In a recent article in ‘El Mundo’ it was estimated that 600,000 individuals could be affected by these claims, 30% of which were from either the UK or Germany.
The situation has arisen primarily due to the risks taken by former savings banks, coupled with the property market decline and more recently by law firms setting precedents following their successful claims against the banks after the ground-breaking Supreme Court Rulings.
The Banks affected to a greater extent are: Banco Popular, Bankia, BBVA, CaixaBank and Sabadell, amongst others.
One recent case against the formerly known CAM bank in the region of Alicante, which made it to the Supreme Court, resulted in Sabadell bank (owners of the former CAM bank) being ordered to compensate the claimant.
The claims are based on the fact that thousands of house buyers paid amounts up front to developers who had sold them off plan properties/projects just over 10 years ago.
The legal basis of the claims is not new. A 1968 law holds banks responsible for the amounts that were paid in advance for unfinished properties: The Law is 57/68 which covers the receipt of ‘payments in advance ‘in building and selling apartments. The law is crystal clear in that building developers have the obligation to be co-signed by banks, and that banks are to be held responsible for the amounts paid in advance. This law was created to prevent the fiasco of the building developer Nueva Esperanza from happening again, a fiasco that left more than 10,000 Spanish people without houses… and without the payments in advance that they had made for them.
The onset of the recession coupled with the promoters/developers disappearing, leaving thousands of people without homes who had parted with large sums beforehand have created this situation for the banks, along with the help of many law firms who are now specialising in these types of claims and assisting these unfortunate people in obtaining their money back.
Nobody can confirm the total amounts of money which are at stake but a leading firm specialising in such claims in Barcelona for other Europeans as well as Spanish people, estimate that it could arise to 17,000 million euros. And this they feel is conservative – as it Works on a basis of 28,000 euros per claimant.
If you paid money in advance to a developer that did not keep its promise and you do not know how to get the money back, then thanks to this Law and to our Firm you can now finally recover what is rightfully yours.
Contact us immediately to discuss your claim.