Roma family gone!

@Kath948381

This type of squatting is quite common - and I suspect that the house will be in a worse state than it was before. Running water isn't a concern for some folks: there have been a lot of complaints about the Roma clientele at some of the municipal pools in Sofia recently - they've been going into the water fully dressed....

Multi-tasking - have a swim and do your laundry at the same time.

Oh . I do hope that someone actually buys it even thought it's close to the village centre, has no bathroom and the garden  wall needs repairing. It's only a small bungalow but surely it would suit someone.

@janemulberry

I suspect it's more along the lines of "anyone who leaves their clothes unattended deserves to have them nicked"

@Kath948381

Sounds like a prime opportunity to buy it up yourself, cheaply off course, then you can be the one who decides who can live there and result in you being able to sleep better at night?

I was tempted at one time but didn't buy. I've heard of people going mad and buying anything . So no I'll not be bothering but if a for sale sign goes up I'll enquire.

Talking of living with Roma, I assume we're all following the riots in Leeds?

***

@landroversaleseu

What a bizarre load of tosh!

It's too ridiculous to even bother replying to - whatever it is that you're smoking, it's time to give it up before the damage is irreversible!

I have to fight the urge to walk amongst so called white people with a piece of white paper and see how many of them including me are actually white.

I imagine that most of the expats in BG are, as E.M. Forster said, actually "pinko-grey"...

    @landroversaleseu
What a bizarre load of tosh!

It's too ridiculous to even bother replying to - whatever it is that you're smoking, it's time to give it up before the damage is irreversible! -@JimJ

It could be too late. I suspect the damage is already done.

Well yesterday another family turned up to look at the house across the Lane from ours.  I don't know if they'll be squatting in it or if they'll be paying rent or buying but it looks to me that they'll be moving in. How long for is anyone's guess.

@Kath948381

The question is, do this family look like folks you'd like to have as next-door neighbours?

There is a certain element in Bulgaria that likes to victimise neighbours in the same area, and defenceless elderly people are favourite targets, even though they often have very little worth taking. It's a mindset that can't be changed, and showing friendliness and kindness to them will invariably be seen as a sign of weakness and gullibility. As the saying goes "No good turn goes unpunished"; it may not happen for a long time, but sooner or later that punishment will arrive...

I'm going to do like I did last time and keep myself to myself and not get involved with them. Someone who lives near VT said that after the village Mayor identifies property that can be squatted in and as this small falling down house although it's in the centre of the village it tends to be noisy because it's at the side of his Roma wedding hall and he likes to let off fireworks and shoots guns next to it.

We went to Burgas this morning and when we got back around lunch time they'd already started knocking the house down!!!

Yeah - that lot will nick anything....

Well the old house was down within to days and the rubble was moved away on a truck . Yesterday the family who I think will eventually live there were on the site with their works manager marked out the foundations of their new home. It looks like a large ish young family with an almost teenage girl , two boys who may be twins around eight years old and a toddler boy. If the father continues to work abroad then the family will be with him which means out of ten houses spread along the lane , the first one maybe for sale soon as the elderly lady who lived there passed away last year, then there's my neighbours, my home and someone who bought the house in front of mine but already has another in the village, then across another lane is a huge house surrounded by a high ish wall is a house where the owners are working in Belgium then a house owned and lived in , then a house owned by people who may live and work in Germany. Then a derelict one which is / was owned by Brits. So a big house built with a high ish wall around it is no problem.

That's very quick work - it makes you wonder if they've saved themselves the nuisance of getting construction approval....

I think that they've got approval because their building site is opposite the village Mayor's bar and shop.  The construction supervisor has measured the site and the build will be three metres from their boarder which I believe is the rule for new builds.  I think it's been so quick because the squatters must have been given a date to move out and the owners didn't want anyone else moving in if it had been left empty but habitable for a week or two. There's been no one on site today because it's a Sunday I think.

I hope they turn out to be pleasant neighbours, Kath. Or at least, no problem.

@Kath948381

Any permissions etc come from the municipality in which the village is situated; the village mayor has no say in it, and may even be a member of a different political party to the one running the municipality.

Fingers crossed it all pans out for you - if there's renovation being done, that's a good sign for long-term property prices but you need to make sure that your home isn't the easiest one to rob in the vicinity..

Fingers crossed and thankfully I've not had whose sort of problems here Jim

Concrete going into the buildings footings , when they start they don't mess around.

Now the concrete has set the boards have been placed on the site to mark out the rooms they're going to be considerably larger than the old bungalow that was knocked down and it looks like a good job.

@Kath948381

If it's bigger than what was there previously, they need planning permission etc. It's quite a performance - and an even bigger one if they "forget" to apply and it comes to light in the future.....