Is a 5 year wait a record or the norm?

We bought on Camposol back in 2002 before we decided to move to Spain permanently a classico Number 1163 Poligono C14 which should have been ready by the latest December 2004! We decided after a lot of ignored emails/letters and phone calls to Jumasa direct to go down the legal path, we had already been living in Spain for a year or so by now and we decided that as the villa was so late we were well within or rights subject to the property being so over due to pull out and get a full refund. We contacted both Luz del sol for help and Jumasa direct but as no-one was listening we really were on our own the agent said the contract was not with them but with Jumasa so, we tried phoning sending letters which were returned! We just wernt getting anywhere so then .......

I asked around on the forums, I had already set up my own website so had a few contacts one of them who put me in touch with a solicitor in Torrevieja who had won similar cases before.

We first contacted them in July 2005 and after they were ignored a few times by Masa they sent Burofaxes, which have to be answered over several months the solicitor eventually took them to court and in July this year the court demanded they pay us a full refund and interest on the monies already paid.

I have all the details for the solicitor we used we had to pay 1500 up front for costs this wasnt covered by Jumasa but we were just pleased to get out money back to be honest so the interest was a bonus.

Luz del sol also paid us the total care package as soon as we won the case. That was a con if ever there was one, they did nothing for that £2000 bar opening a bank account for us! Still it was a steep learning curve for me and has helped me so hopefully I can help others.

It takes time and patience to follow this through and it is very frustrating at times but I wanted to give people hope that they do not have to have the property if Jumasa have broken their side of the deal which in many cases they have! running over by years in many cases! They are allowed a 3 month delay under noraml curcumstances after that they shouldnt have a leg to stand on!

We were lucky as we already had another property to live in but for some people especially retired people who have sunk all their savings into a home only to find they have to pay out for a rental property for months on end eating into their pension its terrible.

Please note that anyone who is in fact renting because of late delivery of there villas is also entitled under Spanish law to extra costs to cover this but you do have to prove it.

You need to be in possesion of all paperwork, reciepts and details of the whole sale with a contract or copy of one. For anyone who does not have the original reciepts Luz Del Sol had all ours strangley enough and they should let you have them at your request if they havnt given them already or your agent if different.

If you would like the details of the solicitor you can email me directly at sharon@livespainforlife.co.uk

Good luck everyone
Please email for any other information I may have missed.
Kind regards
Sharon  

We can't quite match 5 years but our two bedroomed apartment should have been completed in July 2005, so we are 2 years overdue. We are awaiting the LFO but we don't intend to complete as our personal circumstance have changed dramatically in the last two years.Our independant lawyer based in London has come up against a "brick wall" with regard to a refund of monies .  Both the agent and the developer are refusing to communicate with our lawyer and we have already paid over £2000  for seemingly little return. It's a problem to decide where we go from here . At the current rate of expenditure it will cost a small fortune to take this one to court and even then if the court rules in our favour we still have to rely on someone (agent or developer) to pay up.

Any advice the best way to proceed would be much apreciated.

I found out today, that the drainage system in our garage does not correspond to the plans which were submitted to and approved by the town hall. In talks with the developer and our administrator, I was informed that this is in fact quite normal, and that the builder rarely sticks exactly to the plans.

I asked the inevitable question: if the plans of the project are not adhered to, how/why does the town hall grant an LFO? The answer was that the town hall's inspector, when the building is complete and the LFO has been applied for, rarely does a thorough check, but most likely just checks that the total build size is correct.

Which led to the next inevitable question: if that's all they do, then why does it take so long to get the LFO???????????

We were lucky; ours came through only 6 months after we completed  (not recommended) and it was clear what the delay had been for, namely a wall separating us from the next plot had not been built - in fact because the builder there had given our builder a backhander not to build the wall, as access to their construction was easier without it. As a result, we had to wait until that building was finished, before the wall was built, but after that the LFO was granted fairly promptly.

Some people have reported preposterous delays, so really, why does it take so long?