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Post by rijekafan on Apr 23, 2008 17:40:59 GMT 1
May you profit from a dumb Australian.
Once there was an Aussie who bought a nightmare prizemlje and decided to convert it into holiday flats. He thought he prepared for everything including constant briefings with builders, local government and neighbours. He then went to Australia and contacted the builders weekly to check progress. Everything was going great they said. The Australian arrived to supervise the fitting out of the completed project and he found smashed windows and organisational chaos. Why the smashed windows? Crazy neighbour who hates foreigners they said. Why is the place half finished? Oh there were problems.
Continued tomorrow.
Part 2.
So the Aussie goes to the neighbour to see whats going on. It turns out the builder treated him like dirt, made the kids sick and ruined their lives. I would have smashed my windows in this situation. Croats treat each other so badly sometimes. I made peace with everybody, apologised and established a neighbour complaints hotline. I have impeccible connections here and I cant seem to get the builders to finish the job quickly. Its starting to get ugly but I will beat the bastards. I will not take from arseholes anymore.
The moral of my story is check with the neighbours regularly and establish a line of communication to avoid problems. Of coure I wasnt there and thats asking for trouble but I had no choice.
Make sure evrything is in writing and the court details are agreed on in the event of disputes, These guys owe me 100000 in damages for late completion. Make sure you have a late completion penalty clause.
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Post by irac on Apr 23, 2008 18:06:22 GMT 1
Rijekafan I'm really sorry about your problems. It's horrible that it happened and saying "Oh it can happen anywhere" is not only untrue but insulting. I know our guys went through a succession of "builders" until we finally found one family operation who gave a quote, did the job and followed up. It's now a case that they are to busy to do even simple jobs (like convert my attic) but they are unique in their decency.
I hope you can sort it out and at least have a contract to bolster you. And if they look for extra money tell them take a hike and look elsewhere. As for the neighbour - tooth for a tooth is the only way savages know how to operate!
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Post by valiant on Apr 24, 2008 9:38:40 GMT 1
yeah, its horrifying but nothing surprises me in this country at all. It's all nuts. buckets all round!!
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Post by valiant on Apr 24, 2008 14:45:39 GMT 1
i know of a guy whos building a large house down the coast ( not far from split) . firstly he had neighbours cutting up his electric cable connection(the meter box), then he had his copper gutters stolen off his roof, he also had breakins on a regular basis. the house now is almost completed and the neighbours now are taking him to court cos he sometimes parks on the main road in their parking places.
the man building the house, is croatian from germany. and his neighbours are basically being horrors. one of his neighbours came up to me once and was telling me how the investor bought the land cheap and that now its worth alot more(the land was bought years ago, i think even before the war) . so what now??? lets all be jelous??? this behaviour is abolutely beyond nuts...it is totaly crazy. if croats continue to behave like this, someone is going to nuke us.
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Post by Valleycat on Apr 24, 2008 23:19:12 GMT 1
We have found that jealousy is a big problem here also. It prevented us from doing what we wanted . . . because a neighbor threatened us after he agreed to our plans in public. . . yeah those witnesses won't stand up for you when asked. . . do you remember the conversation?
I just don't get it. If they don't have it. .. they want to have it. . . .if they have it they want more. If you have it. . . they want it. It's like the have to have their thumb crushing you down all the time. Who cares what goes on in someone else's house??
And people are blatant about being noisy. . . we had to resort to buying for the house and keeping it in the trunk until dark. . . then sneaking those items. . . we were only talking about house hold items. . . I'll never forget when they noticed that I bought new silverware. . . and asked for the old set. . . which we kept for the downstairs apartment. . . they were offended that I said I wanted to keep it. . . it goes on and on.
When we were remodeling a very old family home. . . we played hardball with the contractors. Never gave out more money than the work that was completed. . . progress payments only. We paid and have our own materials delivered. This method seemed to work well. . . we had to be firm. . . just say no. . . no. . . no. There were times. . . stories you would not believe. . . but we never bent.
Another thing was that we got quotes from several people in advance. . . if there were changes we got change orders in writing. . . . and we went outside the community sometimes for workers. It pissed off the people that recommended the original bidders. . . but we were the ones paying the bills.
