16 Nov 2009 3:35 PM:

Thanks tmdaniel.  I already did my (1st) transfer a week or so ago.  Will be doing another one soon.  Compared a few forex firms in the end by phoning all in the space of a few minutes for quotes (incl cornhill, moneycorp, HiFX) but on two separate phoning days Foreign Currency Direct and TorFX came out with the best rate to convert back to sterling and I ended up doing my trade with TorFX.  The funds were deposited back to the UK within a few days of my original phone call on the date advised and the service was very good so I will no doubt be using them again to do the other transfer.  HiFX was over a cent higher than TorFX (and indeed higher than any of the other forex firms) which in real terms meant I would've got back approx £500 less for my 1st €35.000 .

The banks were ludicrously lower (as I knew they would be) so not even worth going there.  Would've lost out on £3k if I'd have gone with any of mine.

 

This message was last edited by nicholb on 16/11/2009.
Thread: Transfering money back to UK

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12 Nov 2009 12:01 PM:

Maria - That's alright...no problem.  Good service deserves good praise.  People these days seem ever so quick to criticise when things go badly but not so eager to reward when things are done well.  I'd be quite happy using your very personable services again should the need arise and am not afraid to tell other the same!

 

Keith110 - Our Bank Guarantee had an expiry date on it, which had passed.  We were initiating the process of renewal of said guarantee when Banco Popular pulled the plug on funding the development.  This is before we discovered that expiry dates on bank guarantees should be irrelevant.  To be fair to our agent, I think they just believed that to have an expiry date on the bank guarantee was valid but the date on the document had passed.  I say this not through naivety, but because they gave another couple we knew with an "in-date" guarantee the option to execute the guarantee or go for a key-ready property.

 

MagicMeg - That's a very dim view you spin on things.  Once we got to Maria, from meeting her in her office to being refunded with money in our account was about 9 months.  I'd have thought a court case in the UK would take just as long if not longer.  So I don't really think you can say the system is flawed any less than ours is...and ours IS flawed.  You only have to look at cases like the Baby P case and the sentences passed to know that our judiciary can be as much of an @ss as anyone's.

 

What IS obvious though is that it seems crucial what lawyer you speak to.  Bearing in mind we showed two lawyers (both impartial - i.e. not connected to the developer) the same documents re our case in the space of three weeks, I find it bizarre their conclusions could of been so different. The first clearly stating (and believing) our bank guarantee was not only out-of-date but also invalid anyway because of our failed 2nd property purchase, thus leaving our only option to go after the developer (who might possibly go into administration); the other (Maria) stating yep your bank guarantee is valid and you have a strong case to get your money back! 9 months on we know who was right (!) but, for the sake of others, the first lawyers view concerns me and also does make me wonder that although law 57/68 seems to clearly state your rights, how many lawyers actually realise\believe this?

 

From a personal point of view, despite periods of quiet (I guess all legal cases are like this) on reflection a case going through the courts in 9 months seems perfectly normal to me.  However, I'm peeved it had to go that far although, bizarrely, had the bank agreed to pay sooner after being written to before going to court, due to exchange rate fluctuation, the conversion rate to gbp would've worked against us and in effect we would've received less sterling back!

 

So I guess every cloud...

 

Brian
 

Thread: La Tercia Real Deposit Refund - Don't Give In!

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11 Nov 2009 12:00 AM:

A week or so ago, Maria de Castro and her firm Costa Luz Lawyers, successfully won our case to get our deposit back from Spanish developer Peinsa and Banco Popular after a failed La Tercia Real purchase executing an "expired" bank guarantee.  Please read the testimonial we provided for Maria and her firm and let it serve as a fillip to everyone who is going through trauma and stress trying to get back what is rightfully theirs.  Don't give in and again thanks Maria!

 

Can I say a tremendous thanks to Maria and all of her team (especially Steven) at Costa Luz Lawyers for their services in getting our money back from a developer\bank after a failed Spanish property purchase.  After putting a deposit down for an off-plan villa in 2006, the development initially ran beyond its expected completion date of Sept 2007 and then in Oct 2008, the pulling out of bank funding meant that the developer decided to stop developing all together leaving our money trapped.  They never actually informed us of this...we only found out through our agent!
 
