Alison

does your man Mustafa have an e mail address or website to look at. I think I need to be looking atthings before the prices start to rocket. Although I think it may be difficlt until nearer completion when dimensions will be more definite.

Jeff

Hi (this is probably a message for Alison but I thought I would post it here since most people may wish to know).

When paying the maintenance fees and fees for the electricity and water units, can you pay on card. We are going over for a two week holiday before handover and dont really want to be carrying that much cash around (and we do not have access to an egyptian bank yet). No worries if you do not know this I can ask the agent to confirm this.

Also will 1 day be enough for handover (what actually happens) we have to get the ferry from hurghada which will get us there around 10.00am (if we are lucky) and then we need to get it back around 5.00pm. Will this be enough time.

Thanks in advance.

Lou

Hi Jeff his email is info@idea4furniture.com - let him know that I passed it on to you.

Im sure he has the rough dimensions for the configurations of the apartments but he does go into the aprtment to measure up for the kitchen himself.

Hope you are well and its not too long til you are out again is it?

Alison x

Hi Lou - Im not 100% sure but I dont think they take cards. When we paid our reservation fee at the Place in the Sun Exhibition we had to go to the cash point and take out cash. We were using a debit card though and not credit. Although the cards are accepted in the hotels and cash machines I dont know if they accept them. I can Skype them 1st thing and ask if you want - if they are online I get an answer within seconds??

For the handover you will need to check over your apartment to make sure you are happy with everything. I then sat down with Tarek the developer - because he was in Sharm. We had to wait for his accountant to come. The accountant wrote out the receipts for the elec / water and maintenance and I handed over money and we shock hands and had a nice long chat. So no if all runs smoothly it wont take more than a couple of hours. I would make sure that Tarek from SRE and Tarek the developer know that you are on a tight schedule and you cannot afford any hold ups. I would ask them to send someone to meet you off of the ferry to drive you straight on site. You can always say that you will call or text them when you are approaching Sharm Harbour - Naama is about 20 mins drive from the harbour and Nabq is about 40 max.

The other way is to send it by bank transfer and then the receiptsetc will already be drawn up for you and stipulate that when you arrive you will be doing the snagging and handover which will be less time consuming and tell them to make sure the agent has the receipts / paperwork / keys and elec card with him when he picks you up. I had a while to wait whilst they were running about getting the keys and card together on site. I was in no hurry and didnt mind. But this would be better for you. Just make sure they are aware that it is important that everything is ready and waiting for you and you do not have any Egyptian time on your hands.
Have you and the developer signed 2 copies of the contract on every page as this needs to be done as well??

If not sign yours and get them sent back as soon as possible. They will keep one and forward on the other to your lawyer who will take to the courts for registration with the POA and then when all done n 6 months or so time you will receive it back from your lawyer.

Hope this helps Lou.

Alison xx

Thanks Alison that is really helpful.

I think bank transfer will be our best option. Our bank card only allows us to withdraw £200 from a cashpoint each day so wouldnt be any help and we dont really wanna be carrying around £3K all holiday (I am including our holiday money within this!!)

I have done a quick email to SRE to see if card payment is acceptable but if not I will do the bank transfer.

I will email them in a few weeks time to tell them of our arrival in Oct and will book them for a transfer up to the site from the Ferry Port and fingers crossed it will run smoothly. Still waiting for a draft contract at the moment, but I am hoping once its issued, zeiad will be able to turn it around pretty quickly since he has handled their contracts before). Fingers crossed, just wanna go now. Do you know if Idea4furniture have a brochure?? we would like to order furniture over the next couple of months so its ready for early in the new year.

Thanks again.

Lou

Hi Lou - so are you arriving the day we leave - you can nip in for a drink?? We leave night of 21st.

I dont think he has a brochure as such but he can email you lots of styles and ideas or you can send him something you like and they can replicate as well.

Zeiad has already done the due diligence so he will want to give your contract the once over. Push them for this. Ask them to email you the copy, email it mark it as urgent and send to Zeiad for him to look over before you print off sign and return. I would ask them to arrange this to be emailed to you within the next 7 days. Make sure they have your passport numbers as these will be included in the contract.

Once Zeiad has seen it and ok'd it there is nothing more he can do until he receives the signed contract from SRE. He then proceeds with the registration. Apologies if I asked this before but have you got the POA for Zeiad? He needs this before he can start the registration process for you.

When I went out last month I carried all that cash on me on my own and I was petrified I was gonna lose my bag ( it was glued to me ) or have it stolen and didnt rest until it was in the safe in the hotel. Then couldnt rest carrying with me to Nabq etc etc. My advise is save the stress and pay the £20 odd and send it via bank transfer. I did ask Tarek if they had paypal but guess what Egypt is one of the few countries that it is not set up in. Typical!!


Im racking my brains to think of what else you may find useful / helpful. Im sure I will think of something.

BTW can you all remind me to pack loo roll cos I arrive in Sharm at the unearthly hour of around 5am and dont wanna be going to 24/7 for loo roll!!!

Another thing just thought of ref insurance. Start thinking about it now. We started our cover as soon as we got the keys and completed handover. We where then also covered for Mostafa being a key holder and going in to fit the furniture and also were covered if he damaged anything. Not alot to damage unfurnished but you never know. At least you know once he starts fitting things they are covered as well. The last thing you want is to have it nearly all done and something happens and you are not covered. Mine was just £120 a yr for buildings and contents, accidental damage cover and covered for rentals as well. Peanuts compared to here. I pay over £300 here for contents alone.

Hi Alison,

Thanks for all the information you have been giving really helpful. Can you tell us who did you get your insurance through?

John and Dawn

Hi John & Dawn,

I'm sure Alison, like many others on here, uses a company called Intasure. Here's a link for it
Intasure - Holiday home insurance in Egypt

Don't know if anyone is interested but i have just booked return transfers from airport to hotel in Nabq for 2 people from transferstore.com for £17.14 which i didn't think was too bad.
Chelle