Is it 'here we go again' but Indalo this time

Whilst not turning completely negative it does now look as though only Manzana 1 can be built within the contract date and the 2 months extension [by end July]

But not the pool and green areas and I doubt if the licence of first occupation will be issued by then

Very unlikely that the other Manzanas will be finished by end July 2009 even if they go back on site today

Perhaps the credit crunch is having a telling effect on the finance for OTCC!

We have been told that Huma Indalo SL are bringing in a new partner and that means  refinancing and that in turn means delays

Under my contract Indalo had to provide the overall insurance policy, which they have done, and also an individual bank guarantee in 42 days

As this is has gone by I am in the position of being able to cancel the contract which as we all know can be a long process

I am not going to do this just yet, but will wait until we hear about the new partner and I suspect we will all then get a new finish date

As long as that does not take too long that will be great as having a finished Tarifa, even if a bit late, is to me the best security for my investment   

Indalo must know that to progress this development in today’s economic conditions they are going to have to produce the individual bank guarantees and get a move on with the building 

Many other developments in Spain and elsewhere in the world are being mothballed and maybe this is an option Indalo are looking at for OTCC

And if this were to happen then as there are less of us with money in Indalo it may perhaps be easier for us to get our money back quickly, who knows!

But I do think that I am getting close to the time when I will yet again be forced by circumstances to make a decision about my involvement in OTCC

Bit of a shame really as the Tarifa is a great property and even the price is good…..can always blame this one on the credit crunch…..they have after all got all the licences this time !!! 

Lets hope for good news soon …yes I know we have all heard this before!!…and many will say….told you so!!!

not a case of told you so rolo, you were doing what you thought might be a away of securing your deposit Huma had stolen by transfering to the occ,   but now it is clear they were more Huma lies

you have now got a deposit on a terrificc tarriffa that may never be built and I am fighting Huma through the courts when I win they still wont be forced by the courts to pay,

game, set and match to Huma.......the theving daygo b..stards!!!!!!!!!!

Good luck to you

How much has it cost you so far and how long has it taken...to be serious what legal advice have you been given about when you can expect to get your money ...also when the lawyers win are the fees based on the amount of your claim or is it a fixed

Lets say you get a court judgement and Huma Med do not or can not pay I assume that you will still have to pay the legal fees, so what is your estimate of the cost to you if this situation arises

I saw this coming, as I'm sure most people did months ago. My appartment on OCC  is due for completion Summer-09 but not even started yet . Haviing said that, any property on OCC ready for completion this Summer would be a bit scary given the current exchange rates.  So I will wait until Huma are in breach of contract before making any decisions and if building does re-start before then will probably stick it out a bit longer.

I don't think Huma have deliberately set out to con anyone and really feel us ACC  / OCC purchasers have been victims of bad luck and timing.  Where Huma do fail is in their lack of communication.  They could at least write to purchasers to tell them what is happening.

I think you are probably quite right

12 months ago no one knew how bad this recession was going to be  and how difficult it was going to be to keep hold of your finance with your bank ,never mind  trying to review it

The UK press is full of news about banks wanting to re arrange finance to business on terms better for the banks  and restricting finance to projects which they had previously agreed to finance

Whilst the banks in Spain are not in as much trouble as in UK I understand that the situation is very similar as regards business loans

I also agree that Huma as a company , both Indalo and Med are poor on contact with clients

You would have thought' perhaps, that they would have told ACC buyers straight away whether the rumour about the grant of the building licences for ACC is true ot not!

The more I look at the plans for OTCC the more I tend towards the view that everything will be delayed

For example the new access road from the CN-340 has not been started and I think everyone will agree that Licences of First Occupation are unlikley to be given before it is built  

I feel better having my money in Indalo than Med but now it does look like this will not be a smooth ride....hope they do re start soon  and at least we know that the development is legal and that these delays probably arise out of the credit crunch and recession    

I did seriously consider transferring to OCC but am now glad I didn't as I fgeel I am in a strongher position with HUMA Med than Indalo for the following reasons:

1) My contract with them has been broken in several ways and is well out of date (if I transfered to OCC I would be trapped in a contract until the summer befdore I could start legal action).

2) HUMA Indalo assets probably are only the OCC site - probably not worth a great deal as it is not such a desirable site as ACC.  Where as Med has properties in Mazzaron and apparently now ACC with pl;anning permission.  This means there are  more assets which my solicitor can place an Embargo on.