Finally (actually only 5 months) and the job was complete. The workers were there 5 days a week 8-5 and Saturday 8-3. . . we were told by our neighbors that they couldn't believe it was completed so fast.
This was several years ago. . . now it seems that we hear stories about everyone being so busy. Glad that is over with. Good luck to you all that still have to do it. . . or are just starting . . . in the end it will be worth it. . . . just hope you can live here. . . now that is a whole different subject. . . You would think that they would want the ebb and flow of money and employment. . . I just don't get it. . . but there are many things here I just don't get.
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Post by capio on Apr 25, 2008 9:59:35 GMT 1
I'll never forget when they noticed that I bought new silverware. . . and asked for the old set. . . which we kept for the downstairs apartment. . . they were offended that I said I wanted to keep it. . . it goes on and on. quote] haha ;D I had this, i bought a couch and a plasma tv, I put my old couch into the spare room because it was a sofa bed so ideal for guests... I also put my old tv in there. I was labeled greedy by my neighbours who felt that as they shared their country with me I should share my belongings with them. I was absolutely stunned... when I explained to him that I worked 2 weeks a month in Kosovo so I could have things that I wanted, he seemed nonplussed. ... He never spoke again. Not that he did much anyway I'd say good morning in Croatian..how are you blah blah... and he'd grunt back. |
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Post by balkanbabe on Apr 25, 2008 10:46:39 GMT 1
I'm never going to complain about Serbians again!!
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Post by Carol on Apr 25, 2008 10:50:56 GMT 1
We have two pairs of settees and we kept one in storage waiting until we get round to renovating the second half of our house. Last year we decided to swap the ones in storage with the ones in the house. It took less than 30 minutes for the first neighbour to ask for the old ones. Sometimes I think no one does anything else except watch what we are doing.
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Post by valiant on Apr 25, 2008 10:55:08 GMT 1
yeah...its sort of difficult to explain, but i have never personally met a bad serbian
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Post by balkanbabe on Apr 25, 2008 11:16:26 GMT 1
Don't think they're as nasty as the Crows but highly annoying all the same.
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Post by Ribaric on Apr 25, 2008 14:33:21 GMT 1
I guess Varaždin must be in Slovenia or something... or I regularly tread in dog-poop.
I bought a ruin and have barely lifted a finger apart from making the adjacent jungle into accessible park-like land. Everything has been done by contractors and all have mostly done what they said they would do, when they said they would do it and at a cost/quality I find quite good (compared to London cowboys at least). Even the buying and registration paperwork was completed from start to finish in 4 months. My neighbours are great and haven't asked me for anything and don't mind that I'm an athiest whilst they are mostly avid church goers.
I've unfortunately needed to be in hospital twice since 2005 and have nothing but praise for the way I was treated, a couple of doctors waived their fees because the paperwork was too complicated and they couldn't be bothered with it all.
Sorry to be an *rsehole crawler but thats how it's been.
I suddenly have a dreadful feeling of "he spoke to bloody soon" coming over me. The insulation/facade blokes are coming tomorrow so perhaps they'll screw me over so I can feel more like one of the gang?
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Post by Carol on Apr 25, 2008 15:04:04 GMT 1
Be glad of your situation, ribaric because this is not a club you would wish to join
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Post by balkanbabe on Apr 25, 2008 15:24:07 GMT 1
People can differ from region to region as well.
I've lived in the Split area and generally found the people there really unpleasant and hostile.
Down around Dubrovnik they're a lot nicer and friendlier. Don't have so much of a wild look around the eyes either.
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Post by valiant on Apr 25, 2008 16:07:37 GMT 1
true, split takes the cake. people in slavonia are genrelly much friendlier and pretty polite.
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Post by capio on Apr 25, 2008 17:42:37 GMT 1
Few stereotypes stand up to scrutiny but this one does. Slavonian people are as friendly as I have ever met, I spent a lot of time in Beli Manistir (it's a hole) but the people were so warm and friendly. One kid who earned something ridiclious like 3000 kunas a month insisted on taking me out for drinks to show me his city. He was offended when I insisted I pay.
Truly wonderful warm people, maybe they're how other people were 50 years ago.
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