San Jose into liquidation.

Fredhead:

Chech out that you really have a Bank Gurantee. In many occassions it is written in the contract that you have it and you do not have it at the end.

Please find some other answers here below in bold green:

If San Jose have to go into liquidation what is the process in respect of the bank guarantee? Same process as  if not in bankruptcy as that money is secured precisely through that, the bank guarantee.  And if they are able to re-negotiate their debts etc and continue to trade am I correct in that we would have to wait until Sept 2009 to claim back our money under their breach of contract if the villa was still uncompleted? Correct.

Maria,

After having paid my 30% deposit in June 06 I never received any response from San Jose that they had received my money. After pressing my agent, Frontline, i eventually got a response from San Jose in Oct 06 on email (which I still have a copy of) saying that they had indeed received my deposit and they also stated the property type and plot number R10 that the payment was for. Given that the majority of properties are still at ground / foundation level isn't there a case to say that I have paid for the land that this plot is on and perhaps the foundations (not to mention all other investors who have paid their deposits and had their plot's referenced in their contracts) ?

Also what are the odds of another developer buying the development as it stands (albeit at a knock down price) and then proceeding to complete the work in the knowledge that there are buyers already committed to the development ?

 

Hi Everyone,

My parents bought through Amba Sun also. They bought on Jumillia 3 years ago and it seems everyone who bought there is in the same boat. They went over recently to see if they could transfer to a key ready property. My uncle has bought over there and knows agents at Pink Property. They said to my parents that San Jose will probably show them Playa Golf Development and sure enough that it what they were shown. The other agents said they do not show people any houses on that development because just down the side of it is the local sewerage site! Its kinda hidden but you can see it. They asked the agent showing them around about the site and he acted all surprised saying he knew nothing of it. They then spoke to an english lady in the house across from one they were shown and she confirmed there is a sewerage site! She said it can smell sometimes and this was last month they were there. She also said most of the people there are renters because they cannot shift the properties.

My parents do have a solicitor and advised her of this. They have refused to take a property there and they actually asked for a place on El Pinet. They went to see El Pinet and I was there with them at this stage. The guy showing us around said yes they had places still to sell and we went into a key ready one but when my parents solicitor said to San Jose we want a place there they denied that any properties are left. This is a lie as we saw what was left and there own agent confirmed a week later to my parents that he had "held" the one they wanted.

There planning on going to court to get there money back and hopefully never deal with San Jose again. Has anyone asked there solicitors to all contact each other and try and get a group action against San Jose?

Hi Everyone. I have just had this from San Jose today

Orihuela, 15th of May, 2008  Regards Christina & Robert

The companies San José Inversiones y Proyectos Urbanísticos S.A.
and Herrada del Tollo S.L have applied for Voluntary Administration
proceedings before the Mercantile Court of Alicante, last Friday (9-05-2008).

The purpose of this procedure is to:

d.
Protect the assets of San Jose.
e.
Protect the clients’ deposits.
f.
To ensure the continuation of the Projects (El Pinet and Santa Ana del
Monte)
The above action was required to ensure that we the company are able to
continue with these two ongoing projects. The well reported “credit crunch” in
the finance industry and its effect on the construction business has affected our
cash flow which has restricted progress on these two projects.

As a consequence Voluntary Administration proceedings were considered
as the best financial alternative to overcome the present situation and
guarantee the future of both companies.

Both Companies can confirm that the down payments paid by each client
are fully recognised by the courts; they acquire the conditions of creditor and
are protected under the law. The court will send a personal communication to
each client in order to confirm the down payments made.

The board of directors of San Jose convey their deepest apologies for any
inconvenience which this action might have caused and will continue to work
with all parties to reach a solution as soon as possible.

We will be informing all concerned how the procedure progresses and any
subsequent changes to the schedule for the projects.

The Board of Directors

San José Inversiones y Proyectos Urbanísticos S.A.

Herrada del Tollo S.L.

