A strange visit from the authorities and discovering that my architect is a fraud. 

(It may be a good idea to read the posts in order and start with the oldest one)

I am sorry for the long silence but life has taken a lot of strange turns and with one thing and another I never came around to continue the story.
However, here are the events in early June 2015:

A panic message from my architect

I am sitting at work when my architect messages me and the panic shines though even in the short message she sends me:

A very strange visit from the Region of Madrid and the realization dawns that I may have been guilty of serious crime

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Starting the renovation and getting fucked by the the authorities as well as the neighbors

(It may be a good idea to read the posts in order and start with the oldest one)

• So, in early may 2015 I  get informed that the big renovation will start, not only with the facades of the building, but also with the leaking roofs above my apartment.
• They have asked for access to my apartment, since they want to access the roofs from my windows instead of building scaffolding from the floor of the patio and up.
• This means I need to have people in the apartment that can let the workers in (I am not keen on giving my keys away to unknown persons), but now I can actually also press the button for starting the renovation of my new home. After all, there are a few things I can do that will not get destroyed while the workers are tearing up the roof and changing whatever beams needs to be changed.

...So time to get started!

My architect presents me with an offer. I would not call it cheap. Not at all.
And on top of the sum she will also add 20% of the renovation cost for her work; contracting and leading the workers, making the new design, make sure everything is legal and all rules are followed etc.
But, what the hell. I really need to get started, I do not want the responsibility of the workers and I also have a full time job that requires travels and stuff. Hence I cannot do it my self. My architect is also a friend of mine and also a friend of many of my friends, so I fully trust her.

So a date is set when the architect of the neighbor community and the foreman/supervisor of the team doing the renovation of the building are to come and inspect the access to the roofs. They do not come.
A new date is set. They do not show up.
After some more days we get a message that they are very much in a hurry and we better be in the apartment on such and such date. Now they actually do come.

After this there are at least 3 more visits and various alternatives are discussed regarding how to get the safest and best access to the roof. After this things goes quiet.
The architect of the community doesn't answer his phone, the foreman seems to have gone up in smoke and the administrator follows his ordinary modus oprandi and refuses to communicate. As if by magic he also happens to never be in the office when I pass by.

The longed for inspection

In-between all the visits of the community architect and the supervisor, I get another visit though. A lady from the "Departamento de Inspección Técnica de Edificios", comes to do the  technical inspection I had requested. Almost to the day two months after I filed the request.

According to my friend and architect she was very nice, very understanding and quite, quite horrified about what she saw. She actually said this was a clear case and that within four weeks the community of neighbors would receive an additional "Orden de Ejecucion" and that they would have two months to get the roofs repaired.

At this point I still believed that the the community troika had come to their senses and that this would not be needed, but still. Better safe than sorry, right?

The weeks passes, I hear no more word from the community architect, the administrator or anyone else of the self appointed "kings of the community".

The not so welcome attention

All is not quiet though. Oh no... now I am suddenly the focus of attention from both the Madrid region and Madrid City! It starts with a strange phone call from a technician of Madrid city.

First of all; they usually never call. Never. This indicates something fishy may be going on. Like if someone has contacted the technician in question and asked him, a friend to a friend, to make my life difficult, but without making it too official.

The man tells me that the communication done to the City of Madrid, regarding the renovation was not in order and tells me that I need to make this a full blown project * (see foot note for explanation) which, according to him, means that I have to provide the following:

1. Exact design of the apartment before the renovation
2. Exact design of apartment after the renovation
3. Images of every part of the apartment, including the two patios
4. "La escritura", hence the legal document signed when buying the property
5. Detailed budget of what the renovation will cost me
6. Exact description of the air-conditioning with a copy of the page from the supplier catalog 

I naturally asked why?

- Well, he said. It seems you in deed will make structural changes since I see in the designs that you have delivered that there will be a new window open up.

I protested. There were no new windows to be opened, but he insisted.

