A British couple forced to leave Spain after their dream of retirement turned into a nightmare have told how cowboy builders and bureaucracy left them more than £200,000 out of pocket.
Phil and Anne Bulman, both 71, moved to the Costa Blanca in 2004 when Phil retired after three decades in the Merchant Navy.
The couple sold and bought their dream home in Almoradí, and were looking forward to spending their retirement in the sun after years of anticipation.
But 20 years later, the couple are back in Britain, having lost huge sums of money after falling into the hands of thieves, fraudulent workers and red tape.
Phil says the couple invested a whopping £374,000 to build their retirement paradise but only managed to recoup £161,000 – a loss of £213,000.
Phil and Anne Bulman, both 71, moved to the Costa Blanca in 2004 when Phil retired after three decades in the Merchant Navy.
Phil and Anne Bulma’s home in Almoradí, Spain, was ransacked twice
Phil and Anne Bulma’s house in Almoradí, Spain
The group that ran afoul of inspectors even though builders and lawyers approved paperwork
‘We’ve all had ideas about that idyllic dream, but it just doesn’t happen that way.
“For us it was an expensive nightmare,” he lamented.
Phil and Anne chose a beautiful plot among orange and lemon trees almost 20 years ago.
They had their dream house built there at a cost of £230,000.
They then paid £18,500 to build a swimming pool and terraces, and added a second property on their plot at a higher cost for their daughter, who came to join them.
All the work was carried out by the same construction company and Phil was sure that all the documentation was in order.
But several years later, they needed the builders back to work to fix a problem with the pool.
Inspectors visiting work on a neighboring property stopped by to see what was going on and Phil says they quickly decided the extra house and pool were illegal.
Phil said inspectors told him the works would be destroyed unless he paid a hefty £30,000 fine, and the builders were nowhere to be found.
‘It was horrible. We had trusted the builder and had not asked the lawyer to review all the documents.
‘We showed them all the builder’s documents and they said it was all nonsense.
‘As the money was owed to the tax authorities, they simply emptied our account – £10,000… Then the builder simply disappeared.
“He had built some houses nearby and left us all with water tanks, without connection to the electrical grid… We spent a lot of money on lawyers trying to connect the water mains.
Phil and Anne Bulman
Phil and Anne Bulman’s large house and additional property (left) in Almoradí, Spain
They left their Spanish house and rented it in the UK, but Phil said that in 2015 his tenant stopped paying and said they had to leave quickly. The couple arrived to find their home had been ransacked.
Phil and Anne Bulman’s garden in Almoradí
Distraught, the couple returned to the UK because they needed more money and Phil began working as a boat inspector.
They left their Spanish house and rented it in the UK, but Phil said that in 2015 his tenant stopped paying and said they had to leave quickly.
The couple then returned to Spain to discover they had been robbed, Phil claims.
He said: ‘They had stripped our house and our daughter’s house of everything.
«There was only a small mattress, some pots and pans and some cutlery.
And it was absolutely disgusting. This was before we had running water and it didn’t look like the toilet had been flushed in the full two and a half years.
The couple filled their car and resupplied the houses from the UK, costing another £7,000.
But then in 2018, they discovered their car was missing and the house was broken into once again.
Phil said: “They took down the security gates and smashed all the patio doors – there was glass everywhere.”
‘They took everything of value that was not ruined. Everything was new, including the televisions and microwaves.
“Fortunately the insurance paid this time but it left us with a very bad feeling.”
As it turned out, this was the last straw.
The Bulman family put their dream home up for sale and it finally sold in 2021 for just £160,000.
But the saga continues – Phil says they were told they had not paid enough council tax and are still waiting for the bill.
Now living in the south-east of England again, Phil summed up the experience in one sentence: “It was a dream turned into a nightmare.”