Off Plan La Recolletta

Hi All

Just wondering if anyone has tried to with draw from purchase on Phase 4 due to its over run of completion dates.If so are they having any problems or are they getting a posative responce.

can anybody confirm if they have recevied deposit back yet? thanks for any information

I withdrew on January 1st when the contract was broken by Arenal.  I have been battling for five months to try and get my money back and am no further forward.  I have today instructed a new lawyer to take over my file .   I feel the one appointed originally was "owned" by developer.  Have you heard from anyone who has got money back?

Regards jglo

If you were due to complete in December 06 and you are purchasing on phase 4, you should have recieved a letter stating that Arenal Golf were delayed in completing.  You then had a 2 week gap to request yur deposit back, by not doing so you have agreed to allow the company an extra 8 months from the completion date (Dec 06) to finalise their work.  This will lead you you to August 07, before you can make a claim against them.  After that im not sure how strong the case will be.  My solictor informed me that this is the case and it is written in the contract.  She feel the clause is abusive and states that you may need to take the company to court, which will take time and is expensive.  People will need to confirm this with their solicitors.  Michelle

If you were due to complete in December 06 and you are purchasing on phase 4, you should have recieved a letter stating that Arenal Golf were delayed in completing.  You then had a 2 week gap to request yur deposit back, by not doing so you have agreed to allow the company an extra 8 months from the completion date (Dec 06) to finalise their work.  This will lead you you to August 07, before you can make a claim against them.  After that im not sure how strong the case will be.  My solictor informed me that this is the case and it is written in the contract.  She feel the clause is abusive and states that you may need to take the company to court, which will take time and is expensive.  People will need to confirm this with their solicitors.  Michelle

Sef

You say your solicitor thinks the clause is an abusive clause.It says in the purchase contract 2006 .an abusive clause is taken as null and void..I think if anyone wants there deposit back they really need to get there solicitor to commit themselfs to some clear cut answers.

I believe the bank guarantees say you are entitled to your full deposit back if the contract does not meet completion date.It also says you can ask for your monies back or negotiate another completion date .It does not say if you do not ask within 14 days you give the builder 8 months or more leeway.

We are purchasing on phase 4 block 2 and have a certificate to say blocks 1, 2 & 3 were completed before December 31st 2006. How convenient for Arenal.

Needless to say we do not have the keys, no compensation and no recourse according to our lawyer as Arenal have "completed".

It is now 5 months for the council to issue an habitation license, it may be the council are having some issues with the term completed as to why no license yet?

Anyone any answers?

Michelle,

when and by whom were you told of this eight month clause.  It is the first time I have heard this.

Also,  Jglo,  can you tell us who your Lawyer was, that you think was "developer owned".

 

Hi Matt, here is the e-mail I was sent by my solicitor:  Hope this makes some sense as I have just been exploring differnt options.

Dear Michelle,
As you well mentioned, the contract says that you have a timeframe of 15
days to resolve the contract after the 31st of December, and also if you
don't cancel the contract you are admitting an extension of the completion
date, but according with the consumer's law, this clause is abusive so, this
means that is invalid.  I can't assure you that if we try to execute the bank guarantee they are
going to refund you the money automatically, if they can't complete in several months, we have a proof of a
previous requirement trying to execute the bank guarantee.
We are not going to charge any legal fee for do that, we want to have a
special attention, but you have to pay the costs of the "burofax" or the
"notarial requirement".
A burofax can cost you around 40? and a notarial requirement about 120?, the
cost depends of the extension of the writing, but is the way of doing a
formal notification that can be used as a proof.
Anyway, I spoke with Gonzalo (Gerens) and he told me that at this moment
they have reviewed the 80% of the documents, so next week we are going to
plan a meeting with them.
Michelle, if you can try to execute the bank guarantee we are going to
prepare the best letter saying that according with the consumers law this
clause is invalid and you have the right to execute the bank guarantee for
the delays.
But I can assure you that they are going to try to justify this delays
saying that they has suffered strikes, storms, ... and is something
complicated.

sef

I believe as I said in my email dated 30 May that clauses of 8 months would seem like an abusive clause and are null and void if you claim your deposit back .Your solicitor seems to say the same thing.

