Chris Myton

Property check

The last thing any home owner wants to hear is that part of their property has not got the proper planning authorisation in place but unfortunately this happens a lot more frequently than it should and results in a multitude of problems.
We generally find out there are issues with a property when the owners contact us to carry out some work for them and we need to check the property details out with the commune or apply for planning permission. It is at this point that anything irregular must be sorted out before any further work can be applied for or started and obviously causes long delays and can even affect the new work application.
​Our latest experience of this was when a client decided to sell their property and during the process it was found that among other things, two rooms were illegal and the sale has fallen through and there could be a claim for compensation by the buyers.
If you don’t have all the documentation to your property and would like to have it checked out then let us know and Giuseppe will be more than happy to check through everything for you free of charge.
Chris Myton

Planning permissions

It is extremely important that before starting any work on your property that you have the required planning permission in place. We have lost count of the number of times that we have gone to a planning department for a client only to find that work they have had done previously has not got the correct permission and is therefore illegal. In many of the cases this was not accidental, it was or not that the geometra has made a small mistake or had forgotten to do something. Most of them are where the geometra hasn’t bothered to present the project to the commune or has presented the project but not had it approved and then gone ahead and completed the project with no planning at all. It is essential that you have all the documented planning permission checked before you allow any work to begin. If you are presented with this document then this is not planning permission. It is only a receipt from the commune to say that they have received details of a project, nothing more than that. If your project requires full planning permission then this document is not enough and you should always check exactly what is required to ensure your project is legal.
Chris Myton

How we got started

Puglia Pools actually started 9 years ago when I needed someone to maintain my own pool and quickly realised that the majority of existing companies or individuals did not care about my pool as much as I did, they didn’t understand water chemistry and were completely unreliable by not turning up for scheduled cleans, or they billed for visits they hadn’t made and then made up excuses when the pool was less than perfect. After speaking to several other English owners I found that this was a problem common to all of them and it soon became obvious that if I wanted my pool to be looked after properly then I would need to do it myself.
Swimming pools are not complicated or difficult to understand but they do need to be regularly cleaned and maintained with an amount of TLC. They cannot be ignored, not visited, and not checked if you want them to stay in perfect condition – it’s as simple as that. It is also really important to understand what the various different water parameters are, how they can be maintained and what effect they have on the condition of the pool’s water. Getting this right is as important as making sure the filter is running as 8 out of 10 pool problems are a result of poor water chemistry and not mechanical issues.
It wasn’t long before I was not only maintaining my own pool but also seven other pools belonging to English property owners in and around Alberobello.
Once I got started it quickly became obvious that there were several reoccurring issues common amongst foreign owners which made it clear that there was a gap in the market place for a reliable, genuine, honest and professional company who understands what is important to their customer’s and from there Puglia Pools (or Puglia Pools & Gardens as it was first called) was formed.    
We are not a big company and we don’t have a huge warehouse, offices or fleets of vehicles etc. However, we do understand swimming pools, the importance of customer service with good communication and, most of all, we care about your pool and property as much as you do.
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