Jim:

Comments below in green:

 

Maria,

After having paid my 30% deposit in June 06 I never received any response from San Jose that they had received my money. After pressing my agent, Frontline, i eventually got a response from San Jose in Oct 06 on email (which I still have a copy of) saying that they had indeed received my deposit and they also stated the property type and plot number R10 that the payment was for. Given that the majority of properties are still at ground / foundation level isn't there a case to say that I have paid for the land that this plot is on and perhaps the foundations (not to mention all other investors who have paid their deposits and had their plot's referenced in their contracts) ? Yes, you can deffend your credit of course

Also what are the odds of another developer buying the development as it stands (albeit at a knock down price) and then proceeding to complete the work in the knowledge that there are buyers already committed to the development ? Your rights will have to be respected in the transmission of the development ( if that happened to a new company), you will have your say there of course.

Does anyone know which court in spain is dealing with this bancrupcy claim ?

I believe it is Alicante.

I would just like to express my thanks to Maria.

This lady has been giving excellent advice to us all. She has done her best to give precise and straightforward information in situation that has seen most of us in a state of panic, not knowing which way to turn. Maria obviously has nothing to gain from doing this and makes me realise the reason I love Spain and the Spanish people so much.

THANK YOU MARIA.

I have just out the followng email:

Dear...

This email is for those buying a property in Spain from the developer San Jose, such as on the development Santa Ana Del Monte in Jumilla.

As you may already know, San Jose this week applied, voluntarily, for court protection against it's creditors.  They blame the credit crunch and market conditions for their demise.

This now means that anyone who has put a deposit down on an off plan property through San Jose essentially has to join the creditors list to try and get their money returned.

We know most people don't even have bank guarantees so this is particularly worrying for them.

This is going to be a long and complicated process with no guarantees of success.  At this stage we don't yet know the actual state of the finances at San Jose but group action is now called for to try and recover as much as possible from the developer.

Now, we have received many emails from worried people this week in total disbelief that they could lose all their money here.  So, with a couple of contacts of mine we went to see the UK law firm Irwin Mitchell yesterday (www.irwinmitchell.com).  They are a huge company with huge resources and with huge experience in these cases.  We went to see them to see if they could apply their formula to this case.  They have branches in Spain.

They have agreed to hold a meeting next week to explain to people what the situation is, what the options are and what action they propose.

They explained that there are essentially two groups of people here:

1.    Those with bank guarantees may find themselves in an easier position
2.    Those with no bank guarantee may find themselves in a difficult position

They have set a provisional date for a meeting in their offices in Birmingham on Wednesday 21 May 2008.  They need to know how many people would be interested/ are able to attend.

This is a very serious issue and this is a good opportunity to meet other people in the same situation and to ask questions as a group to these lawyers who have been through this before.

You need to register your interest by filling in the form TODAY at:

=> Fill in the form

Even if you can't attend but would be interested in joining in with this group action then please fill in the form TODAY.

=> Fill in the form

Your details are totally confidential and will only be used but Irwin Mitchell lawyers to contact you.

I hope you can attend the meeting.  I am very pleased that this company is willing to take on this case as they know how complicated it is dealing with so many individuals, each with their own unique circumstances.

In the meantime you can also see the discussion about this subject on the general forum on Eye on Spain.

I wish everyone the best of luck with this and if there is anything I or my team can do to help then please just shout.

By the way, in case anyone is wondering, we are not getting anything out of this personally.  I am just trying to help as an independent party.  I just wish there could be more we could do to help. 

Best regards

Justin Aldridge
www.eyeonspain.com


This message was last edited by EOS Team on 5/16/2008.

Sterling:

Thanks so much for your kind words. That is what we try to bring to the sphere of british people living, buying, renting, holidaying in Spain. The best of the Spanish essence with an acceptable ( always improvable) customers care and proffessionalism. It is not easy, it takes lot of work and energies, but it is worth it and it is bringing quite a lot of work to us and incomes to employ people and offer even better services... it s quite an adventure. But we di want to restore faith in our country.


Justin:

Even when no mentioned before, as you know we are very scrupulous towards not explicitly self-promote our services in the forum, I want to offer our hand here now that some Law Firms are explicitly showing their availability for action:

We will also be able to help in this situation. We have got an expert in Commercial Law in the Law Firm with good expertise in Bankruptcy and an accurate and effective legal tool to protect the not guaranteed money of off plan purchasers.  He has acted in several bankruptcies before

I hope this not contravene the forum rules.