- So, if I take the photos of the current state of the apartment that should surely prove that I will not open a new window, I said.

- It would, he said. But it is not enough, because maybe you are not renovating an apartment, but is trying to create an illegal apartment by rebuilding an old attic.

- Well, I protested. That is ridiculous. You have the catastral number (a kind of registration number for each house, apartment and other kind of property), if you check it you can clearly see this is an apartment!

...and now comes the scary part because he answered;

- Oh no. You cannot trust the registry!

WHAT THE HELL!
The city's own property register is not to be trusted! Seriously.... what does Spain even do in the European Union or in the 21th century for that sake!

Well. Nothing more to it. I started to search for an air-conditioning with high power but without outdoor unit.
Furthermore, this also meant more work and more papers to be written and new visits to the various city organisms in order to get things sorted out. This happened in the beginning of June. It is now mid November and things are still not resolved! Partly because I am now trying to get the City of Madrid to let me open a window towards the street so that I can actually have a normal air-conditioning installed. And that process takes ages! More about this in a later blog post.

The small window is the one they claimed did not exist

This is a drawing to show the city of Madrid from where all the photos were taken

It is in the marked wall I now want to open a window to be able to install air conditioning. More about this in a coming blog post

In the next post though:
A very strange visit from the Region of Madrid and the realization dawns that I may have been guilty of serious crime

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*) There are various kinds of communication you can do when renovating. If it is considered a small renovation, you actually do not need an architect or a "project", but if it is considered to be bigger, you need to turn in tons of papers. The difference is basically if you will change the structure of the building, like open up a new window

How the reigning trike deceived me badly!

(It may be a good idea to read the posts in order, hence starting with the oldest)

I am sorry... I promised a post about how I was reported by the neighbor(s?) and how they generally have done everything in their power to stop me from renovating my apartment. Well... this post became too long as it is, so that will be the next chapter yet. However, I hope you will enjoy this post anyway.

This post treats the period from April 25 to beginning of May 2015. I do think a short recap can be of value, so here we go:

1. The Community of Neighbors still refuses to do anything to  make my apartment possible to live in. The roof still lets water in, and in fact both beams and the whole set of tiles must be changed
2. My renovation is at a complete stand-still since September 2014
3. The Administrator refuses so give me access to documents regarding the enforced renovation
4. I have just asked Madrid City to do a new inspection in my apartment to get the roofs above it into the enforced renovation.
5. The Community of neighbors has, falsely, stated that it is "forbidden" to have air conditioning installed in the patios of the building (read that absurd post here).

Finding out about how to find things out

(It may be a good idea to read this blog in the correct order. Hence starting with the oldest post)

After having realized the neighbor community would never ever actually repair my roof without me having some very hard evidence that they actually must, I once again asked to see the document enforcing the renovation of the building. I needed to see what parts of the building was under the enforcement.
The Administrator did not, surprise, surprise, answer the emails where I requested the document, and when going to the office to ask for it in person they were never able to give it to me.

So what to do?
I started by calling one of the information offices of Madrid City (this little part of public facing activity actually functions quite well) and they told me to call something called "Departamento de Inspección Técnica de Edificios" (I wrote about it in this blog post). They even provided me a phone number.

As you understand I did not have the reference number or any other means to identify this particular document I needed, but I gave it a shot and called anyway. I had nothing to lose after all.
A very nice lady answers the phone and I explain my predicament. She asks for the address of the building so I tell her and she goes quiet for a moment.

- Oh, that is file number 2011-xxxxx, she tells me but she also tells me the files are not available in any digital format and that I need to go to the office in person in order to see it. There is no possibility to send me a copy.

My visit to the 1950:s

It wasn't this bad, but almost

Consequently I had to take half a day off and get on the subway to the suburbs of Madrid in order to take a look at a paper.
The place was a mess! An enormous office space filled with row upon row of desks and filing cabinets. Obviously the filing cabinets did not suffice, because on top of them were piles of paper that reached 4 to 5 meters above the floor in total.
It was like walking a labyrinth with high walls that threaten to tip over and bury you under the debris.

