- Extend the mortgage to pledge other assets as collateral
- Pay off enough of the mortgage to bring it into compliance
Ouch. I'm not sure how often this would happen in practice though.
A blog about our new life in Sant Cugat, strange discoveries, amusing local news, politics, economics and cute stories about kids.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Watch out for underwater mortgages in Spain
From this article it appears that if you have the unfortunately luck to end up underwater in your mortgage (where the loan-to-value exceeds the permitted values), the bank can force you (after an independent appraisal) to either
Ouch. I'm not sure how often this would happen in practice though.
Ouch. I'm not sure how often this would happen in practice though.
Friday, January 15, 2010
Our electric rates go up
We got a wonderful letter from our electric company. It read something along the lines of:
We phoned around a couple of the companies that could now take our business. The way it seems to work is that electricity is now sold by marketing companies, rather than by the distributer. Exactly what value these marketers add isn't clear to me.
One of the things that determines your rate is the peak kw that your house can consume, which is limited by the amps of the main breaker.
Naturally, the owner of our house had installed an industrial strength circuit breaker, but had told the electric company he had installed the smallest rated one. What are the consequences for having a circuit breaker with the wrong rating? Well, they might inspect you, and then raise your rates. Is there a fine? No. I’m not quite getting the downside...
Due to the establishment of the free market for electricity, we will be raising your rates. If you do nothing, we will automatically enroll you into the “tariff of last resort” and increase your rate each month until we reach the maximum rate allowed by law. You are free to change to another company.“Free market” in Spain seems to mean “free to rip you off as much as possible” as opposed to “increased competition leading to lower prices”.
We phoned around a couple of the companies that could now take our business. The way it seems to work is that electricity is now sold by marketing companies, rather than by the distributer. Exactly what value these marketers add isn't clear to me.
One of the things that determines your rate is the peak kw that your house can consume, which is limited by the amps of the main breaker.
Naturally, the owner of our house had installed an industrial strength circuit breaker, but had told the electric company he had installed the smallest rated one. What are the consequences for having a circuit breaker with the wrong rating? Well, they might inspect you, and then raise your rates. Is there a fine? No. I’m not quite getting the downside...
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Bring your sick kid to school day
Third day of school and our house already sounds like an influenza ward. Naturally, our kids are going to school anyway.
Here in Spain, the concept of keeping your kids at home when they are sick (but not actually in mortal danger) is not really understood. The fact that other children might also get sick doesn't seem to bother anyone.
A flowchart to illustrate the typical thought process of a Spanish parent:
For that matter, people think that we are weird when we say we'd rather not kiss hello because we are sick and don't want to infect anyone.
Here in Spain, the concept of keeping your kids at home when they are sick (but not actually in mortal danger) is not really understood. The fact that other children might also get sick doesn't seem to bother anyone.
A flowchart to illustrate the typical thought process of a Spanish parent:
For that matter, people think that we are weird when we say we'd rather not kiss hello because we are sick and don't want to infect anyone.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Me vs the water company
Sorea is the water provider in Sant Cugat. We never really thought much about them, until we got a panicked phone call from the company that manages the place we rent.
“Have you paid your water bill recently?”
“I don’t know. We gave you our bank account number, should be automatic, right?”
“Sorea made a mistake when they set up your new neighbor's water account last year. Your neighbor’s bank account has been paying for your water, and since no one paid the neighbor’s account, they cut off the neighbor’s water.”
“So what do you want me to do?”
“Can you give your neighbor 1100 euros for the money they paid into your account?”
“What?!”
“Sorea won’t restore the neighbor’s water until the account is paid for, and she doesn’t have the money to pay her bill twice.”
“But Sorea made a mistake, shouldn’t they fix it?”
“They said their computer system doesn’t let them transfer payments between accounts.”
“Look, this is stupid. If I give my neighbor (who we dislike quite a bit since their dogs crap all over the place) 1100 euros, what guarantee do I have that they will pay their bill with the money? It’s not like they will give me a receipt. How about Sorea refunds the neighbor, and then we both pay our respective bills?"
“Sorea isn’t going to like this. You should have been checking to make sure that you were paying your bill.”
“But they never sent me a bill, they sent my bill to the neighbors! As far as I’m concerned it’s not my problem. Sorea has my bank account details and can charge me what I owe. I’m not going to waste my time trying to fix a problem that Sorea is perfectly capable of fixing on their own.”
We will see how showdown ends...
“Have you paid your water bill recently?”
“I don’t know. We gave you our bank account number, should be automatic, right?”
