Getting our money back

Hi all,

some of you old timers may remember me as being optimistic about ACC. Well just to update you, in May 2008 we asked Aldea to execute our BGs and get our money back. After numerous e-mails which went unanswered we decided to get ourselves a new solicitor. On several positive recommendations we contacted victor@mamsolicitors.com in November 2008. In January 2009 after a lot of consideration we asked him to go ahead. I then had a phonecall from Aldea saying that they had heard from a new solicitor, and wanted to know what was happening. All this after they did not reply to any of my e-mails. I called Victor and had a long conversation with him, explaining what I wanted. Later that day he e-mailed me specific instructions to carry out, a copy of a PoA to print out and get notarized and legalized.

Now we are just waiting for the document to be returned to us from Milton Keynes, where it has to go to be legalized, and after we send it to him along with our original contract the money should be in our account in 6-8 weeks.

I will post here again when there are further developments. But fingers crossed this nightmare will soon be over! 

We too are with Aldea and are having an absolute nightmare trying to get our money back.  We instructed them in April last year to cancel our contract when our two guarantees were still in date expiry July 2008.  Due to their incompetence the expiry date was getting nearer and we were no nearer to getting money back.  We actually managed to execute our guarantee with the Banco Popular ourselves even though Aldea told us this would not be possible but have had no success with the other one with Caja Murcia and now the guarantee has expired Aldea are saying that they want more money from us to take this further even though if they had executed the guarantees when they were still in date we could have had our money back.

Who are your guarantees with and have they been renewed.  We too are thinking of transferring to Victor as we have heard good reports on him.

Would be very grateful for any information you could share with us as this has turned into a real nightmare we feel as though we have been totally ripped off by all of these people.  Parador, Huma, Aldea all of them and don't know which way to turn.

Sue and Terry

sueandterry,

we transfered to victor and had the money in about 8 weeks, caja mucria being the more problematic one. Victor threatened to take them to court (or something like that), which meant they would incurr our costs and pay up interest etc as well, so they soon paid up.

aldea would not release the BG until we paid a cancellation fee, a fee others later got away with by turning up in their office and shouting, so stand your ground and pay them nob all.

cant speak more highly than victor (presume you mean victor at MAM Solicitors), good luck.

Sue & Terry

I'm sure people will correct me if i'm wrong but I think that by law your bank guarantee is valid for your money until you take possession of your property. You can check this out by looking at the Aval Guarantee information ( Thinks it's on this site somewhere).  Your guarantee should never expire until you get your property. 

We are on another complex and initially used Aldea. Like a lot of people  we changed solicitor due to no action on their part. Unfortunately they did not provide us with a BG so we are in the court system of taking builder to court.

I dont know, we never got a bg at all. My solicitor has recently said they they should get planning permission soon but its too late for us, i just want monies back now as we are settled else where and cant trust them

Hi all,

just to update you all, Victor at MAM solicitors has managed to get our BG with Banco Popular executed and he deposited our money last week. The remaining BG with CAM is still outstanding but he is hopeful of a positive outcome soon.

We cannot speak highly enough of Victor, who has done exactly what he said he would do.

We are now looking at other properties in the Villamartin area, but only at resales. We hope to have somewhere this year, and will give you all an update as soon as we know anything.

Good luck to everyone still in the process.

Best regards

Congratulations - this must be a real relief to you.  If you are thinking of buying in the costa blanca region have a look at La Marina.  We went their a couple of years ago and found it to be a really nice urbanisation not far from the sea.  The advantage of the beach here is that it is protected and they can't build next to it.

Their were quite a few properties for sale similar to a Tarrifa (big roof terrace) but with 3 bedrooms.  Some of these resales are going for about 105,000 euros. 

That's great. We also got our BG refunded fairly quick with Banco Popular. Has anyone managed to get their Deposit back from Huma ? Or got anywhere near close to a refund from them?

We await a court date and trying via the credit card company.?

Hello All,

I have been reading through this forum, on and off, for about 18 months now.  Usually would just send private messages, but decided to open information out to all.

Firstly i feel i have been very silly in my choices ever since we became aware of this fiasco.  We have been let down by treachery and the ultimate of deception from Parador, Aldea advisors and Huma as well as the Spanish government in not tackling this issue at all.  These groups are money grabbing thieves and will stop at nothing to stab you in the back.

Hopefully everyone is aware of what went on with Huma, could not obtain the neccessary licences and how Aldea could not manage to obtain our Bank Guarantees in time, and finally how Parador wormed their way out of this.  All very convenient.

Driving their flash cars, designer suits and on 24 hour siestas it seems, especially our so called law firm Aldea Advisors.

You know what irritates me the most, these pratts advertising themselves on this forum when we have been put through this rollercoaster of deceipt.  Gets to the point where one says, "Hang all the Agents, developers and the likes of Aldea." 

THERE ALL IN IT TOGETHER!!!!!! 

It is the likes of us, who with their hard earned money invested for our future, retirement and family. We get shafted.  I refuse to take this and have had enough of being nice, calm, diplomatic.  Bottom line trust none of the above and stay on your toes and fight and keep fighting.

I SHOULD HAVE KEPT MY MONEY IN THE UK.  ATLEAST YOU KNOW WHAT TO EXPECT.

Now that i have that off my chest.  I still have plenty more, but will go on with other issues which are more important at present.

Late 2007 after reading about and speaking to other solicitors and after a lot of to and fro with Aldea we stupidly instructed Aldea to cancel our contract and execute our 2 bank guarantees.  Eventually Notary Public approved POA was sent in  February 2008.

Extreme delaying from Aldea finally executing the 2 bank guarantees we had, this was in December 2008.  Banco Popular paid up within 4-6 weeks and Caja Madrid we are still waiting.