Our contact details are in our website below.

WIth all my respect,

Maria

This message was last edited by mariadecastro on 5/16/2008.

This message was last edited by mariadecastro on 5/16/2008.

 

Hi All

I have just been reading the latest email from Justin Aldridge (EOS) about the Builder San Jose this week applying voluntarily, for court protection against it's creditors.

Purely out of support for its EOS members who are affected by this EOS have gone the extra mile in providing support . This action by Justin and EOS is far in excess of anything they could be expected to do for its members but is typical of him and his team and the way they run the web site THANK YOU Justin and your team for supporting your members so well and making us all part of the EOS Family.

I would just like to say to those of you involved in this problem with San Jose good look and I hope all goes well for you. 

Regards

Phil & Ann

Yes, good luck, fight hard and be confident.

And yes... experts lawyers in charge... essential.

Best wishes and all our support,

Maria

I'd just like to clarify something about the "San Jose into liquidation" posts. The developer has not gone into liquidation. It has applied voluntarily for a process called "concurso de acreedores" in Spain. This is similar to voluntary administration in the UK but doesn't always lead automatically to liquidation/bankrupcy. What it means is that their debts are frozen and ring-fenced whilst the administrator and judge find a way to solve the liquidity problems they are currently experiencing due to banks cutting funding.
This process has been developed with the aim and motive of attempting to save businesses from bankrupcy and to try and find solutions to the issues they are experiencing.
I know it's easy to panic when you have put money into something which you don't yet possess but it is not all doom and gloom. Your money, even if you have no bank guarantee, is safer than ever because each and every client who has signed a purchase contract is registered with the administrators so you are all recognised as having paid money.
 San Jose is one of the largest development companies in Spain and has several hundreds of millions of Euros worth of assets. Their only problem is a temporary cash flow issue.
I can assure you all that it is in the interest of San Jose as well as in the public interest, for this project to go ahead since alot of money has already been invested into bringing it to the stage it is at now and the only thing missing in order to get the actual construction licenses approved is a deposit of a sum of money with the town hall. This can be confirmed by making a simple phone call to the town hall of Jumilla.
San Jose, the judge and administrators will do all they can to ensure that this project goes ahead.
What I would recommend to people in the first instance is not to panic. You can contact San Jose (their offices are open and business as usual) and ask them for information which they will gladly give to you or you can contact your solicitor to find out more about the implications to you. Equally, you can request from your solicitor to form part of the "concurso" or administration which, even though it will constitute a small legal fee, will potentially serve to give you peace of mind because it will give you a small vote and mean that all the information relating to the circumstances of the administration will be communicated to you in tadvance of it being made public.

Life overseas

This longgggg email just dropped into my email box a few mins ago, it may be posted somewhere else here.

What do you need to do if your Spanish property developer goes bust?

Please note that the information provided in this article is of a general interest nature and intended as a basic outline only. It is not intended as any substitute for detailed legal or other professional advice specific to the reader’s circumstances. Nothing contained in this article should be seen or taken as the writer or publisher providing legal or financial advice.

Without any intended insult to the text of the Old Testament, the sub-prime disaster in the US begat market jitters, market jitters begat the collapse of age old financial institutions, the institutional collapse begat the credit crunch and the credit crunch begat the withdrawal of project finance. Sprinkle lightly with a reduction in demand and an over supply and what do you have Spanish property developers falling off the perch, howling about liquidity issues and seeking creditor protection under the Spanish equivalent of Administrative Receivership (as in the UK) or Chapter 11 (in the US).

In the last month a company owning most of projects of the Grupo Jale, a major developer on the Costa del Sol, and Grupo Sanchez – equally big on the Costa del Sol - entered into Administrative Receivership and this week we heard that San Jose with projects in Murcia has sought similar protection.

Obviously in an already changed market, awash with fears for the security of hard earned money invested in Spanish property, this is not great news.

But where does this leave the property purchaser?

