Our dream move to Spain turned into a nightmare after we were scammed out of £200,000 by a cowboy builder
A British couple's dream of retiring in sunny Spain was crushed when they were scammed out of £200,000 by builders.
Phil and Anne Bulman, both 71, were forced to return to England after clashes with… cowboy builders and robbers bled them dry.
5
5
5
The couple moved to Costan Blanca in 2004 when Phil completed three decades in the Merchant Navy.
They sold it to build their dream home on a beautiful plot in orange and lemon groves in Almoradi.
The pair were looking forward to a comfortable retirement in the sun.
But 20 years later they are back in Britain after dealing with robbers, cowboy builders and red tape, they claim.
Phil says the couple put £374,000 into their Spanish dream and only recouped £161,000.
He said: 'We've all had ideas about that idyllic dream, but it just doesn't turn out that way.
“For us it was an expensive nightmare.”
They had their dream home built at a cost of £230,000.
They then invested £18,500 to have a swimming pool and terraces constructed.
They ended up costing more to add a second home on their lot for their daughter, who joined them later.
All the work was done by the same construction company and Phil was assured that all the paperwork was in order.
But a few years later, inspectors paid the couple an unexpected visit.
Phil claims they had been doing work to fix a problem with the pool when the unannounced guests showed up at their door.
Inspectors visited work on a neighboring site and then came 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 had trusted the builder and not let the lawyer look at all the documents.
“We showed them all the builder's paperwork and they said it was all nonsense.
“Because the money was owed tax authorities have just emptied our account – £10,000.
'Then the builder just disappeared.
“He had built a few houses in the area and left us all with water tanks, without electricity – it cost us 70 euros a month to fill the tank.
“We spent a lot of money on lawyers trying to connect the water line.”
Disappointed, the couple returned to Britain in search of money, and Phil began working as a ship inspector.
They rented in Britain and rented out their house Spain.
However, Phil says his tenant stopped paying a few years later in 2015, stating that they needed to move out quickly.
And when the couple returned to Spain, they discovered that they had been robbed.
He said: 'They had undressed our house and our daughter's house of all things.
'There was only one mattress, a few pots and pans and a few pieces of cutlery.
'And it was absolutely filthy. This was before we had tap water and it didn't look like they had flushed the toilet in those two and a half years.'
The couple spent a further £7,000 topping up the properties in Britain and packed their car to the brim.
But in 2018, they discovered their car was missing and their home had been burglarized.
Phil said: “They had ripped off the security gates and smashed all the patio doors – there was glass everywhere.
'They took everything of value that wasn't broken.
“It was all new, including TVs and microwaves.
“Fortunately the insurance paid out this time, but it gave us a very bad feeling.”
This served as turning pointallowing them to offer their ideal home for sale.
Finally, in 2021, it sold for £161,000.
But Phil says they were told they hadn't paid enough municipal taxes – and they are still waiting the bill.
Now living back in the south-east of England, Phil said: “It was a dream that turned into a nightmare.”
5
5