I also believe they do have a clause majure in the contract this allows them a leeway of three months due to circumstances like strikes ,storms etc.This is not unusual in any country.  If your place was due completion in Dec 2006 .The clause majure gives them till March 31st .After this I think they run out of excuses.I have no doubt they will not give in without a try to hold you up.

If you do not ask your solicitor to write for your bank guarantees you will never know.

Im going to Spain in 3 weeks so I can assess the situation and knowing what my options are, go from there.

Thanks Michelle

I have Just been with a client who got their full deposit back plus 6%, the whole process took around 3 weeks and was undertaken by his lawyer at Lawyers of Spain.

Ian

Apart-sol

i have been reading with intrest about the letters arenal sent out about the delay and that you had to reply within 14 days if you didnt it granted them the xtra time.  if you have such a letter could you tell me what it said as we didnt get one and our solicitor knows nothing about them we are phase 4 block 2 so we didnt have the opption to cancell contract

the only letter we have was sent out on 7/5/07 and arrived 19 days later at our house even then the post code was wrong and this letter was full of bullxxxx what good is a helpline that  knows nothing

 what an easy job  to have answer  phone and say we dont know and someone is paying people to do this i wonder if arenal could find a job in there for me beats my 60 hours on my feet all day

if this is how the spanish work no wonder nothing gets done   were i live they pulled down some buildings in feb 07  now there are 6 houses and all with people living  in them .     no they dont have a pool but wales is full of water just step outside for a good soaking

Hi Babe,

I. too, have been reading the various posts regarding the 'famous' letter we have all supposed to have received after December 2006 giving our permission to extend the completion by 8months if we didn't reply to the contrary within 14 days.  I have NEVER received any sort of communication from Arenal, Arenal Sur 21 or whatever they call themselves these days and we bought direct from them (the developer) and not through any agents or third parties. It shows a complete lack of respect to us all and they are after all still sitting on our 30% already paid without the decency to give us any kind of up-date.   On Thursday I telephoned my lawyer to find out if he had received any letters, calls etc as we had not heard anything.  With regard to the letter, he said that a letter of that sort requesting permission would have had to sent " to be signed for" to prove that we had actually received it and as this has not been the case this permission would not stand up in any court case we may wish to proceed with. I know this to be true as we have had three court cases in Spain regarding other property we own and there has to be proof of acceptance of the letter,like registered post.  He has been speaking to someone at Arenal/Cajasur(whatever) and they have said that the inventory for Phase 4 is still in Cordoba and that work will soon be started as they want to be finished by September.  I have heard all this before.  Anyway,  I have an appointment to see my lawyer on June 18th and I know Sef (Michelle) is out there from 20th June, so we are hoping to met up and try to pool anything we have found out that week.  We will report back as soon as we get back with any news, good or bad (hopefully good).

Best regards.

 

We are meeting our solicitors and MRI next week and also trying to get in to see our apartment. Will post you all on the news.

 

Pink

When the day finally comes and we take possession how is the community charge worked out? With people pulling out obviously the number of empty units will increase. The market is flat and no one will purchase on Arenal Golf until the club house, driving range, gymnasium & golf course have been completed. So do the empty units who are owned by the bank have to stump up the cost?

i would not be willing to pay  the full community  charges untill all is up and running if you cant use it you dont pay for it  we should all stick to gether on this 

I was led to believe that you do not pay the community charge until the last apartment on phase 4 is granted its habitation license. Not sure if that is true or not.

Pink

My friend has an apartment on phase 1 and phase 3.  She has had to pay the community charge regardless towhether all the apartments have been sold as there will be the up keep of the golf , cleaning of stairways, life gaurd etc.  Not good news.

The bank own the empty units, some of which will stay empty a long time. If you suppose the bank own half of the unsold units, will they be paying their 50% for the running of the site? Worst case scenario, if you were the only person in your block and all the others were still owned by the bank would you be paying the up keep for the entire block?