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Holiday Maker has Villa running costs paid by owner
Londoner Wes Ham will have many of the running costs met by the owner when he moves into his Spanish Villa next year, the BBC, Telegraph and Evening Standard have learnt.
Wes, originally from Canning Town applied to rent the extensive villa which forms part of the La Olympiad Club development, and had his offer accepted by the owner. Wes expects to use the Villa for the first time in the Summer of 2016.
‘I will have to wait to use the villa as the owner is having some amendments made to it before I can move in’ said Wes.
It was widely reported previously that these improvements, and alterations are to make the villa suitable for renting out and include laying a new patio including removable seating, and extending the roof awning to create more shade. It has also been suggested that all of these changes will remarkably be funded by the villa owner herself, with Wes not asked to provide a penny or even euro towards these costs.
It has now come to light that there are another set of unusual concessions being made to Wes by the owner which shed light on the one sided nature of the deal which has been agreed.
Apparently a number of ‘facilities and services’ will be paid for by the owner, and not Wes.
These include use of electricity throughout the villa (including for air conditioning), maintenance of the villa and its grounds, cleaning of the swimming pool and even the cost of the BBQ and associated gas canisters.
The BBC understands that overheads are also being paid by the owner and include the La Olympiad Club service charges, and La Olympiad Club security charges, which amounts to many thousands of euros for other villa owners.
Two separate villa rental experts (from a place in the sun) told the BBC the value of these overheads amount to between €5,000 and €20,000 a year.
Wes Ham, who received more the £50,000 from his employer last year is understood to be paying approximately €3,000 rent.
Wes Ham said ‘I have no idea what all the fuss is about. I offered to rent this empty villa off the owner, at the time she told me she would be carrying out some improvement works to the property so she can rent it out to other people when I don’t use it, which sounds sensible. As for what is included in the rent I am paying, that is between me and the owner, but to be honest I can’t see why I should pay more than we agreed, as I will only use the villa for a few weeks of the year, the owner can then rent it to who she likes at the other times when I am not there. I am hardly going to bring my own BBQ with me each time I come here, and I am certainly not going to clean the pool or paint the walls when I do use it……. That is why I am renting it. I used to own a villa but that’s a mugs game.‘
For others Wes had this message ‘As for what other holiday makers are renting their villas for I couldn’t give a monkeys. I heard that a guy called Abdul Man Citeh was paying twice what I am going to rent this villa for, but then he has loads of money so it probably doesn’t bother him.. I haven’t heard him complain once though. Same goes for the Russian guy Roman Chelski, he wants to use a villa while he has the one he owns done up. He’s been quoted loads, although he is trying to rent the biggest villa on the complex, and it is hard to get use of, because it is really popular’
When quizzed about reports that the villa was being decorated to Wes Ham’s specification he responded ‘Well the owner was getting a full decoration done and asked if there was any particular colours I wanted, and I said some claret and blue tiles in the master en-suite wouldn’t go amiss. I think she is trying to entice me to come back every year. I did contribute a bit of money towards the wifi installation as she wasn’t planning on doing it, it wasn’t much and to be honest the kids will be off their nuts if they can’t get on twitter when they are there.’
The owner Ellie Deasy was tracked down by the Evening Standard and made the following statement ‘ I got a good deal in terms of the rent, no one else was really serious about renting it anyway. A guy called Leighton wanted it but I don’t think he could really afford the rent, and to be honest it was just him on his own so the villa would have felt very empty whilst he was in there. I sent him down to Los Hackney to try for an apartment which would suit him better. I heard he had decided to forget foreign holidays anyway.’
She also added ‘Another bloke turned up but if I’m honest I didn’t like the look of him. He had a right ratty little face, and a few moments talking to him convinced me he couldn’t be trusted. He wanted me to make too many changes to the villa, and I am convinced he was looking for something all brassy and American but built near the villa currently owns, although he doesn’t get on with one of his neighbours… not surprised really. He had a handshake that made me want to wash my hands afterwards..’
ITV has been gathering reports of other holiday makers who are not happy at the rent deal that Wes has managed to secure and believe that Wes is being assisted into a villa he would never be able to buy. ‘That’s the point of renting’ said Wes ‘ I don’t want to live in it, I want to use it a few times a year. The reality is Ellie had it built for some massive party she had planned in 2012. The party was apparently amazing, but afterwards she found she had this big villa and needed it renting out to help pay the upkeep on it. It cost loads of money to look after so without me she would have to fork out for everything’
As for the other holiday makers who are considering joining forces to make their complaint stronger Wes was pretty unsympathetic. ‘To be honest it’s a bunch of small time Charlies who weren’t able to get the deal I was, and now they are totally jealous. But that mainly stems from the fact that they own pokey little apartments up the coast in places like Benidorm and Magaluf. I am sure they will all come running over to take a look a place when I invite them in for a drink.’
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