merlin

Its all so easy to assume that when or if you decide to buy your dream holiday home you will get everything you ask for.

I fell for the same trap only a couple of years ago and after living here for 3 years.

The triplex house was on a "sitesi" looked great and had a nice swimming pool and market just 50m away. It was close to my hotel and seemed the ideal location for my wife to mix with other Turkish families on the site whilst also mixing with some tourists where she could also improve her english skills.

We happily signed a years contract but not until we moved in the following week did we find out that the tap water was in fact "sea water" yes!

OK.... you might think what the heck.... you dont drink tap water here and bottle water is readily available however, it was the washing machine, immersion heater, taps, Jacuzzi and dishwasher that really took the hit. Salt water and white goods dont mix.

Clothes were so difficult to clean and provide that lovely "fresh" feeling and the missus inevitably used to hand wash the clothes.

Why should I suddenly come back to this?

When in Altinkum, Mushtaq and I passed by a sitesi where there was evidence of new water pipes fitted and he iterated the same problem but the site had recently upgraded to "fresh" water.

I just hope nobody makes the same mistake I made when I moved to a sitesi and didnt check but took things for granted....


Merv!

Martyn

Good advice Merlin, thanks

merlin

And maybe Mushtaq will correct me but the "norm" way of upgrading anything on a sitesi is "if" there is a majority vote where everyone contributes equally. So I assume this particular site we passed had done just that.

Dont get me wrong, I am not against the ethos behind a sitesi, just that it pays to do ones homework.

Merv!

mushtaq

The site in question was the one we are on, and we did pay extra complex fees this year to upgrade the services.

lacashajoc

What's a sitesi?

mushtaq

As far as I can make out it's a complex of houses with shared facilities, usually a co-operative of people who pool together to build their homes.

English equivalent could be a private housing estate.

tricia

As it seems to be fairly common for sitesi houses to use sea water, has anyone got any advice as to how to protect your white goods from the salt?

merlin

Was futile tricia.

Cost me a fortune in servicing and all guarantees were null and void.

The immersion heater started leaking badly after only 2 months and the service engineer related the problem back to the corrosive nature of the salt.

You can buy water softening machines here, but for the normal throughput of someone who is resident, the cost of an adequate machine capable of daily useage is somewhere around 2000 lira.

Merv!

tricia

Thanks for that info Merv.

So the main advice seems to be make sure you've got mains water and not salt water before you buy. But for those who've already bought on sitesi with salt water, is their only option to try to persuade all other residents to contribute towards converting as they did on Mushtaqs site? I know i've still got my English/Irish head on, but surely there must be an easier way.