A COUPLE from El Galan is having to take turns in going out after solicitors told them that bailiffs could come any day to evict them. Stewart and Lynda Forrester bought a Tecnologia Urbanistica house through Atlas International in 2003. In 2004 the house, which was part of a row of six, suffered severe damage due to the subsidence of an end terrace that had not been underpinned properly. Structural engineers advised the couple to leave the house immediately after six inch cracks started to appear throughout the house. In the meantime, Tecnologia’s owner, Emilio Martin de las Mulas Naranjo, offered Stewart and Lynda another house down the road in Bosque del Lomas 16, where they are still living for most of the year. The couple paid in full - more than 149,000€ - for the property to Atlas International.

FIGHTING
The couple never received any confirmation that the money had been paid to the builder and like with so many other cases that RTN has heard about, the owner of Tecnologia then took a mortgage out on the property. The couple has been fighting for their deeds since 2005 and have been constantly pushed from pillar to post. Their solicitors at the time, Aroca Seiquer, even phoned them at their home in South Wales to say that the deeds were in the office and then when the couple flew over to retrieve them, the solicitors said that the deeds weren’t there after all! The couple has known for some time that there was a debt on their property and even got a court judgement which states that all debts on the property must be cleared.

NO LIFE
Unbeknown to the couple, the bank has since repossessed the property and the auction took place six months ago. This was only discovered after the pair swapped solicitors to the same company that is helping other Tecnologia homeowners. As a result, the bailiffs could come any day and change the locks and the couple will be evicted from their home. Stewart told RTN: “If we need food from the supermarket, we take it in turns to go. We can’t afford to both leave the house. If one of us has to go out, the other stays at home, but what kind of life is that? We are supposed to be enjoying our retirement together.”
Jose Ramon Vidal from the Atlas Group said: “Atlas forwarded payments received to the builder as per the contract they had with Tecnología, and is in receipt of a certificate stating that the funds were received by the builder and keys were passed to the clients by Tecnología.” RTN asked for a copy of this certificate but was told that it would be sent direct to the couple. Keep reading RTN for more on this story as it develops.