What it's actually like to work with us while you're abroad

The first contact: what we ask for and why

Most owners abroad first write by email or WhatsApp. You can write in English. The first reply is usually a short list of what we need to understand the job, because the quality of a quote depends on it:

• the address or at least the municipality in the provincia de Málaga;
• photos of every side of the building, the roof, the driveway and the street;
• what has to come down and what stays – pool, walls, trees, outbuildings;
• plans or a survey if you have them, and the contact of your architect if there is one;
• anything you know or suspect about uralita on the property.

If you do not have everything, send what you have. Often a neighbour, a caretaker or the community administrator can take the missing photos.

The quote: written scope before any number

A quote that only gives a total is hard to check from another country. Ours starts with the scope: what is demolished, how it is done (manual, mechanical or combined), what happens to the waste, who removes any asbestos-cement, how the plot is left and which VAT rate applies. Only then comes the price.

If you want an idea of the range before asking, the calculator on presupuestodemolicion.eu gives a rounded band. The quote itself is written and without obligation. Where the job has a pool, a basement or difficult access, we say so explicitly, because those are the items that most often change the work.

Paperwork: what you and your técnico do, and what we do

This is where we are deliberately clear, because owners abroad sometimes expect the contractor to handle everything. We do not draft projects, sign technical reports or file the municipal procedure. Your técnico competente prepares the technical documentation, and you, with your técnico, file the declaración responsable or licence with the ayuntamiento.

What we do: work with your técnico's documentation, prepare our part of the health and safety and waste paperwork that falls to the contractor, coordinate dates with your architect and tell you which documents the town hall usually asks for where that is known. If you do not have an architect yet, ask early; in most cases the procedure cannot start without one. Our guide on who signs a demolition project explains why.

Before the works: keys, access, services and neighbours

The weeks before the start are mostly coordination. Typical points to settle:

1. Who holds the keys and how the site is opened and closed.
2. Disconnection of electricity, water and gas, arranged with the supply companies.
3. Authorisation to occupy the public road if a skip or machine will stand in the street.
4. If the property is part of a community of owners, informing the administrator and, where common elements are affected, the owners' meeting agreement.
5. Removal of uralita first, by the RERA-registered company that works as our subcontractor, under its own approved work plan.

You do not have to be in Spain for any of this, but some of it needs your signature or a call from you to a supplier.

During the works: what you see from abroad

You receive photo updates at each stage: stripping and separation of materials, the main demolition, loading of the rubble and the cleared plot. You will see wood, metal and mineral rubble separated, because selective demolition is mandatory and that is how the work is organised. Each fraction leaves for an authorised facility.

Questions go to one contact, in English. If something unexpected appears – a buried tank, a wall that turns out to be shared, material that might contain asbestos – we stop that part, send photos and agree the next step with you and your técnico before continuing.

Where things can get messy

An honest description has to include the difficult parts. The ones that most often affect jobs for owners abroad are:

• Waiting for the procedure. Dates depend on the municipal file being ready; we cannot start earlier.
• Hidden materials. Asbestos-cement inside walls or under later roofs changes the order of the works.
• Neighbours. Dust and noise are controlled but not eliminated; a neighbour who was not warned is the most common source of friction.
• Weather. Heavy rain can pause machine work on slopes or clay soils.
• Decisions from a distance. A question about keeping a wall or a tree can wait days if nobody can answer it.

None of these is unusual. Knowing about them in advance is what keeps them small.

What we will tell you we cannot do

Clarity about limits saves misunderstandings later. We are a demolition contractor, so some things belong to other people:

• technical supervision of the works and structural decisions stay with your técnico;
• the municipal procedure is filed by you and your técnico, not by us;
• asbestos-cement is removed by a RERA-registered company, never by our own team;
• pure vegetation clearing of a plot without a demolition is something to ask us about case by case, not a standard service.

Within those limits we take care of the demolition itself, the sorting and removal of the rubble and the coordination of dates, so that you deal with as few separate parties as possible.

At the end: what you receive

When the job is finished you receive photos of the cleared plot and the delivery receipts for the waste. Keep the receipts: many ayuntamientos return the waste deposit (fianza) only when delivery to an authorised manager is proven. If the scope included basic levelling of the plot after the demolition, the photos show that too.

For the full description of this way of working, see our page on managing a demolition from abroad; for the technical sequence of a typical job, see demolition step by step. When you are ready, start with the page on house and villa demolition or demolition and debris removal.