La Caixa Bank Guarentee that is unpaid

I signed with a local constructor a property sale with a bank guarentee from La Caixa (Aval Bancario) which was due for payment on the 14.02.2009 which to date remains unpaid.

We started legal action against La Caixa and in December 2010 and won the case but they have now appealed this and is causing further delays and financial problems for our business.

There is no reason for this delay as only today La Caixa said that they will pay if the courts rule the appeal in our favour and my question is why do we need a court order for La Caixa to pay a promisary note they gave us. This was the only reason why we sold the property to the constructor as the bank guarentee promising the payment of funds from La Caixa sealed the transaction.

Now we are without the money and without the land and legal fees running into 60-80K Euros already and another battle now to win the appeal. Do not trust La Caixa and any bankers drafts or bank guarentees they give you as they could remain unpaid and you having costly court fees to pay

 Dear Lippy, 

if you enforced a guarantee, and you won, the enforcement process carries on even if the Bank appeals. The procedural law states that enforcement process can't be stopped by appeals. So your lawyer can carry on with the execution despite appeals. If La Caixa doesn't meet the payment friendly, your lawyer can arrange the seizure of any assets or accounts in the Bank's name. Your lawyer can also request that Court orders the Bank to provide an account number were there are funds enough to cover the amount enforced.

Hope it helps,

Regards,

Guadalupe Sánchez

GM LEGAL EXPERTS

Dear Guadalupe,

Thank you for your assistance. Our lawyers in fact did request the courts in Arona Tenerife to force the payment and that the bankers guarentee (aval bancario) is executed as you rightly mentioned.

The lawyers for La Caixa then sent a written opposition to the judge stating that as we are a small business and what happens if La Caixa wins the appeal, and then, there is a possiblity that our company would not have enough funds to repay them. At this point the judge ordered La caixa to deposit the funds in court and that case goes to appeal in the Audencia National in Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

This is a game by La caixa as we all know that when the bank gave us the guarentee there was a property boom and the fault of La Caixa is that it did not take any guarentees from the constructor in Tenerife. It seems that they are delaying matters to give the constructor time to pay them so that they then pay us. The actual property sale was in 2006 with the bankers guarentee due to be paid in 14.02.2009.

Finally I want people to be aware that La Caixa bankers drafts are not worth the paper as they will not repay this unless a judge orders them to pay.

Victor

Dear Victor,

just be possitive: the longer the Banks takes to pay you the amount guaranteed, the more delay interest you will get.

Best Regards,

Guadalupe Sánchez. Lawyer

GM LEGAL EXPERTS

Guadalupe,

does this means that all bank that have not delivered bank guarantees to purchasers have to refund the money?

 Dear ukhcc1,

I guess your question is linked with post I have made on other threads, and not with this one.

Bank liability can be claimed if:

- the Bank signed with the builder a Generic Guarantee (a commitment where the Bank agrees to provide guarantee to the purchasers of a development, and the builder to pay the Bank some commissions and interest for every guarantee made).

- there was not a generic guarantee signed, but there are irrefutable evidences that Bank was aware that the account's holder were money was paid was a builder and all the money being credited into the account came from purchasers (a good evidence is the existance of a builder's mortgage approved by the Bank for the developer).

Hope this help.

Best Regards,

Guadalupe Sánchez

GMLEGALEXPERTS

Thanks for your advice and support but this is really frustrating as we believed that la caixa being a major bank would honour its guarentees. Having spoke to the lawyers for the bank only last week they say that they will pay with interest only when the appeal courts orders them to do so.

The main question is what is the value of a bankers draft from La Caixa to guarantee a payment when this is obviously not true.

I would like to find a way of exposing this to the national press to show others that they should be careful of dealing with La Caixa and their bank guarentees.

Thanks

Lippy please contact both Ruth and Keith who are at present bringing attention to all of these form of abuses via their petitions www.bankguaranteesinspain.com and www.gopetition.com/petitions/stop-the-spanish-property-roadshow-open-letter-to-davi.html

Also please see thread titled "petition an open letter to david lidington" where there are links to other press reports. The more instances of this nature that are reported the better.