If you have already completed it is likely that your developer may not have sold his entire stock of properties at your new Urbanisation. This means that the developer will also become your neighbour, a member of your Community of Owners and be as responsible as you for their share – their quota - of community fees.

However, the effect of the appointment of an Administrative Receiver over the assets of the company will mean that your Community’s will be required to deal with the office the Administrative Receiver and no longer with the developer themselves. Any subsequent sales of properties at your Urbanisation will generate cash for the Administrative Receiver’s office. This will be used to pay out secured creditors – including the tax and social security offices – but it will also provide cash flow for the continuance of the company under the creditor protection. This means that the developer’s employees – for example - will continue to be paid whilst the company attempts to trade its way out of trouble.

As a consequence, it is likely to be necessary to call either an Extraordinary General Meeting or an Annual General Meeting in order to protect the Communities position in respect of the unpaid Community Fees. I am told that only after these have been voted upon at the EGM or AGM will it enable the Community to enforce the unpaid fees as a debt against any incoming purchaser and thereby collect the unpaid balance. This may be an unpleasant surprise for the incoming purchaser – who’s Abogado should have advised them on such matters and checked with the Secretary of the Community whether any such fees were outstanding. But the legal position appears to be only once the unpaid fees have been voted upon and passed into the Minutes of the Community that following a purchase will the incoming purchaser be obliged to assume responsibility for the unpaid fees. This should benefit the Community.

Alternatively, another potentially interesting scenario is starting to emerge – and we are seeking detailed legal advice on this point as I write. If like any other owner, the developer fails to pay their share of the community fees; will the remaining members of the community – probably a majority – be able to take legal action to recover the debt against the developer? Further should they be successful in obtaining judgment will the Community of Owners be able to obtain an “embargo” over the property to the extent of the Community Fee debt? As a consequence, will the Community then be able to progress to a “subasta” or auction sale of the defaulting owner’s property to realise the unpaid Community Fees? Will this create an interesting new market of distress stock – whereby willing purchasers can acquire finished property at a knock down price?

We believe that this may be relevant where the developer, as is usual, has established an individual company vehicle to develop and sell a particular development. If they have sought creditor protection for only a member of the group of companies – rather than the individual development company - then the moratorium which prevents creditors taking action against the group member but may not apply to the individual development company. Careful review by an appropriately qualified professional is required as group wide creditor protection may operate to prevent a challenge by the Community of Owners.

What if you have not yet completed your purchase but you have paid over your deposit on signing your Private Purchase Contract (PPC) plus – possibly - several stage payments?

Under the terms of the PPC that you have signed, you will usually be acquiring an option to purchase the property at completion. This is not a property right as such but a debt owed to you by the development company with whom you’ve signed your PPC. As in English law, there are different categories of creditors. These include: “Secured” creditors who have registered charges against the development company’s assets probably by way of mortgages or other loans – often manifested in an up to date Nota Simple of the property - the Spanish state tax and social security offices; “Favoured” creditors such as the company’s own employees and “Unsecured” creditors.

 

Until completion it is usual that a property purchaser will be an “unsecured” creditor of the developer. This means that your rights in respect of your cash as deposited with the developer will mean that you rank behind the “secured” and “favoured” creditors.

 

Spain has a developed and legally backed system of Bank Guarantees (Aval Bancario). The Law 57/68 establishes a system of bank guarantees - or insurance policies - to protect the amounts paid by the buyers in case of the developer’s failure to complete the development.  The aim is to ensure that you do not lose your money should the property not be built for some reason. This is usually offered by the main funding bank which has provided the developer with their project finance.

 

In practice, bank guarantees may not always reach the require level of protection as envisaged by the law. In our experience they need to be studied very closely to ensure that they are valid, up to date and signed by all relevant parties. To give you added comfort, you should seek from your Abogado written assurance that they have hold original versions of up to date – amended to include your deposit funds and any subsequent stage payments - fully signed and original Bank Guarantees from the developer’s banker.