I must add we were informed by Carmen from Aldea that Banco Popular is usually a prompt payer (if 4-6 weeks is prompt, then so be it) and the likes of banks with Caja in front of their names are usually a few months out. (Caja probably means very slow in Spanish, or even lying thieves).

Anyway after numerous calls this entire year and after huge amounts of delay and no response for weeks from Aldea, in particular Carmen (by the way she is the only one who knows anything about our case, and when she is on holiday- usually quite a bit - then tough) we at this point are deeply considering leaving Aldea for another Lawyer.

The reason we are still considering is because Aldea on 6th April 2009 sent one of their so called trainee lawyers to sign bank guarantee at bank, which is the final formality after this we receive cheque.

Forgot to say they should have done this in 1st week of March 2009.  April along with siestas has a lot of bank holidays ( there you go the word Bank again- I am sure it rhymes with something) May is not far off in terms of holidays, holidays holidays; when does this stop.

Lets get back on track.  Carmen from Aldea promised ( they don't keep promises) she would call me 27th April 2009 to let me know either way if cheque has arrived, she did not. I called, guess what, on holiday. This week called, she is in meetings all week and i would be wasting my time by constantly calling to speak to her.  Best call next week.

No one else can help but her, that is if she will speak to you. 

You see once i receive this cheque then i will have some monies to fight for our other 2 payments, for which we never received Bank Guarantees.  Obvioulsy it will be a long court proceeding, but with another law firm, maybe not as long.

Couple of more things Aldea are forever asking for more and more money, i have never given them more as my argument has always been you took 50% payment for screwing us the least you can do would be to help us out of this mess.

Eventually i compromised and paid their costs involving the executions of Bank Guarantees and only half payments towards their costs.

Final thing i was informed that huma have obtained building rights for ACC.  I think the land there is now classed as building land as opposed to protected or agricultural.  Meaning the land is worth more now and therefore Huma have more assets to go after, that is if the Judge with the bag full of money lets it happen.

If anyone can help in any way, details of recommended lawyers, any other ways of dealing with this.  I will definately be airing my views from now on and will be excessively pro-active and stop this ordeal of 4 years from stressing me further.

All the Best,

Mohay

Go Mohay!!

Thank God you had BGs

When oh when will the Spanish authorities put a stop to crooks like these.

I have been reading here and elsehwere that if you have a BG, you have to pay someone to execute it (I know there are a few who didn't have to pay).

The BG is a legally required insurance contract which in my mind makes it similar to car insurance contracts here in the UK.  If I claim on my car insurance, I do NOT have to pay someone for the privilege.  I do not have to go to court to make the claim.  

When will Spain start policing the laws of their land?

The UK has an insurance ombudsman - is there an equivalent in Spain?

The UK has a banking code of practice and (I think) a banking ombudsman(http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/).

Come on Spain!  Catch up!

Spain certainly has a major crisis in it's property market and now even it's tourism market.

Over 1,000,000 properties unsold! And the reputation of its market, it's laws, it's development planning flaws are widely known around the entire world. It's an understatement to say they have catching up to do. They have, and it will take many many years to correct all this.

You would really have thought that to save their very own 'bread and butter' the authorities would have intervened rapidly to put some of mess right. (No instead they demolish a property and take years to give planning decisions or don't bother at all) Certainly with unscrupulous developers such as we are dealing with they should have forced compliance.

It has all reflected very badly on the property market that was once the lively hood of the country.

Hi Guys,

Good news!, Victor deposited the money from our last BG this morning. Thank God we are out of this mess now. Anyone who is in need of a good solicitor is recommended to try ours, as he did exactly what he said he would do. It took a little longer than expected because CAM tried delaying tactics, but perseverence won the day.

This is his e-mail address for anyone who wants it.   

victor@mamsolicitors.com 

I shall be looking in periodically to see what is happening, so good luck to all who are still fighting.

Best Regards

Glad to hear that you have received your money back.  We are using Victor after changing from Aldea in April and fingers crossed will receive our money back soon.  Our bank guarantee is with the Caja Murcia.  Had your bank guarantee expired or was it still in date?

Has this put you off buying a place in Spain it has us.  The last few years have been an absolute nightmare.

Sue and Terry

Hi Sue & Terry,

firstly good luck getting your money back, Victor worked out so well for us that we are using him to buy another property. This time though it is a resale!!!!!!

In answer to your other question, our BG's had not expired, Banco Popular paid out almost straight away, but CAM Bank had to be threatened with court as they wanted to wait til the expiry date to give the builder chance to fulfil his contract! (Some hope)

I hope things work out well for you

Hi all. We are due to have the cheque from our BG sent to our house. We only had one, even though we'd made 2 payments, so the other half of our money is still tied up. Aldea want 2800 Euros to attempt to get the rest back. Has anyone managed to get their money back if they haven't had a BG?

Also, are people tending to get any deposits back or interest on their money? And how much are the successful solicitors tending to charge please?

Cheers

blanchy

hi

don't give aldea a penny they are keeping money they received from bg's

ted

Well the cheque came, and is now safely cleared and in my bank. Yippee!! Now all I have to do is try and get a decent solicitor to attempt to get the other half of my money (over 33,000 Euros), plus my deposit and any interest. Any honest recommendations are welcome.

Cheers.

Blanchy

Hello all,

this will be my last post, as we have now completed on our home in Spain. I do hope everyone is successful getting their money back, I know we are out of pocket by several thousand but the light at the end of the tunnel is finally here, and we are back in the sunshine. Keep the faith, get a solicitor you trust, and don't give in. It will all be worth it in the end.

Good luck and best regards to you all.