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Having built or assisted in building several homes in Costa Rica with five different builders I have to say that you should make your deposits as small as possible and pay the second payment only when you see progress.
Above all do not pay the builder for the CAJA or Insurance for the workers. Pay it yourself. Contracts are worth nothing here and one of the most prolific scams is when you allow the builder to make those payments for you. He’ll swear he paid them, take your last payment, and off he goes whistling a merry tune.
You only find out he did not make the payments when CAJA comes after you for them and you have no defense because the homeowner is ultimately responsible.
I am sure there are some honest builders but I have found every one of them pulls this particular trick. So be sure to reserve at least 20% to be paid after you make sure he paid all the bills and completed every part of the job.
Oh! by the way if you do not watch carefully you may find they put a 2 inch pipe going out of your toilet (which is why they have that little bin in all bathrooms for you to put used toilet paper in).
They also think that excrement flows up hill to the septic tank.
I had to make one builder redo the whole bathroom because of that.
They also have cold and hot taps on the left or right at random so you can never remember which one will scald you and which will freeze you in the shower.
[quote=”DavidRushton”]Does anyone know a good quality English speaking mechanic in the San Jose area? I live near Turrialba so Curridabat or San Pedro area would be best or even downtown or Escazu. I can’t go to other areas because I need to be near somewhere convenient to a good restaurant for WiFi or a good hotel. I had a good one but he seems to have disappeared and there are no good ones in Turrialba.[/quote]
Thanks for suggestion will try them
[quote=”costaricabill”]Call Jacqueline at 8878-4932, 2271-1844 or 2271-1845. Her husband operates a very professional garage in Curridabat. He is not cheap, but they are very professional and both speak English.[/quote]
Wonderful Japanese Restaurant in the Barcelo Palacio Hotel. First opened with a great Japanese Chef. He was sent home and a Costa Rican chef tried to dupicate his work and failed miserably. Now they have a new local chef, but this time he was trained in Japan and the food is marvellous.
I have a lot of experience in the Turrialba area. I have bult two houses and am working on a third. I know two excellent architetcts and some builders. It easy to get hurt here but I would be happy to help with my experience.
OK, I was the first to post this question. Now the mystery is all over for us. We landed this afternoon with the dog. Our vet in Florida knew exactly what to do. She supplied the certificate, sent it to the State Capital overnight and then sent it to us together with a letter stating his health record etc. We bought a cage at WalMart for $40 and at the airport everyone knew what to do and helped us with it. Upon arrival we took the dog to customs. They stamped every paper in sight and filled out a form giving three copies to us. There was no charge.
So, I think the moral of this story is ignore the people who tell you terrifying tails (tales) (pardon the punn), and everything is smooth sailing.
Oh, by the way we went also to Petsmart and they tried to sell us a cage for $140. They told us that the airlines will not accept a cage without thick stainless steel mesh on both sides and back. But the Walmart one had only a steel mesh front and the air vents on the side were plastic. The Wallmart one saved us $100.
Thanks Ticopaz. We called Dr.Molina’s office. The secretary said they only know about sending pets to the U.S. – not bringing them in. Sounds like the typical secretary. Wonder how long she has worked there not counting tomorrow. Sure glad my 23 year old secretary / assistant isn’t like that.
Thanks also to Charlie. Sounds like you have the right and full information. That’s what I like about this site. You can almost count on getting the facts. Thanks also for your P.S. about the knuckleheads. Guess they were all vet’s secretaries last year, got fired for stupidity and only the government would hire them. Isn’t that just like in the U.S.
I’m all for a night out. I live two hours from San Jose so I would have to stay overnight in a hotel. But I would expect it to be well worth the effort and the time.
Looks like Richard Provost has closed up and run off back to Canada or Nicaragua or somewhere. The shutters have been down on his rental location all week. I hope he never comes back even though he’s stolen my $20,000.
Gee Scott I don’t know what gave you that impression. Just a lucky guess? No, at this point I am not ready to recommend him. Wish I could because his service, if indeed he had one, would have been great. He’s not the first con-man that has taken me in Costa Rica. But I think I’ll be better prepared in the future. Meanwhile does anyone have any suggestions as to how he can be stopped from swindlig others? Does Migration care for instance?
His website may be amateur Scott. But he is very professional(in a manner of speaking). I paid him almost $20,000 several months ago for materials for my new house. What I received in return was some cheap cabinets half of which were infested with, and eaten by, termites, some cheap fans which I do not need and one jacuzzi tub. I have been chasing the man for about three months. He has promised to either supply what I ordered or make a refund but every time I try to pin him down he runs. He told us recently that he’s involved with a partner in some new development so you’ll probably be hearing more about this man. Meanwhile does anyone have any suggestions about a way to stop him swindling more people? He’s from St. Catherines Ontario, has a wife from Nicaragua and together they have a small showroom on the road that goes from Sabana Park down to the U.S. Embassy. Along with his “business” they also sell cheap plastci jewelry and cosmetics.It’s right opposite a little Turkish take out called “Donner Kebabs” or something like that. Yes, I know about Richard Provost had I wish I had never met him.
Thanks David. Of course I have several U.S. cards. But since I now live in Costa Rica and hope to spend the rest of my life here, I wanted to have at least one Costa Rican card. Well, now I have it. But if it’s no good anywhere other than C.R. I might as well give it back to them and continue to use my debit cards and internet transfers for transactins here. It’s like ICE dial-up internet. I fought for months to get it (because I live in the mountains) but when I got it, I found it almost useless and had to get satellite instead. But when I tried to get my deposit back they gave me such a hard time I donated it to them with all my love. This is a wonderful country but we have to live with the system, or lack of one.