 

Should you find yourselves in a position where your developer has announced that they are entering into a formal creditor protection arrangement or they have filed for, Administrative Receivership, voluntary liquidation or similar you should consider whether it’s appropriate to give your Abogado instructions to seek to call upon the bank’s Guarantee. Whilst it may be difficult in practice to invoke this guarantee – it will usually require the intervention of your Abogado and possibly formal court proceedings – which may prove costly – it should provide you with long stop protection in the event of the collapse of the developer that results in the property not being constructed or completed.

 

It is not the intention to overly simplify this process and for one reason or another it is likely that the bank providing the guarantee – given the current financial climate - may seek to delay honouring or even refuse to honour their guarantee - so ensuring that your Bank Guarantee arrangements are at all times in “apple pie” order is very sound advice.

 

If you developer does not appear to be in financial difficulties we’d recommend that you review your Bank Guarantee arrangements in any event. A difficulty often arises if a date of expiry of the Bank Guarantee is specified on its face. Such a date may be an “in any event” date meaning that the Bank Guarantee will expire whether or not the property is “legally” completed. You should check with your Abogado to ensure whether such a date is stated in your case and he/she should apply to have them renewed before they expire. It is usual that the developer and the bank will need to sign each Guarantee and any extension to it which in our experience may well not happen if the developer and their financier are in dispute over other liquidity issues.

 

I have been approached by some purchaser’s saying that their Abogados failed to advise them in relation to a Bank Guarantee. There may be one of two scenarios here. Firstly, the Bank Guarantee was issued in the usual way - as is required by the law - but for some reason the Abogado just didn’t give the purchaser a copy. In which case, a note to your Abogado’s office should reveal its whereabouts. Secondly – and of much more concern – is where either the Bank Guarantees has not issued for a variety of reasons. This may include that they were not requested by anyone including the purchaser’s Abogado, were not offered or that they were issued and have now expired. Whichever way fully independent professional advice should be sought as to your available remedies against your advisors and the Administrative Receiver – or similar.

 

Finally, and this sounds like total stupidity, if your property is pretty much completed – snagging done etc. - but lacks - for example - the final formal licences from the local Town Hall – particularly the License of First Occupation (LIFO) - but – and this is an enormous but – your developer is threatening to file for creditor protection, Administrative Receivership or similar, it may be worth considering – if you are in a position to do it – to complete on your property in any event. For obvious reasons, care and professional advice must be taken if you are considering upon such a strategy – it may well be a massive gamble – e.g. the LFO may never be granted - but the net result of such completion will mean that the property is registered in your name. Instead of a debt owed to you by the developer you will have a property asset with an enforceable title.

 

© Mark FR Wilkins (Marbella) 2008

 

Mark FR Wilkins,

The Rights Group

mark@therightsgroup.com

www.therightsgroup.com

+34 600 343 917

 

TRG E-Guide to Completion of an Off Plan Property Published April 2008 Go to www.eyeonspain.com/ebooks/completion/

UPDATE:

CURRENT SITUATION AND NEXT STEPS INTO THE PROCEEDINGS

•    As it has appeared published in several newspapers SAN JOSÉ INVERSIONES Y PROYECTOS URBANÍSTICOS, S.A. has just lodged a law suit asking for to be considered as a bankrupt company.

•    When a company lodges a lawsuit like this, the corresponding Court must check some compulsory documents. It seems that the referred company has not presented every document as it is required and that is why the Court has not yet accepted the petition, and has given a time frame of 5 working days to the company to do so.

•    Once the company has completed the documents, the Court will order the Bankruptcy by a judicial order called “Auto de declaración de concurso” on which the Court orders (i) appointment of the trustees; (ii) the notification of the bankruptcy in order to communicate the credits to the Court. 

•    The notification must be done in the B.O.E. and also in a relevant newspaper of the company´s address, and –if it is necessary- in another relavant newspaper of the place where the company has placed its main economical interests.

•    This notification is extremely important because from the last of the referred communications you will only have a timeframe of one month to do so.   

•    Note that if you do not communicate your credit before the aforementioned deadline your credit will be damaged.

•    After communicating the credits the Trustees must prepare a report to (i) analyse the financial situation of the company; (ii) the reasons why the company falls down into Bankruptcy; (iii) the proposals presented to refloat the company; (iv) clarify the assets of the company to be enforced to make payments; and (v) the list of the creditors, with different categories, according to the origin, the class, etc.