“Sorea made a mistake when they set up your new neighbor's water account last year. Your neighbor’s bank account has been paying for your water, and since no one paid the neighbor’s account, they cut off the neighbor’s water.”
“So what do you want me to do?”
“Can you give your neighbor 1100 euros for the money they paid into your account?”
“What?!”
“Sorea won’t restore the neighbor’s water until the account is paid for, and she doesn’t have the money to pay her bill twice.”
“But Sorea made a mistake, shouldn’t they fix it?”
“They said their computer system doesn’t let them transfer payments between accounts.”
“Look, this is stupid. If I give my neighbor (who we dislike quite a bit since their dogs crap all over the place) 1100 euros, what guarantee do I have that they will pay their bill with the money? It’s not like they will give me a receipt. How about Sorea refunds the neighbor, and then we both pay our respective bills?"
“Sorea isn’t going to like this. You should have been checking to make sure that you were paying your bill.”
“But they never sent me a bill, they sent my bill to the neighbors! As far as I’m concerned it’s not my problem. Sorea has my bank account details and can charge me what I owe. I’m not going to waste my time trying to fix a problem that Sorea is perfectly capable of fixing on their own.”
We will see how showdown ends...
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
I am a new fan of Ildebrando D'Arcangelo
My son had to wait in school a couple minutes extra while I sat in the car listening to this Handel aria (Fra l'ombre e gl'orrori) on CatMusica today.
Seeing the score is quite frightening, especially the 2+ octave leaps at the end.
Seeing the score is quite frightening, especially the 2+ octave leaps at the end.
ADSL in Sant Cugat
When we moved here, we did the normal thing and got the Telefonica ADSL connection. Unfortunately due to various factors, the best we could get was 3 megabits (or megas as they call them here).
Since then, I've invested quite a bit of time trying to find faster alternatives (no luck so far). Here are the results:
Since then, I've invested quite a bit of time trying to find faster alternatives (no luck so far). Here are the results:
- Sant Cugat has ONE ADSL Telefonica exchange, located near the monastery. The length of the wire from the exchange to your house will limit your maximum speed:
- All ADSL providers use the same wires and switching station (and they also use Telefonica technicians to set up the connection).
- Be extra nice to your Telefonica technician. They have amazing powers that may require a little bit of monatery encouragement.
- I wasted 80 euros on JazzTel, who absolutely promised me that they would be able to get 20 megabits (those smooth talking Argentinians... should have suspected something). I was so excited until I looked at my router and saw that I was still getting 3 megabits. I phoned them to complain and they just said "Well, we said up to 20 megas, so you can't complain."
- The normal Telefonica router absolutely sucks. Complain and get them to send you a better one.
- Telefonica was going to deploy a trial Fibre-To-The-Home in Sant Cugat, but never got around to deploying it due to the crisis. Their web site thinks that they actually deployed it, but it lies.
- Your house may have bad wiring that limits your connection speed. If you can, go to your neighbor's house and try to find out their line attenuation. If it is significantly better than yours (the lower the better), then you probably have bad wiring.
Monday, January 11, 2010
First day of school
"Why are you waking me up? It's the middle of the night!"
"It's the morning and it's time to get dressed for school."
"No. It's the middle of the night."
"Actually it's almost 8 o'clock and you still need to have breakfast."
"I don't want breakfast."
"I made pancakes for you with lots of maple syrup."
"I hate pancakes. They are the worst food ever and I hate you too."
"It's the morning and it's time to get dressed for school."
"No. It's the middle of the night."
"Actually it's almost 8 o'clock and you still need to have breakfast."
"I don't want breakfast."
"I made pancakes for you with lots of maple syrup."
"I hate pancakes. They are the worst food ever and I hate you too."
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Escape from Sant Cugat
It's sometimes fun to look at the weird search terms that people typed into Google to find their way here. “Escape from Sant Cugat” is my current favorite. I can already see the movie...
Joan Laporta becomes president-for-life of the Catalonian Republic and turns Sant Cugat into a vast prison camp for non-nivel C Catalan speakers and Real Madrid fans. When Carod-Rovira’s plane crash lands during a snowstorm after returning from South American good-will tour, will he be able to fend off crazed gangs of Falangists armed only with an ancient spear?
Joan Laporta becomes president-for-life of the Catalonian Republic and turns Sant Cugat into a vast prison camp for non-nivel C Catalan speakers and Real Madrid fans. When Carod-Rovira’s plane crash lands during a snowstorm after returning from South American good-will tour, will he be able to fend off crazed gangs of Falangists armed only with an ancient spear?
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