14- Welcome and unwelcome attention from the authorities

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