•    After being firm the aforementioned report, the proceedings goes into (i) agreement phase if it is possible to refloat it; or (ii) liquidation phase if it is not possible or, if it was previously possible but the Bankrupt has failed the terms of the agreement.

•    Agreement phase is to reach an agreement between the creditors and the Bankrupt to reduce the debts or to give the company a schedule of payments, delaying them.

•    Liquidation phase is to enforce the assets to obtain money to pay the creditors.


DOCUMENTS REQUIRED

•    P.O.A., which must be granted before a public notary and, if it is granted in the UK, translated into Spanish and also apostilled.

•    The documents that justifies the payments made to the Bankrupt.

•    The “off plan” contract

For more information, please contact Irwin Mitchell Abogados  on
952 857 630 or send an email to spainenquries@irwinmitchell.com


Justin

and it is advisable to communicate the credit, affirming and brining legal grounds by which the asset you were buying is a real guarantee of your credit itself and therefore cannot be considered as part of the assets which will be enforced to pay other  creditors. That way, you will rise the possibilities of getting the full refund back. If not... you may end up being paid a short percentage of the money that you paid.

This solution is innovative, it is not in Law but has Minor Court Law backing it.

Hi

Where has everyone gone ?

Christina

Hi

 

Just been reading all posts and cannot get my head around all of this, we intend to go to meeting in Birmingham next week, some comments are saying everything is fine and not to panic, others are saying do this that and the other.

We also received email from PSI asking for 2300, but at the moment do not want to pay out anything more, this is a real mess, I think until this has gone before the judge we need to sit tight and wait to see the outcome

This is no good for blood pressure and stress levels

This is peoples lives that are being messed with, I leave my job in the UK next week,and also have to give up our home here next month

At the moment I really dont know what to do!!

 

Andy & Lynne

There are many conflicting views at the moment. We are all trying to get our heads around it.  I would like to go to Birmingham on Wed but it depends on the time, I dont know what time it starts. I am sure that once the dust has settled and we can all find our way around things and get as much advice as we can thats got to be a good thing. There is strength in numbers. I know its easier said than done but try to work things out once we have more facts.

EOS is a real good Forum with lots of good people who are interested in helping us.

Try to keep positive.  Regards Christina

It is urgent to wait, my dad says sometimes and in this case I think it applies: The urgent thing is maybe to get some info on possibilities but not really hurry to make a decission till the Commercial Judge in Alicante decides on the application for bankruptcy. There are some developers who are applying and the bankruptcy is not being admitted by Judges. One in our area for instance.

Till then, remain confident that any or other way, there are legal tools for the defense of your deposits.

This message was last edited by mariadecastro on 5/16/2008.

Hi all,

If anyone is interested on having an informative meeting in Jumilla area next friday (23rd), please p.m. me.

Regards

There is not much mention of Albatera golf also San Jose, there is still no sign of any action ie further progress here, this project is very close to me. There are people here still waiting for progress reports of which there is none...

I actually feel quite sick for the people involved in this situation. I would like to give people some hope. We bought an off plan property through an agent on Camposol nr Mazzaron before we decided to live here full time. ( Camposol we decided was not for our family for permanent living) Anyway because of delays the property ended up being nearly two years delayed. We had no bank guarantee but we did have a breach of contract and a year or so ago we got all our money returned plus interest, we used a lawyer which I have passed on to numerous other people in a similar situation thinking that as a mirror case they could all benefit from the work that had already been done on our case keeping the costs down for them ( some of these people were retired, no home in the UK having to rent here and spend the savings they were to retire on, it was making some of them very ill) Anyway I dont know the outcome for some of the people I gave the details too but it gave them hope and the confidence to fight the builder to get back money and expences. There have been many problems on the sector where we originally bought subsidence and no infrastructure aso we now feel very lucky to have managed to get our money back. It was a clear cut case but the company Masa took it right to the court!!! and tried to ignore both us and our solicitor. I do feel that living here and knowing more how things work gave me the confirdence to fight them all the way!

