shortening, it’s not something we’ll want to be doing in our 70’s.
Really, there’s a lot up in the air for 2025. Things will get clearer for us over the next few months.
Compensation claim against Iberia
A few people have written me asking about my claim for compensation against Iberia. I said I’d keep readers up to date.
For those who don’t know the story, my Iberia flight from Granada to Madrid was delayed by 3 hours on October 30th. It led me to miss my connecting flight to Mexico City. I was eventually rescheduled, overnighted in Madrid, and arrived 36 hours later than scheduled in Mexico City.
I detailed the experience here.
As a reader informed me, I was due compensation for my delay under EU regulation 261/2004 which gives passengers the right to compensation when their flights are delayed by more than 3 hours to the final destination. It only applies to EU airlines. I detail that regulation here. That’s what prompted me to go after Iberia.
I’ve communicated twice now with Iberia customer service who apologized (kind of) but refuse to pay up (I guess…I received some kind of form letter that says a lot without saying anything). The most maddening thing is that they give no reason or justification for refusing the claim. They could have cited extraordinary weather (one of the conditions a claim can be denied) but they haven’t even done that. They just want me to go away like a smelly dog with fleas.
So – as I warned Iberia I would do – I wrote to the Spanish Aviation Safety and Security Agency. They’re responsible with enforcing the regulation of passenger rights in Spain. It’s been over a month and I haven’t heard from them yet but I’ve been told they can take a few months to reply to an email. I’m going to write them back in the next few weeks.
People may think I’m doing this to pick up a quick 600 Euros. No. I’m still really upset about having to stand in an Iberia customer service line from 2:30 am to 8:30 am. As I mention in the post recounting the experience, it could have all been taken care of in Granada before getting on that flight. I was open to rebooking the flight. Instead they were completely, utterly useless.
So what to do? In the coming weeks I’m going to do a post recounting the experience and start sharing that post on Iberia’s social media pages. Whenever I’ve done that in the past companies have caved. They hate negative publicity on social media. Whether it works with Iberia I don’t know. But a hotel and a couple of meal vouchers don’t make up for screwing up somebody’s travel plans…and you can’t allow companies to ignore international laws and regulations. You can’t let people get away with playing Silly Buggers.
So that’s where I am with this claim.
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