We had found the property we wanted to live in (our first Spanish apartment). We were now making progress. We were buying furnished but we planned to move most of the existing furniture into store and move our furniture into the apartment. Later, when we found another property, we would use the furniture in storage to furnish our letting apartment. It all seemed so simple.

It was not! The first step we had to take was to really look very carefully at all the possessions we had in the UK. Did we need them? Did we use them? Did we even like them? Would they fit into a Spanish apartment? We had lived in the same house for 16 years so you can imagine how much we had accumulated in that time. We had a really good look at our possessions and had a massive clear-out. We had to bear in mind that everything we took to Spain would cost money to transport there so we were ruthless. This turned out to be a wonderful opportunity to take stock of all our possessions.

NEAR-DISASTER

Then we made our first mistake. We obtained estimates from mainstream removal companies who were prepared to transport personal belongings to Spain. We also had estimates from smaller companies who advertise in the English language newspapers in Spain. Needless to say, they were cheaper, so we decided to give our business to one of these companies. We accepted a verbal estimate which was then backed up by a handwritten estimate.

We had also bought a left-hand-drive vehicle which we wanted to take to our new home. The removers offered to transport it on a trailer for us, which seemed like a very good idea. The cost seemed reasonable and it would save us the nightmare drive across France and Spain with the dog in the back of the car. We could fly to Spain with the dog and a few days later our furniture and our car would arrive to complete the removal process. The remover we had selected would arrange for the furniture we wished to put into store to be picked up from the apartment and taken to a suitable storage place. The date for the removal was agreed.

Everything appeared to be totally in order and we even recommended this removal company to two other couples who were in the process of moving to Spain.

Our first surprise came when the removers arrived two days before the agreed date. It was a Monday morning and we were sitting quite happily at the dining room table reading the paper when the doorbell rang.

‘We’ve come to move you, Guv’.

Panic set in. We were totally unprepared at that time for removers to turn up. However, they said that they just wanted to start packing so that the removal would take place properly on the Wednesday of that week. Warning bells should have rung when I saw the removal van – an anonymous white van, not very new and with absolutely no markings of any kind on the side – but it was too late to start again, we had to be prepared to trust this company.

In they came and they started to pack our belongings. They did work relatively quickly and when we finally unpacked at the other end there were only two minor breakages. They also packed very thoroughly. When we finally unpacked in Spain we found a copy of the Sunday Times which had been lying on the dining room table. They also packed china which had not been intended for Spain – it was destined for the rubbish bin but we were using it until the very last moment. When the packers asked if there was any chance of a cup of coffee or tea, we discovered that tea, coffee and sugar had all been packed and we did not have any clue as to which box they were in.

By the end of the first day of packing we were left with our TV, two chairs and a bed to sleep on. The car had also been used as a container for some of our belongings with clothes used to provide protection for fragile items. This would prove to be a bit of a problem later.

By the end of the second day we were able to leave our London house for the last time. We then had to pay for the removal in advance, and because we were taking house plants with us which required the full height of the back of the van we were asked to pay considerably more than the original quotation. We were now occupying the entire loadspace of the van and there was no possibility of our belongings being classed as a part load. We paid up. We also paid for insurance – another additional cost. The price was now twice the level of the original estimate.

In retrospect the other very silly thing we did was not to compile an inventory of what was being transported either from the UK or from the Spanish apartment into storage. We were just too trusting.

As we set off in the taxi to the airport we took a look at the anonymous white van parked outside our home of 16 years which contained all our worldly possessions, fully expecting to see it again within a few days. By this time the car had been driven off to be put on a trailer, which would be attached to another delivery van destined for Spain.

Last night in the UK

Our last night in the UK was horrendous. We were flying from Luton to Gibraltar early the next morning so we decided that it would probably be better to stay overnight at an airport hotel in order to avoid a ridiculously early start. We booked into a well-known hotel chain and I have to say that it did seem very cheap. What they did not tell us when we booked was the fact that the hotel was at the end of the runway and Luton airport has night flights all night. There was no way that we could even consider sleeping with the windows open. I have to say it was not the most comfortable night that we have spent in a hotel.

The Spanish adventure begins

The next morning our Spanish adventure began in earnest. It was the first time that we had ever flown on a one-way ticket and that was a bit scary in retrospect. Turning back would now be more difficult. Our belongings were following (we hoped) and our friends were waiting to meet us in Gibraltar. Just over two hours after leaving Luton we stepped off the plane onto the tarmac in Gibraltar. Our new life was about to begin.