Which brings me to the point I am trying to make that all these people pool together to make stronger case hopefully keeping costs down too.

This can happen to anyone and when you buy through a big name company like we did too you think you are safe but obviously there is no guarantee when buying off plan.

I wish everyone the best of luck in this horrible situation

Sharon

Hi, is the meeting in birmingham going ahead on wed because we would like to go but have chid care commitments to sort to be able to go. Have rang irwin mitchell reception in birming ham this morning but she knew nothing about it and could nt check up because we dont know who s dealing with it .

The meeting for this week is being coordinated by Jose Maria de Lorenzo.  He is based in their Marbella office.

I spoke to him yesterday and a lot of the feedback he's had is that Wednesday is generally not a good day.  It seems people would prefer to have a meeting held at the weekend.

He is going to send me final details hopefully later today so I'll post them here as soon as I know.

Now, let me stress that going to the meeting is NOT committing you to anyting at all.  It is an opportunity to ask questions as a group and to understand your options.  Whether you are using your own lawyer, another lawyer or no lawyer at all, then I would urge people to still attend the meeting.  This is a very confusing and worrying time and I hope by bringing as many people together in one room you can all find some comfort in supporting eachother.

If you want to be kept informed about the meeting please use the form below, even if you are unsure at this stage whether you can attend.

Birmingham meeting interest form

I understand that Abolex is planning to hold a meeting on Friday in Jumilla.  If you want me to run a central database for people interested in this meeting then please let me know and I'll get it set up.

Also, if there are people based around Costa del Sol / Costa de la Luz area that would like to attend an informative meeting then perhaps we can run on with Maria de Castro is there is a need.

This is exactly what Eye on Spain is all about and why it was started nearly 4 years ago.  Bringing like-minded people together.  Whether it's online or offline we try our best to make it happen. 

And finally, just to make it clear, we have NO financial interest in any lawyers present on this site.  We will always use our contacts and friends to help where we can.  That's what we're here for.

Best of luck to everyone.  I'll keep posting information as and when I get it.

Justin

Hi Justin

I will attend the meeting Abolex is arranging in Jumilla but I think I might be the only one.  Very few people live here although around 50% of the purchasers are Spanish so there might be an interest there somewhere.


I also posted this on chit chat because I did not know where the best place to place it was.


"I seem to remember a big crash in the property market around 25 years ago.
Most of us learn from experience so...
I was wondering.

Is there anyone who reads posts on eye on spain who had experience of being a creditor at that time?  If not ,maybe your parents did.

If so, my question is:  Is there anything you did then that in hindsight  you would do differently now?

The amounts of money differ but I doubt the law has changed that much.

Many thanks for all your help Justin, Maria and all. it is greatly appreciated.  They did not have forums 25 years ago did they.

I have arranged to do a podcast (audio interview) with Maria de Castro tomorrow (Tuesday) afternoon to discuss the issues facing buyers of property through San Jose.  We want to do it as a question and answer session but we need YOUR questions.  What question would you like me to ask Maria in the interview tomorrow??  Please let me know and we'll try and get through as many as we possibly can. 

Just fill in the form below.  


Thanks.  I will publish the interview on Wednesday morning.

Justin

I would like to ask Maria if she would marry me - she seems my kind of girl

Hi everyone,

We've only found out today about the problems with San Jose.  We completed on our villa in Spain on the Playa Golf development near Torrevieja last month and have been waiting for the final snagging report to be done.  We chased it up and found out the news about San Jose - cannot believe that no-one bothered to inform us about this until now.

Understandably we are really concerned as we are now paying a mortgage on this property and cannot get furniture in, etc., until the final snagging report is done.  More importantly we cannot rent it out until all this is done either!  We've contacted our solicitor to find out what is going on.  Does anyone have any suggestions please?

Thanks,


Anne & Rob

Anne & Rob

Welcome aboard. I believe for the time being we have to sit tight and wait to see the outcome of what happens with San Jose.  I know its hard but as long as you have a good lawyer and EOS I think that is the way forward. It is such an informative site with people in the 'same boat' just keep positive.

Kind regards. 

Chrissie