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9 months ago
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A BRIT couple’s dreams of retirement in the sunny Spain were crushed when they were conned out of £200,000 by builders.
Phil and Anne Bulman, both 71, were forced to return to England after run-ins with cowboy builders and robbers bled them dry.
SWNS
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SWNSThe couple moved to the Costan Blanca in 2004 when Phil finished three decades in the merchant navy.
They sold up to build their dream house in a beautiful plot in orange and lemon groves in Almoradi.
The pair was looking forward to a comfortable retirement in the sun.
But 20 years on and they are back in Britain after falling foul of robbers, cowboy builders and red tape, they claim.
Phil says the couple put £374,000 into their Spanish dream and have only made back £161,000.
He said: “We’ve all had ideas of that idyllic dream – but it just doesn’t turn out like that.
“For us it was an expensive nightmare.”
They had their dream home built at a cost of £230,000.
After that, they invested £18,500 to have a pool and terraces constructed.
They ended up having more costs to add a second residence on their plot for their daughter, who later joined them.
All the work was done by the same building company and Phil was sure all the paperwork was in order.
But few years later inspectors paid the couple an unexpected visit.
Phil claims that they had work done to fix a problem with the pool when the unannounced guests showed up at their door.
Inspectors were visiting works on a neighbouring property then came over to see what was going on.
Phil claims he was then told the extra house and pool were illegal – and would be destroyed if he didn’t pay £30,000.
He said: “It was awful. We’d trusted the builder and hadn’t had the solicitor look over all the documents.
“We showed them all the paperwork from the builder and they said it was all twaddle.
“Because the money was owed to tax authorities they just emptied our account – £10,000.
“Then the builder just vanished.
“He’d built a few houses nearby and left us all with water tanks, no mains connection – it cost us Euro 70 a month to get the tank filled.
“We spent loads of money on solicitors trying to get mains-water connected.”
Disappointed, the pair returned to the UK in search of money, and Phil began working as a vessel inspector.
They rented in the UK and let out their house in Spain.
However, Phil says his tenant stopped paying a few years later, in 2015 – stating that they had to vacate quickly.
And when the couple got back to Spain, they discovered they had been robbed.
He said: “They had stripped our house and our daughter’s house of everything.
“There was just one small mattress, a few pots and pans, and a few pieces of cutlery left.
“And it was absolutely filthy. This was before we had mains water and it didn’t look like they’d flushed the loo in the whole two and a half years.”
The couple spent an additional £7,000 restocking the properties from the UK and packed their car to the brim.
But then in 2018 they found their car missing and their home broken into.
Phil said: “They’d pulled the security gates off and smashed all the patio doors – there was glass everywhere.
“They took everything of value that wasn’t screwed down.
“It had all been new, including TVs and microwaves.
“Fortunately the insurance paid out this time but it left us with a very bad feeling.”
This served as the tipping point, leading them to list their ideal house for sale.
At last, in 2021, it was sold for £161,000.
But Phil says they were told they hadn’t paid enough council tax – and they’re still waiting for the bill.
Now back living in the South East of England, Phil said: “It was a dream that turned into a nightmare.”
SWNS
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