Villa Flooding - General property discussion in Benimar - Benimar forum - Costa Blanca forum in the Alicante province of Spain
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Lee1973

Posts: 40

8 helpful points

Location: Benimar

Joined: 26 May 2019

Hey everyone.

Just wanted to pick your brains.

We moved to Benimar 4 weeks ago and have been busy unpacking, decorating and settling in.

Unfortunately, during the last 3 weeks, the downstairs self contained quarters that my Brother and I live in have flooded twice with the heavy rainfall.

We can't work out where the water is coming from or how much of it can get in(approximately and inch deep over the entire floor area of each downstairs room).

We don't want to be living our new lives in constant worry every time it rains. Does anyone have any advice or suggestions?

Many thanks in advance.

Lee

Lee1973

Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2019 4:05pm

Lee1973

Original Poster

Posts: 40

8 helpful points

Location: Benimar

Joined: 26 May 2019

Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2019 4:05pm

Thanks for this Ray, much appreciated.

Unfortunately, I believe ours is an underbuild. 

It's obviously a recurring issue as the walls in the living room have about 1.5ft of damp and mould on them, the vendors of the Villa not only didn't inform us about the flooding issue, but purposefully hid the fact by fresh painting over the damp and mould.

I'm dreading the thought of us having to dig up the entire downstairs bedrooms, bathroom and living room to tank it as we just don't have that kind of money, the move over here has pretty much wiped us out money wise and I don't think my Brother and I will be able to get jobs that pay enough for us to live on, pay the bills etc AND start saving for the tanking.

What started off as a wonderful new family life in Spain 4 weeks ago has fast become a total nightmare with these 2 floods already.... at least we didn't have phones and tablets on the floor this time, we learnt that mistake from the first flood 2 weeks ago 😉

jimtaylor

Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2019 4:12pm

jimtaylor

Legendary helpful member

Posts: 5612

8735 helpful points

Location: Mudamiento

Joined: 2 Feb 2017

Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2019 4:12pm

To add to what Ray's said, Spanish sand is so coarse that even when mixed with cement it is still porous, and water can literally run through it as though it's a sieve. In my case I had easy access to the outside of the offending mortar, and there wasn't a lot of it, so I sealed it with liquid silicone. That was ten years ago and still no problems. If it had been a larger area I'd have coated it with a waterproof tanking compound.

Lee1973

Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2019 5:24pm

Lee1973

Original Poster

Posts: 40

8 helpful points

Location: Benimar

Joined: 26 May 2019

Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2019 5:24pm

Thanks so much for the advice Ray. It's very helpful and very much appreciated.

I think it's easy to forget when purchasing property over in Spain that the building regulations aren't as strict or adhered to as they are in the UK and the Soanish Property Laws don't protect the property buyer for non disclosure as they do in the UK either. 

Thanks again Ray 👍

FionaS

Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2019 7:37pm

FionaS

Helpful member

Posts: 216

168 helpful points

Location: Orihuela Costa

Joined: 2 Jan 2018

Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2019 7:37pm

I am curious what nationality were the people who owned the place you bought? 

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Lee1973

Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2019 7:47pm

Lee1973

Original Poster

Posts: 40

8 helpful points

Location: Benimar

Joined: 26 May 2019

Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2019 7:47pm

English Fiona 😡😠

FionaS

Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2019 8:10pm

FionaS

Helpful member

Posts: 216

168 helpful points

Location: Orihuela Costa

Joined: 2 Jan 2018

Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2019 8:10pm

Well there it is,  once again I am astounded by the attitude of English people towards English people, why oh why do they treat each other in this way. Having bought and sold properties in 3 scandinavian countries the first time we had a problem was buying from an English person here in Spain, the very first time it rained the roof let it pour in....... since then have bought 4 properties here  all from Spanish people 2 with a problem which was explained beforehand giving us a choice whether to buy or not. 

Having not been living in the UK for 30 odd years had always thought we were a nation of helping each other it shocked me to realise that no one or very few are prepared to help others unless they are paid and it saddens me that I have spent time and energy in the past defending the nation only to find out that it is lies. I am sorry you have had this experience but try not to let it encourage you to join the ranks of those who cannot reach out to others especially your own countrymen.

Stephanie86

Posted: Fri Sep 13, 2019 1:07pm

Stephanie86

Legendary helpful member

Posts: 2734

2045 helpful points

Location: Lliber

Joined: 4 May 2017

Posted: Fri Sep 13, 2019 1:07pm

Our underbuild is in part an absolute disaster zone when we have this amount of rain. It’s quite large and, fortunately, is actually divided into 2 halves with a high step in the middle. The rear part luckily doesn’t flood at all,for some unknown reason, but the front half is several inches deep after heavy rain. 

Short of seriously expensive works to  sort this out, I am reduced to mopping it up and trying to empty it out with a VAX machine - absolute pain. The front part is therefore useful when it;s dry and the rear is used as an ‘office’ cum store space. 

We toyed with the idea of the conversion when we bought the place, but realised that the expensive digging out of the floor to comply with the ceiling height and the consequent water proofing were simply not justifiable and as the entire floor area had been conveniently tiled over by previous occupants, we decided not to do any more.

Andrea Murphy

Posted: Sat Sep 14, 2019 1:44pm

Andrea Murphy

Helpful member

Posts: 525

350 helpful points

Location: Almoradí

Joined: 22 Feb 2018

Posted: Sat Sep 14, 2019 1:44pm

Tell everybody this please:

Hi 

FLOOD DAMAGE and INSURANCE

CARS and insurance for flood damage

Just in case you do not already know, if you have fully comprehensive cover on your car you are paying a small amount each month to the Consortio. The Insurance will not pay for your car repairs for the Gota Fria but the Corsortio will. You need to make a claim with the Consortio. We only found this out when we were caught out in the last Gota Fria earlier this year when our car was water logged. The Consortio paid out - we had no problem.

HOUSE and insurance for flood damage.

Exactly the same applies as above. If you have House and Contents insurance you are also paying a small amount each year to the Consortio, so you make your claim with the Consortio - as same as you would for the car above.

Need any further advice come back to me and I will look up details of our claim with the Consortio so that you have telephone numbers, addresses of where to claim etc., BUT your Insurance Company should help you with the relevant claim - must add here ours did not help us, but another insurance company did. Hence we changed insurance companies when the car insurance ran out.

Good luck, Remember, if you are insured you are covered, do not accept that you are not, you are paying the Consortio every month so you are entitled to claim.

If you are not insurance, sorry I cannot help you.

Good luck

Andrea Murphy

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