Looking to secure our money in case the developer went into administration (as was feared at the time), we were advised by our agent to transfer our deposit into a key-ready property as we had an "expired" bank guarantee.  This ultimately fell-through as the developer couldn't complete citing it was unable to lift the mortgage already on the property (did they not know this when we started the process for the new property?!).  Now at our wits end, we sought litigation advice.  Our initial lawyer informed us that our original purchasing contract was now null and void as our purchasing lawyer had signed papers for the new property which had fallen through (without our clear consent). She also stated that this had also in-validated our bank guarantee so that wasn't worth the paper it was written on either!  Our only option, that lawyer stated, was to sue the developer who we knew had no money anyway...so what point would that be?!  Bearing in mind that was just before Christmas 2008, that was probably the most stressful festive period we've ever had.
 
Not content with this, further researching our options, we came across comments from Maria at Costa Luz Lawyers advising people on website Eye On Spain.  Straightaway, I liked the way she came across online, going out of her way to advise people on their situations and about Spain in general.  We passed our details to her, no holes barred, and were absolutely delighted when she came back stating that our bank guarantee was valid, the expiration date on it didn't matter and ultimately that she was very confident she could get us all of our deposit back! As I didn't trust our previous lawyer to get the originals of our legal documents to Maria, we took the opportunity to collect and deliver these ourselves to Maria in the Costa Luz Lawyers offices in Algeciras.  Meeting Maria and her team in person was a very uplifting experience that really put us at ease.  It left us with a feeling full of trust that we were putting the chasing of our savings into the hands of someone who knew her stuff, yet was charming with it and a team who you could tell really cared about what they were doing.  The confidence that had been destroyed by our previous lawyer had now been rebuilt.
 
On returning to England, we were (as promised) e-mailed comprehensive documents outlining the processes that were possibly going to unfold to retrieve our money.  Any extra questions\concerns we did have were always answered in a timely fashion and a friendly manner by either Maria or Steven, helping us to further understand the process as well as keep our spirits up when things seemed to go quiet.  9 months on from our first meeting with Costa Luz Lawyers, our deposit has been fully refunded and an additional claim for interest\costs is in the process of being sorted out.
 
We are delighted with the service provided by Costa Luz Lawyers, in particular from Maria and Steven (who we mostly dealt with) due to their timely and personable answers to any queries we have had during the whole thing.  I would not hesitate to recommend Costa Luz Lawyers to anyone who finds themselves with a legal issue in Spain...indeed I have already done so on a couple of Spanish internet forums.  Many thanks Maria and all of the team!

 

 

Thread: La Tercia Real Deposit Refund - Don't Give In!

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16 Oct 2009 5:56 PM:

Guys (and gals) - All things being well hopefully soon I will need to transfer approx €70k of a refund from Bancaja in Spain back to England (to either Barclays or Halifax) in £ sterling.  I would welcome any suggestions on the best (i.e. to get the most £ sterling back to the UK) way of doing this.

 

Obviously with this sum of money, I appreciate any miniscule differences in the exchange rate will result in a sizeable difference in actual GBP returned to me and from my initially reading my presumption that bank -> bank transfer is not the way to go seems to be confirmed.

 

So I guess I'm looking at the likes of HiFX, Moneycorp etc for this (I already have a HiFX account from a previous transaction the opposite way)?

 

I've seen worldwidecurrencies also mentioned in this thread, which I will also look at.  A heads-up on any other companies to facilitate this or indeed any other advice on this that may save money\time would be much appreciated :o)

Thread: Transfering money back to UK

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08 Oct 2009 7:08 PM:

Hi Rodger - I think what Smiley was trying to point out was that based on the rates you quoted, if you are changing euros back to gbp then the 0.842\£ rate the bank quoted you would be better than the 0.89\£ HiFX quoted you, as you'd obviously get more gbp back per euro.

I'm guessing this isn't what you meant in your earlier comment?

Thread: Transfering money back to UK

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