Here´s a real case explaining the actions taken in a recently purchased apartment situated in a newly constructed building in a prime area of ​​Madrid for which PEACE OF MIND PROPERTY MANAGEMENT services were hired.

The owner contacted us to arrange a meeting and informed about his date to sign the deed to officially purchase an apartment in a new construction project as his intention was to rent it out as an investment. After the signature, we met in the same building and handed us the keys along with all documents related with the property, and the same day he returned to his country. Keys in hand, we walked inside the apartment and the first thing we noticed is that there was no light at all, in fact the apartment was delivered with no lighting planning whatsoever, only a couple of cables hanging from the ceiling. We didn´t find a single bulb or any other type of device (not even in the bathrooms) so we contacted a few specialised companies to receive a quotation to fix this issue. After speaking with several electricians, we finally selected the one that showed us trustworthiness and attractive price, plus he had already experience in carrying out other works in the building.

We carefully selected more than thirty light types for each room (led technology, of course) and decided to leave those cables prepared for installing a lamp to the futures tenant´s choice. We believe these elements are essential in a home decoration project and it is quite personal depending on the style of each individual.

An optimum quality control is always needed in new projects, and normally is the same owner or resident who experiences it during his/her stay (considering their excitement of “formally” owning a property, even though this involves several years of mortgage debt). After a meticulous inspection and with a long list of elements to repair correctly, we had to “chase” the developer and construction company to ask them take responsibility for fixing everything and achieving the qualities that the client actually bought on plan.

The list of pending tasks done by PEACE OF MIND included a detailed memory and a photographic report. From that moment we were the true responsible to supervise all the works with the aim of achieving a satisfactory result. It is in this stage where our added value is greatly appreciated as we act like the owner himself. Our aim was to get fixed those poorly executed items as sharp as possible by coordinating the different parts involved with lots of tact and patience (especially when they start blaming each other to avoid their responsibility).

What do we mean by poorly finished items?

crooked walls needed to be flattened and painted, unbalanced plugs and some of them with no electricity, appliances not connected (only on display), a shower´s drain clogged due to a messy connection to the main pipe, hooks showing under the sink´s stone counter top, some chipping in carpentry, and many other things.

The apartment included a 25 meters terrace with no water supply, and as it was purchased “like this” the challenge was to make them understand (with persuasion and a lot of common sense) that having plants without irrigation is difficult to keep during the summer season in Spain. Nevertheless, we believe that it is reasonable that a luxury home should have these basic elements planned. And we finally got it!

Smart homes are so fashionable these days and the apartment included a domotic system that among other things, controlled the blinds in the apartment by detecting the level of light. We also coordinated the tuning up with the home automation company.

Additionally, at PEACE OF MIND we had to liaise with the building´s administrator to obtain the corresponding cards to make use of the charger for hybrid cars in the parking, which for some reason were not provided along with the documents in the signature day. Also, thanks to our conversation we learnt the regulations when placing a sunshade in the terrace and allowed us to speed up the process of installing the building´s fibre optic.

But one of the most stressful moments was every time we had to notify and coordinate the numerous issues with the robotic parking. This amenity is certainly an exceptional solution for buildings short in space, but to rely on technology sometimes has its limitations, especially at the beginning. During different viewings with potential tenants, we made use of the robotic parking, hoping to avoid any problems however we had for the system to deliver our car for hours in numerous occasions. This drove us to make pressure (with the community) and improve the parking computer allowing residents to enjoy a more efficient and optimum service.

Just the fact of reading all these actions it seems not particularly complicated, however it involves several hours of dedication and coordination of the different professionals. When a developer is no longer working in a project, they are focused on finalising other developments, being not in their priority to displace their professionals to fix works already delivered. However, they ended up doing it and in a very professional way. The experience gained with this case has helped us to develop a good relationship with other residents and one of them has trusted her apartment for us to manage. This time we count with the advantage of knowing the different contacts necessary to solve any type of problems, giving to the owner the PEACE OF MIND needed.