Nevertheless I was very well received by the clerks and despite the mountains of documents piled up around us, they managed to find file 2011-xxxxx, and we sat down in the only meeting room to review it together.

Crisis and panic! the only things mentioned in the document stipulating the enforced renovation was indeed the facade, some roofs facing the street and some beams in the cellar. How could this be?!

I showed the clerk the documents I had from the architect and the notary and he he agreed; "my" roofs should have been included in the enforced renovation (I wrote about this in this blog post), and should now be under renovation.

- However, he said, It is actually the responsibility of each neighbor community to report any weak or damaged areas of the building and then do the renovations needed. Sometimes we do an inspection anyway, but we can only inspect the areas we can see and get to. And your roofs can only be seen from your apartment...

So, in this case there actually had been an inspection, but even knowing that the roofs were in a very bad state above my apartment, the community representatives carefully avoided showing that part of the building to the inspectors. A way to save money and forget about a problem I guess.

- So, I asked, what should I do? I am starting to get desperate!

The answer was to file a request for a new inspection, and amend copies of the documents from the architect and the notary to file 2011-xxxxx. So that is what I did.

I was about to say goodbye, when the clerk approached me again;
- Just be aware though, he said, that since it is now a private company doing the inspection, it will now take two months instead of a week before the inspection will actually be done.

So much for private companies being more efficient than public sector...


Next post will be about the long wanted community meeting, a nice promise that was broken and being reported by the neighbors. That post will be a thriller!

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Learning that my apartment will not be possible to live in for many years to come

(It may be a good idea to read the blog posts in correct order. Hence start with the oldest one)

The apartment before the renovation

OK, so here is the current status of the nightmare of my neighbor community, legislation, and enforced renovation;

1. The sect leader of the community, señor Alamo, claims it is "forbidden by the community" to have a air conditioning machines installed in the patios
2. Water is pouring in and the same person, in his role as president of the works committee, claims only a few tiles needs to be repaired
3. "My" roof is to be properly repaired in the future. Only god knows when. 
4. If I would do my house renovation before the big renovation, I would, with high probability, get parts of the apartment destroyed again. By water entering the apartment or by the workers while doing the total renovation of the roofs.
5. The community leaders say everything will become clearer in December when the project for the enforced renovation will be decided

The person, appointed by a community I pay a "membership fee" to. Hence a person indirectly employed by me, ignores all, all, communication. Of course I did not know this at this point, but after a few days waiting and sending reminders without getting any answer I walk over to the office and ask the secretary girl to get me the statutes.

- Oh yes, I have seen you messages. But Jorge (the administrator) is not in, she says
- Has he not been in the office for two weeks? I ask. Because that is when I sent the first message...

The poor, retarded thing stares at me blankly. She had probably not been prepared for that question.

- Anyway, I say. I like to see the statutes and you do not need to ask him for permission. I have the right to see them.
- I don't know where they are, she then tells me. But Jorge will be back this afternoon. I will make sure to tell him

The day after I actually do get an email, stating that there are no statutes. This in practice means that the community in my building has no own rules and that the national and local laws apply. This also means that the self acclaimed sect leader, señor Alamo, lied.

We are now in the end of October and all work with the apartment is at a stand-still since the beginning of September. And I who actually had hoped I would have had my new home finished by end of November.

Of I go again to the lawyer.
I need to find out the following:

1. What can and cannot a Neighbor Community actually decide when it comes to your apartment?
2. If it turns out that can decide over the home you are the owner of, what kind of voting system is used? 50/50? Two thirds majority? 
3. An last but not least, what aces do I have up my sleeve to make the Community actually get going with the roofs above my apartment.

The conflict deepens while I am gathering proofs

The water was pouring from the ceiling along the wall

It is now I learn how secteristic the community of neighbors really is

...and they forbid me to install air conditioning!

Getting informed and preparing for battle