Calling in Bank Guarantees at Playa Macenas

Hello everyone,

I have been living at playa Macenas for several months curtesy of Med Macenas as part payment for late completion of the contract.

My advice to anyone who has a bank guarantee and is in the fortunate position of a missed completion date, to pull the guarantee without further delay and demand your deposit back. This should be a relatively straight forward process as follows, but check with your lawyer to make sure that your paperwork is in order:

First of all, get your lawyer to send a burofax to Med Group and the Bank issuing the guarantee informing them that they have missed the deadline and are in breach of contract. Inform them that you now consider the contract  terminated and demand the return of the deposit in full. If the Bank refuse to repay the deposit, your lawyer then needs take legal action against the bank (not the developer). This is a much quicker process which the bank can't win, therefore rarely defend, and just pay the deposit back. You are also entitled to 6% interest for the period that your deposit has been held and a full refund of the IVA paid, plus any court costs incurred. At todays exchange rate, you would probably make a nice profit on the money if you changed it back into sterling.

 

Bones

We completed on a Los Patios last year and I have visited Playa Macenas a number of times over the past 6 months. Having lived there for a number of months and now explaining the process to purchasers to call in bank guarantees you must feel that the development has no future. Please let us know your thoughts as this is extremely concerning as we are now committed to the development and would like to see it flourish over the next 5 years.

I appreciate that the market is difficult and the hotel build has stopped but I have been encouraged by the amount of people who have contacted me to rent the apartment this year.

Neil.

 

Hello everyone, after reading Bones advice about pulling bank guaranties back if we were lucky that our apartment missed the completion date. I thank and appreciated the advice but mine is just opposite : I could ask for my bank guaranty back since the Altos completion is been delayed, but instead I choose an option that Megroup also offered : that is to change it for a Los Patios finished apartment . I certainly believe in the development and see a lot of potential and future. There is a lot of unfinished apartments on the coast but this place is certainly unique, which is just what makes the difference the "added value" needed it to stand up over many others. I also believe that the hotel will be finished in a near future. You can call my position maybe too optimistic but in my experience, all real states moves I've done in the past started in a kind of difficult time after that they all turn out profitable. B.

I too would be interested in Bones's reaspns for the advice to pull. Living there over the winter must give you a great insight to the resort and your thoughts/opinions would be very useful info.

Personally I like the development and hope to see it get through the "downturn" and flourish at the other end.  

Dean

 Pulling a bank guarantee is not as simple as that. We had second thoughts about our purchase last summer and did seek advice from a lawyer. 

We were told that :-

1) Our bank guarantees had expired and the bank were refusing to issue new ones as our completion was near.

2) Although our property was  6 months overdue as per our contract , it was not considered long enough. Our lawyer advised us that it would need to be at least a year overdue.

Admittedly, we could have sought advice from a different lawyer and taken them through the court procedure, however long that may take, with no guarantee on the outcome! We therefore decided to complete in October.

The med group did offer on alternative property in Los Altos so we could delay our purchase. This did not appeal to us as we preferred our location on the resort etc. 

On the positive side ,despite the exchange rate the Euribor   is now very low which means that the mortgage payment will halve next month. We have had a few enjoyable trips since last October with several more planned. We think the resort still has a lot of potential and hopefully work will be resumed on the hotel shortly and they will complete the remaining facilities. We will be badgering the staff on site on our next trip and report any findings to the forum!

 

 

 

I agree with judes. We should all try to apply pressure so that the facilities are all completed so that ourselves and our guests can enjoy the resort. I am going over there in April and intend to let my feelings be known if for example the front of the beach club has not been landscaped. I will post an update after my return on 9th April.

Neil

 

 

Hello everyone! I'm also in for the pressure, in fact I' already started it. Few days ago Cristina from sales office told me: front beach landscape works started and will be finished for eastern holidays (semana santa) She also mentioned that they just had a meting with city council about the 2 remaining holes in golf course, it seems it was satisfactory so works will start soon..... I'm also going to be there in a month or two and I will keep you posted. Be

My parents are also there for a month from end of February - I will ask them to keep bugging the girls for info. According to my wife my parents are very good at bugging people!

Dean
 

Hello to all,

We own an apartment in Los Patios. Enquiries for rent are constant as there is nothing as beautiful in the area. To those losing faith, be patient. I have lived all my life on the costa del sol and have seen many, many dramas. I truly believe MedGroup is managing the economic turmoil the correct way -what other option is there? Build, build till bankruptcy. This has been the story during several crisis in Benalmadena, Mijas, Marbella or Estepona, where building were left half build and owners without options. MedGroup has stopped building, which is a different issue. This can be resumed when the market recovers, which one day it will. Independent or not of the market value fluctuations, there is no doubt this is a unique resort. And... for those of you know that know the Spanish coastline, Mojacar is future! I mean this. Few places will survive in time in Spain; on the mainland, areas of Costa Brava, Cadiz, a few of Alicante and not much more, are going to be considered the new era of quality tourism. This is why I had no intention to buying a property in Malaga -in 20 years time it is going to be a dump (not only my personal opinion). Playa Macenas, on the contrary, will (should) grow into becoming a highly valued holiday destination and good investment. However, I do agree that if we are looking short-term, the situation is not too good.

Only my 2C.

Christian.

Ah... and one other detail. Most of you are probably thinking about foreign potential future investors. But do not forget that what I mentioned about Mojacar in my last post is a reality between Spaniards. Mojacar is has been steadily growing as a tourist destination for nationals (and the kind with money to spend). So do not underestimate the potential your property has within the domestic market.

Regards,

Christian.