VAT

[pato]

More increases in management charges I hear today due to the VAT increases, it's becoming increasingly difficult to maintain a property in the Algarve if you only let for 10 or so weeks a year. I've got to explore the alternatives to the all year management charges and all year maid salary and pool maintenance. Any suggestions regarding cost savings would be appreciated.

[maccasa]

You still paying more than €60/mth for pool cleaning? I can give you a contact name if you are.

[AVO]

Just a thought pato, but you could switch to agency maids, so you will only pay for the hours they work and not the months when the property is empty, or you don't need them.

[sam]

Check your insurance - may be invalidated if you do not have someone going in regularly - can be false economy. I know two people who did not bother in the winter and had problems. One arrived to find that they had been burgled and all the furniture etc had been taken sometime over a 4/5 month period, another made the property so airtight that when they had a leak from the roof during a very wet winter the place had filled up and they had rotten furniture with a 'tide mark' about 2 feet up the walls.