In the meantime we had met with our builder of choice and told him he was getting the job. We had also decided to get what’s known as a ‘simple permission’ or V2 to allow the builders to start work while the more complex permission to build a restaurant was processed (this can take months). A V2 allows you to start the ‘decapage’ (which is removing the plaster from the walls to see what’s underneath) and repair any cracks you find, and investigate the existing plumbing and electrics.
Our builder offered to accompany us to the baladiya’s office (where such things are decided) to get the forms and start the process. Having a local with you makes things SO much easier. We went straight to the correct office and got the forms, which he then filled out for us. Then it was on to the next room to show the certified copies of our passports and house papers (which we now carried everywhere just in case). We had to sign a couple of registers and have the papers checked. One of them had the date stamp missing but (hamdullah!) as it happened to be the same bureaucrat checking them who had originally certified them, he corrected it without a drama. Had it been someone else we probably would have had to get the whole thing redone.
Apparently we didn’t need the attestation de stabilite to get a simple permission, and the V2 could be granted within a day. Had we known this before, we could have started work on the house a month before.
We then met up with the building inspector who conveniently our builder knew well and spotted at a nearby café. We arranged to have him view the house the next day. Once inspected we were told we’d have the permission within a few days and building work could start the next Tuesday or Wednesday.
However Tuesday came and went and on Wednesday morning our builder called. The inspector had been in touch and we needed more paperwork. One document was the attestation de stabilite (no problem there) and the other was a letter we had to send by registered post to our engineer. The letter had to ask the engineer to give his authorisation to start the work on the house and couldn’t be delivered (quickly and easily) to his office by hand, it had to be sent via registered post.
Once the letter was written and signed we walked to the post office in the medina. Confronted by chaotic crowds we quickly decided to head to the one in the Ville Nouvelle and be done with it. Once the letter was sent and the stamped receipt saying we’d sent it had been procured we headed back to the baladiya. Once there we were completely bemused to find out that it wasn’t necessary to wait for a reply from the engineer, simply having sent the letter and having the receipt to prove it was all that was required.
Apparently now we just need to pay 500dh and building can commence on the weekend, inshallah.
Meanwhile we’d met with the electrician we want to employ and told him he’d got the job as well. This raised the spectre of yet more paperwork as apparently now we have to write up a contract saying he’s got the job and go back to the baladiya to get it signed and stamped. We’re really looking forward to that.
Then, while chatting to the electrician our builder appeared (they are working together on another project). He joined in the conversation and we now have to draw up a contract with him as well, which he’d forgotten to mention on all our previous sojourns as the baladiya’s.
The builder then gave us an prediction on how long our project would take to get the majority of the work done. “We’ll be finished in three months,” he said.
Vince and I exchanged dubious glances. Somehow – can’t imagine why – we find that hard to believe.
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