One of the reasons so many people are affected by the Country Club.
This article is meant to be a general guideline . It is not written with any particular solicitor/barrister in mind.
Most clients used solicitors recommended by the builders or agents who where in turn charged rates much lower than the established solcitors in the are.
In Jannuary of 2007 I plublished the article below "cost of indpendance" in one of the local papers. The essence of the article is that good legal and independant advice needs to be paid for , and to expect a solicitor to charge for his time even if he has to recommend you do not purchase
We told every single client that came to our office
(withought exception) NOT to purchase on that complex, as their was no building licence for the complex, and tha builder did not hold title deed to the land.
The reason I am saying all this is that good advice (by barristers or solicitors) does NOT come cheap, but is neccesary Clients who have purchased at the Country Club must not make the same mistake again. ,Good solicitors charge for their time , and in exchange you should expect to receive advice that is thecnically correct, honest and independant.
When choosing a solicitor/barrister to handle your case against HUMA , take into account the possible mistake allready made when choosing the solicitor to handle your conveyance.
IN A NUTSHELL: If you have purchased at COUNTRY CLUB and have bank guarantees, hire a solicitor/barrister to get your money back. (YOU MUST NOT LET THE BANK GUARANTEES ELAPSE). If you have not got bank guarantees, we recommend you hire a barrister to innitiate your case as soon as possible.
The article published in jannuary 2007 was:
LEGAL CORNER:
By Michael Davies .
Abogado/Solicitor.
If you wish us to print an article about a particular topic, please e-mail davies1@telefonica.net
PURCHASE OF SPANISH PROPERTY:INDEPENDANT INFORMATION WILL HELP SOLUTION MOST OF THE PROBLEMS THAT PURCHASERS COME ACROSS.
Last week Mr. Mark Sucklin who writes the Spanish Property Doctor Column for the Sunday Times was in Almeria to gather information for his column.
We had lunch together and I have to say he is full of knoledge about the legalities of the purchase of property in Spain . He also has a very complete overall picture of how the property market in Spain works for a large percentage of the British purchasers and why some purchasers get themselves into so much trouble.
The main problem is the source of information for the majority of purchasers. This source of informatio in general is the selling agent or builder. This is wrong as the buyers need to receive independant and sound legal advice from a solicitor that has no incentive from pleasing the builder.
In most of the cases the solicitor recommended by the builder will be 100% independant and will have all the correct knoledge, but not always.
It is essential that a solicitor has the absolute freedom to confront the builder if need be. In what is now a very competitive market (the legal profesion) absolute independance is an expensive luxury for a solicitor, because in general with English buyers estate agents and builder have the first contact with purchasers and it is very easy for them to direct a majority of the purchasers to the solicitor of their choice.
For a solicitor receiving 80 out of 100 conveyances on a single project it is easy to be very cheap and still make loads of money, but independance to confront the builder in this scenario must be difficult.
People like Mr. Mark Stucklin with his column in the Sunday Times will continue to recommend purchasers to seek independant legal advice before they purchase and to avoid using the solicitor recommended by the builder, but in the meantime we recommend that at least you purchase a book about purchasing property in Spain, and that you insist that the practice should be exactly the same as the theory. We are tired of situations where clients come in to see us with a major problem that originated in the builder telling them when confronted with something as logical as whanting to have their bank guarantee certificates on their stage payments that Spain is different and that in practice this does not happen even though this is in all the books. Bank guarantees on stage payments are obligotory and have been since 1964, but they cost the builder money and if the client or his solicitor does not ask for them sometimes the client does not get them. (this is an typical example ,but their are many more).
Mr. Mark Stuckling will be writing about bank guarantees next Sunday. We hope many people read his column every week , as it is independant advice full of knoledge and common sense.
In the meantime we agree that , SPAIN IS DIFERENT and we like it this way , but this should affect purchasers guarantees when buying property in Spain.
Michael Davies.
Abogado.
Michael Davies is a Spanish Abogado and his firm DAVIES SOLICITORS (established 1992)is one of the leading firms of solicitors in Almeria.
Member 1748 of Almeria Law Society.
Member 67228 of Madrid Law Society.
Member 2424 of the Probate Section of the British Law Society