No More Verb Conjugations: How to Survive Hiring a Local Handyman in Spain as an Expat

We’ve all been there. It’s 8:00 PM on a Tuesday. You’re sitting in your lovely apartment in Alicante or a beachside townhouse in El Campello, washing down a gorgeous paella with a glass of young red wine. (And yes, you’re eating it straight from the metal pan you literally rented from the restaurant downstairs).

Suddenly, right through the soothing sound of the waves, you hear it—a rhythmic «drip, drip, drip,» followed by the unmistakable, terrifying sound of a water torrent rushing out of your washing machine. Or the power trips, plunging you into darkness and instantly killing your AC. Or, God forbid, your fridge decides to die in the middle of a 35-degree summer heatwave.

Your very first thought in these situations? «I am absolutely screwed.» Because if you don’t speak fluent Spanish, getting out of this mess means you’ll need:

• Google Translate, which will only help you write a clunky, robotic question;
• And some serious psychic intuition to understand what on earth the customer service agent is telling you over the phone (assuming they speak «English,» but with a monstrous Spanish accent that makes no sense).

And if English isn’t even your first language? Well, then finding a technician turns into an extreme challenge that only a lucky few survive—usually after paying a bill that’s three times higher than the local rate.

Living as an expat in Spain is an absolute dream—right up until the moment something breaks.
(And heaven forbid that «something» is your car).

The Expat Dilemma: Why the Spanish Home Services Market Feels Like Hard Work

In the UK, Germany, or Northern Europe, getting something fixed at home is pretty straightforward. You go online, find a registered specialist, book a slot, and they show up (most of the time).

In Spain, however, the home services market runs on a completely different, often chaotic frequency:

• The «No Pasa Nada» Mentality: The local word mañana doesn’t actually mean «tomorrow»—it just means «not today.» Trying to pin down a busy fontanero (plumber) or electricista (electrician) can feel like chasing a ghost.
• The Expat Premium: If you search for home services in Spain for English speakers, you’ll inevitably find specialized middleman agencies. Sure, they speak English, but their quotes come with a massive markup just for the language. You end up paying double the price simply to avoid a linguistic panic attack.
• The Wild West of Facebook Groups: In sheer desperation, expats often turn to local Facebook groups, asking if anyone «knows a guy.» The result? You risk hiring an unregistered, uninsured handyman who might make the problem worse. Even worse, your Spanish insurance company (like Mapfre or Santalucía) will happily reject your claim if they find out an unlicensed person touched your installations.

The irony is that Spain is packed with thousands of incredibly skilled, certified, and honest autónomos (self-employed pros). The only thing standing between you and them is a giant, exhausting language barrier.

How One Nightmare Car Repair Sparked a Tech Startup

Every great solution starts with a healthy dose of personal frustration. The idea behind Todaquí (our AI-translated marketplace) wasn’t born in a sterile corporate boardroom. It was born out of pure, unadulterated expat panic on a Spanish road.

A few years ago, Yaroslav Buhakov—the founder of Todaquí—found himself stranded on the roadside in the Alicante province with a broken-down car. At the time, his Spanish was super basic. Trying to explain complex mechanical issues to a local, rapid-fire-talking mechanic using wild hand gestures and broken translator phrases was a total nightmare.

After finally getting the car fixed (and realizing he’d been charged a suspiciously high «foreigner rate»), Yaroslav asked himself: Why should living in such a beautiful country turn into a stressful ordeal every single time something breaks? There had to be a way for expats to hire verified local Spanish tradespeople directly, without having to spend years learning niche technical jargon.

Yaroslav regularly shares the raw, behind-the-scenes journey of building this platform over on his LinkedIn.

Todaquí: Home Services, Translated in Real Time

We built Todaquí to bridge this exact gap for the international community on the Costa Blanca. It’s a smart ecosystem designed to make language differences completely irrelevant.

Here is how we killed the language barrier and took the dread out of hiring help:

• 1. Two-Way AI Chat with Auto-Translation
  You don’t need to look up how to say «RCD safety switch,» «u-bend pipe,» or «hose gasket» in Spanish. You just open the app and describe your problem in your native language. The local Spanish technician receives your request in fluent, professional Spanish. When they reply, you instantly see the text in English. No phone calls, no panic, and no awkward silences.
• 2. 100% Vetted Local Professionals
  We manually check the IDs, tax registrations (autónomo or empresa status), and active public liability insurance of every single provider on our platform. You are fully protected.
• 3. Hyperlocal and Tailored for the Expat Lifestyle
  Whether you need a certified electrician in Alicante to issue an official Boletín Eléctrico so you can upgrade your AC, a deep clean for your apartment in San Juan Beach, or pool maintenance for your villa in Mutxamel—Todaquí connects you with verified local pros who are already in your neighborhood and charge fair, local rates.

Be a Part of Our Story: Support Our Launch on Product Hunt!

Our mission is to make expat life in Spain incredibly smooth, safe, and free from domestic chaos. No more paying double to middlemen, and no more waiting forever for someone to reply to your WhatsApp messages.

Right now, we are gearing up for our official product launch and building an amazing community of property owners on the coast. We are featured on Product Hunt, and your vote can help us get Todaquí in front of thousands of expats who are currently struggling with the exact same household headaches.

👉 Check out Todaquí on Product Hunt and sign up to support our upcoming launch! Your support means the world to us—it helps us keep building features that prove your home abroad can be a place of pure relaxation, not a source of stress.

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