Property Deposit Reclaim In Spain

blogs.fco.gov.uk/roller/.../some_encouraging_property_news

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Giles Paxman
Ambassador to Spain, Madrid (RSS feed )

Some encouraging property news
Posted 26 January 2011 by Giles Paxman |

There's some good news recently for British people faced with property
purchases in Spain that have back-fired, building projects that did not meet
the requirements of Spanish law, or constructors who've simply gone bankrupt
and left houses unfinished.

At the end of December, Spain introduced reforms to the Criminal Code which
increase the penalties for town planning crimes and prevent the perpetrators
from profiting from these crimes. They include punishing public officials
who allow illegal properties to be built and stricter penalties for
corruption. Courts can now order the perpetrator to pay the costs of
restoring the land to its original state, without affecting the compensation
owed to purchasers who bought in good faith.

Much as we would like to help, the Embassy cannot get involved in the large
number of individual property cases, all of which are different and often
very complex.  But we do regularly raise the issue in general terms with
Spanish ministers at a national and regional level. We also try to give
British nationals as much advice as we can about how to avoid problems when
buying property and who to turn to if they find themselves in trouble. You
can find this information on our web site.

And there is further encouraging news for purchasers who have bought off
plan and were issued with a bank guarantee.  In December, a court in
Cantabria ruled that a purchaser had the right to demand that the bank which
guaranteed the construction of a property refund the amount paid in advance
by the purchaser when the property was not completed as promised. This may
sound obvious but, surprisingly, many banks had found ways to avoid paying.

The Andalucian regional government has also announced that it is preparing
regulations to deal with the large number of properties in the region that
have been built illegally. This includes legalising properties where
possible, and in some cases issuing a minimum licence allowing the property
to remain even though it is not incorporated into the town plan. We are
working with the regional authorities to get more information on how these
proposals will work and the timeframes involved. We will update our website
with this information in due course.

In addition, a judge in Almeria has this month ruled that although a
property built more than six years ago did not comply with town planning
regulations, the owners have the right to be connected to essential
utilities such as water and electricity. It is not clear whether this ruling
will set any kind of legal precedent for similar cases, but it may be seen
as a glimmer of hope for those who are currently living in illegal
properties without access to water and electricity.

While the above news should bring some comfort to those affected, my advice
for those considering buying in Spain remains very clear: seek independent
legal and financial advice throughout the purchase process and ensure you
have all the correct documentation before signing any contracts.

You can find more information about buying a property in Spain on the
property section of our website.

Giles Paxman
 

Please find below the email response I got today on the matter of Action Group businesses who claim to assist people in reclaiming their deposits. Our action group consists of only people affected by the development (or lack of it!). We have not engaged any such services but have dealt direct with Spanish Lawyers.

I hope the response below helps and at least there are some interesting links. I have responded to one of the links so if I get a reply to that I will post what it was about and what the response was....

KingofSpain999@googlemail.com

Dear 'King of Spain 999'

There are people who have managed to successfully reclaim their deposits by taking legal action on their own. This can be quite costly though and many people feel bad about putting more money up front when they have already lost money. The amount of money can be quite substantial, say between three to ten thousand euros depending on the solicitor. (It can be cheaper to go as a group but we will talk about that in another blog soon.)

There is also the real risk that you are not successful in this action too so clearly you need to lower this risk by getting the lowest fee you can. At the same time, there are good and bad solicitors so there is really no point paying cheap money for someone who is not going to get a result for you!

So the message is simply to shop around and compare prices but get the solicitors names from recommendations from those who have been successful in reclaiming their deposits. Common sense really but not carried out by many (including me to my cost in the past!).

However, remember that it is not only the solicitor that affects your chance of winning the case, it is also the situation you are in contractually. And the more difficult it is from a contractual point of view then you really need a good solicitor and these are going to be the more expensive ones generally.

I have had good and bad solicitors and this always show in what is left in my pocket at the end. Don't treat the solicitor selection phase lightly! Not only can it lose you at lot of money but it can also lose you a lot of time as legal matters in Spain take an Age to sort out. And it will only be after three of four years that you realise you have wasted your time and money on the solicitor you went with when it becomes apparent that you are not going to get your money back through the action they have taken on your behalf. You can bet however their pockets are lined nicely!

There are some solicitors I would use again and some I certainly wouldn't. You can find out a lot by searching their company on the internet and finding out what forums are saying about them. If you need a solicitor and are really stuck for someone let me know and I can recommend a few for you to look at but contact me direct for that. However, the best thing is that you find someone who has been successful in getting deposits back on your development already who you can talk to about your specific situation.

kingofspain999@googlemail.com

P.S. Check out my sister blog by clicking the link on the bottom right of the screen under ‘Interesting Links’

The forum we have for our Inroal Developments communications was set up by someone who used to run a site called Terque.com. This site was shut down and the names were transferred to the forum.

Most of the people on the forum are buyers who have lost money since the properties were not built as planned.

We have been using that forum to communicate and agree what action we should be taking. For a while though there has been some suspicion that Solicitors and the Developer involved in the law suits have been monitoring the activity although never responding...eavesdropping I suppose.

Well today I got the confirmation from one of the solicitors who phoned up from an office that I don't normally deal with. She said that I should be careful what I post on the forum in case it compromises our situation. This response was because I had posted a copy of a letter from one of their offices in response to people asking me for an answer to a question.

I am now thinking about setting up a separate forum. There are some ways that you can make these private as well so that only those registered as members can join up. I think this is the best answer to this situation. There are settings that can be made to prevent non-forum members form reading posts.

We have used the other site for such a long time now but I think it has come to the point where we have to move away from there. I will have to be careful when I sign any others from outside the present group in case in future the solicitors and developer tries to get access to this information flow again!

KoS999

Thanks to Justin for making this blog so easy to set up! Cheers Justin!

I guess the first question is why King of Spain 999 as a 'blogger name'!

Well, from where I was 6 months ago it seemed like it would take someone like the King of Spain to sort out the situation that I and many countless thousand others find themselves in...that is having paid a deposit for an off plan property only to find out I have no property and seemingly no easy way to get my deposit money back! The '999' bit is because this is really an emergency! (In the UK at least that is our emergency number phone number!) A personal emergency is something that could have a major impact on your life, not reclaiming my deposit money will do just that for me!

Also, it is a name that will be remembered I think! Quite abstract, albeit appropriate as explained above.

I would like to think too that the work that I and others I know are doing would lead to the same result as if the King of Spain had got involved to sort this mess out.

The property boom in Spain as it was then seems to have created a widespread disregard for the proper legal process. This has left many innocent people from the UK and other countries.

I know many people have been affected and I hope these posts help them get their thoughts in gear for taking appropriate action. Taking action either by themselves or preferably as an Action Group where you can get reductions in legal fees as well as share ideas together on your specific situation. If I don't answer your questions from a fellow-would-be-investor point of view then please let me know what questions you would want answered...after all it might help our group out too!

Let me know if you find the possibility of having a blog on this subject useful. If I know there are interested people out there then it makes it more worth my while in bringing you information on what our Action Group is up to and what we have learnt on our journey so far.

Yours,

KoS999