We drove to our apartment and moved into our new home. Although we were still living with the furniture we had inherited, the place would truly be home in a few days. We had been told that the furniture would take about a week to arrive and as the days of that first week progressed we began to get more and more excited.

One week later there was absolutely no sign of the arrival of our furniture and possessions. We rang the UK number for the removal company – no answer. Not even an answering machine. We tried ringing the mobile number we had been given for the driver. It was not switched on. Eventually we were able to speak to the driver only to discover that the van was still in northern Spain. It would be another two or three days before it reached us. All we could do was to wait and try to be patient and philosophical. We now realised that we had made a mistake.

Finally the van arrived, ten days after leaving London. It was the hottest day of the year and they started to unpack our belongings. Some of the house plants had rotted a bit in the heat of the back of the van (although most did recover eventually). The inherited furniture which we wanted to put into storage was carried out of the apartment and loaded into another smaller van to be taken to a store in Estepona. We were not given a receipt. We were not given an inventory. We were not given a destination address. We were totally trusting. This was the last we ever saw of this furniture.

Our furniture had arrived but our car had not, and it contained most of our changes of clothing. We finally managed to get through to the proprietor of the removal company on his mobile and the conversation went as follows:

‘Where are you and where is our car?’

‘Don’t worry, I am just crossing the border and that is why you could not get hold of me.’

‘Do you mean the French/Spanish border?’

‘Oh no, the border between Croatia and Austria! When I get back to the UK I will get your car out to you.’

We were dumbfounded. This was beginning to be a bit of a farce. Was this really happening?

A week later the car was driven up to the front door of the apartment but not by the proprietor of the company. I do not think he dared face us. He did send us a cheque to pay for the additional car hire we had incurred but when I tried to claim on the insurance for some minor breakages we received absolutely no compensation. The company to which we had entrusted our belongings was quite simply bankrupt. They did not exist any more.

The insurance payment was bogus!

A NIGHTMARE EXPERIENCE

Our experiences were bad enough but the experiences of some friends to whom we had recommended this company were just as bizarre. They were mother, father and three children moving to Spain to start a new life. They were moving from London to Mijas lock, stock and barrel. The removers arrived and started packing. Their entire worldly possessions were loaded into the anonymous white van. Again, there was no inventory. Off the van went and the family flew to Spain to start their new life fully expecting their belongings to arrive at their Spanish villa in a few days. They did not!

They were unlucky enough to be moving a couple of weeks after our removal and by this time this unfortunate cowboy company had gone bankrupt. The main difference between their story and ours was that they had not paid up front. They could not make contact by telephone – landline or mobile. At worst they got no response, at best they got the answering machine. Their belongings were somewhere between London and the Costa del Sol on a van which was being driven by individuals who were owed money by their employers and who were not prepared to deliver the furniture until they were paid for their work. Our friends finally managed to speak to someone on the telephone and the result was like something from a film.

The van drivers were not prepared to deliver the goods until they had been paid. The company did not have the money to pay them so the van drivers were not prepared to say where they were in Spain. The poor owners of the contents of the van began to despair that they would ever see the contents of their house again. Basically the drivers of the van had stolen their possessions and would probably sell them to recover some of the wages owed to them by their bankrupt employers. Finally a compromise was reached and a plan was suggested. A price was agreed for the delivery of the belongings which would be paid to the van drivers. The van would drive to the bottom of the road where our friends lived and one of our friends would go to meet them there and pay the agreed sum in cash. Only when this had been done would the van drive up the hill to our friends’ villa and deliver their belongings.

Our friends agreed to this plan, but did not go to the various meeting places alone or stay in the property alone. They were genuinely very scared by all this cloak and dagger stuff. The story does, however, have a happy ending. They paid the money in a brown paper envelope. Their furniture (including father’s wide screen television and digibox for the football) was delivered and they are now blissfully happy living in the sun of the Costa del Sol with the horrors of the removal in the past.

(Footnote to the experience: nine months later we were contacted by a storage company in Estepona who informed us that they believed they had some of our possessions in storage. By this time we had bought our

second apartment which had been purchased fully furnished. We did not need what had been taken from the first apartment so we told them to sell it. We had not signed any contract or been told where our belongings were so as far as we were concerned we had lost them.)