I've Won against my lawyer

Just thought some of you would like to know that I now have a County Court Judgement from the High Court in London against my Lawyers ( ELS International Lawyers) for the loss of my deposit!!

The next problem is getting them to pay as they are now claiming they are not the same Lawyers as when we instructed them in 2005, so again the saying goes 'if you can't trust a lawyer who can you trust'!!!!

All the best.

Well done for getting this far.

Keep on fighting and don't give up

Tracey

Great news, and do let us know how it goes.  Are they based in the UK as well as in Spain?

Sue

Hi

I'd be interested to find out how you went about this.  Did it involve suing them against their indemnity insurance or some other method?  Just wondering if I could use the same approach against my agent!

Thanks

Jo

This is very interesting. From what we have seen, in most occassions diligent Lawyers would have avoided for the deposits to be lost, just by taking simple precautions like asking for the bank guarantee to the developer.

If clients of HdT had BG's, then the story would have been completely different.

Well done.

Martin

What you say is so true - sad, but true.  If all lawyers were as diligent as you and Maria, many of us wouldn't be in the situation we are in today.  We paid 38,000€ deposit and we know many people paid out more..  The best case scenario is that we may get back 65% of that money in 5 years' time.  We didn't know about bank guarantees because we didn't know anything about buying property in Spain, which is why we went to a Spanish lawyer!  Hopefully by telling our stories we can ensure that other people don't make the same mistakes.

Sue

Hi willsb,

I must admit that I thought of you a few days ago & wondered how your case had gone and I am really glad that the county court have ruled in your favour .I hope you stop the firm from trying to wriggle out of complying with the judgment and that you get your money back soon. 

All the best

Tony

Many thanks for all your great comments, a few answers to some questions are below:

ELS are UK and Spanish based lawyers but and a BIG but, they are now claiming they are not UK based although they are regulated by the Law Society and have offices in London and Bournemouth!! What they have essentialy tried to do is to create a new company in the UK which is different to the one that we agreed our terms of business with and who lost our deposit , but the partners are still the same! They are also being taken to court for the missapropriation (fruad by one of the directoirs) of £9.8M from a UK property firm, so what chance do I stand of getting £21K back.

Yes I am hoping to get the money from their PI Insurance, but you can't make a claim direct you have to get the insured to do this!!!

Will keep you all informed, happy to PM with anyone who wants any help.