Just brought a place in Playa Flamenca - Need advice and suggestions

Welcome to PF, we have a place in La zenia which we use several times a year.

I can offer you my humble advice on the following...

Electricity, check your supply and co spider reducing it ....ours was something like 5.75kw and we reduced it to 3.5kw, the 3.5kw is perfectly adequate for our typical 2 bed place providing we do t have washer, air con, cooker and kettle etc all on at the same time...it’s never tripped out in 3yrs yet.

Also, have your electricity provider change your tarif to day/night, the night tarif runs from 11pm until 1pm the next day...great for getting all the washing done.

Doing these two thing have literally halved our electric bill!! 

Car hire...personal choice, but I was fed up of the scamming and charges for tiny marks that we missed etc, the final straw was someone keyed the full length of our last hire car costing us a fortune. We subsequently bought an old scabby but reliable Spanish car for 1200euro, it’s fabulous, I’m not bothered about key scratches (and it has been done too...seems to be a Spanish thing), Insurance is 230e for the car no matter what, so anyone can drive. Insurance includes breakdown recovery as standard too. Tax is about 35-40euro and mot is about 40-45euro. 

There is so much more advice that people can offer, but for now these two snippets may or may not help.

Happy days ahead.....Steve and Chetyl

A couple of sites that may be helpful are Citizens Advice Bureau Spain for general queries and N332 for anything to do with driving in Spain.   The latter site is run by Guardia Civil officers in Torrevieja for English speaking people.

Oh, and key holder/cleaner, you must ensure they are 1000% trustworthy and reputable, it is not uncommon for unscrupulous key holders to let out places when the owners are not due back for a while (personally know someone who came back unexpected and at 1am they were woken by a family trying to get in....they had booked two weeks holiday in his home, a few weeks later exactly the same happened to them AGAIN!)

Make sure you have a will...according to English law (very important)

Pay as you go WiFi.....we use tv Horedada, 120installation then give them 24hr notice online and pay, can be as little as 1euro a day depending on duration and season.

Thanks Pete - will do

Thanks for all the tips Chezste - Lots to think about, but looking forward to spending more time in Spain

 Bernie

Thank you