3) In todays climate the properties at OCC are overpriced and if you do get one it will not be cheap.

4) In the period since June when I decided to take legal action against HUMA I have won my court case and I am waiting for HUMA to repay me (presumably they won't) we then go back to court place an embargo over one of there assets sell it and get my money back.  My solicitors anticipate this will be sabout another 3 months.

I feel I am in a lot stronger position than I was if I had transfered to OCC. 

The main reason I considered transferring to OCC was that a bank guarantee was promised to me by HUMA if I transfered to OCC - in the end I felt I had to little trust in HUMA and doubted they would give me the BG.

Nigela

Nice to hear that you have done well with your court case and that in 3 months you will have a chance of getting your money back by selling some of Huma Med assets...can Huma not appeal against both the court decision and the embargo application?

Also for future reference can you tell us how much it has cost you so far..I know that you should get your legal costs back from Huma .......but it will give us all an idea as to how much you have to put at risk to go to court 

If this recession keeps on getting worse then we may all have no choice but to go to court either against  Huma Indalo SL or  the overall insurance policy!

I must say that 1 year ago I was worried that Huma Med had a lot of money tied up in ACC, which then had no building licence and was worth very little

At MCC half the buyers do not have a LFO which means Huna Med has financial obligations to meet  and there is still the matter of a golf course!

All this would have brought down many a developer but they seem to have struggled through so far even though the economic and financial climate has become very bad and getting worse by the day

Perhaps the reason why Huma Med do not repay deposits is that they just do not have the money to do so,can not get anymore loans from banks, who themselves do not have any money to lend or do not want to lend anymore to developers!

They probably can not sell any assets as the market for development sites is at best static

If they could sell ,then Huma Med would probably find that because the asset is held as a mortgage by a bank, that any sale proceeds go to the bank first  

Also no use having an embargo on an asset if the bank is first in line

Same probably applies to OTCC but it is a seperate company set up to provide an escape route for ACC buyers and I suspect the owners of Huma

Assets will be some working capital, the land which does have approval for 980 units and the deposits transferred from Huma Med when the ACC buyers changed over

The deposits should be in a ring fenced bank account- now the same should have applied to ACC deposits but clearly did not

But by the time that Huma Indalo SL started to sell OTCC everything in the development and banking sector had been tightened up, so there is a fair chance that our money in OTCC is OK and Huma Indalo SL has had to comply with the law

We shall see

Those of us who have changed hope that the new partner and the refinance can mean that it gets going again

And to those who have taken the court route we all hope that Huma Med are rich enough to get through the current economic crisis and you get your money back 

There has always been two approaches to the problems faced by ACC buyers who did not have a BG.....and it is a personal decision everyone has to make themselves 

Just to point out that Mazarrón Town Hall holds guarantees which will enable MCC to be finished if Huma either go bust (unlikely), or they don't finish the site by 2011 (likely).

Regards,   Peter

I think it was about 5,000 euros that I paid out.  My understanding is that the amount is a fixed percentage of what you are claiming.

Yes HUMA can appeal but my Solicitor believes that as they have not put a case forward or attended the orignal court case then even if they appeal against the case we can place an embargo against an asset whilst waiting for the appeal.

In connection with finding an asset with equity in this may be difficult (probably a better chance if ACC has planning permission) but it must be easier than with OCC.  Presumably the property there will have been funded either from banks or HUMA Med - it is unusual for a new company to have obtained equity value from nowhere.  Even if another builder comes in and helps refinance then then they would allmost certainly take a charge over certain assets.

"The deposits should be in a ring fenced bank account- now the same should have applied to ACC deposits but clearly did not"

So the law has been broken.

Given that Huma feel no compunction to return what has been handed over, even when ordered to do so by a court of law, do their bankers bear any responsibility?

They must have known that Huma were (allegedly) property developers

They knew that article 2 of the law says developers have to keep the deposits in accounts separate from any other of the developer's accounts (i.e. ringfenced).  What's more, the money was only to be used for building houses (honest that's what it says).

So, when they received huge sums of money paid by individuals into Huma's account, shouldn't they have ensured that the money was ringfenced and separate from Humas operational accounts? 

Does the bank have a duty to ensure that the money that has been invested with them is being used for a legitimate purpose?

When the money was used even when no building was going on (any time from November 2005 to the present day),did nobody at the bank think to check?

In the UK, anti money laundering laws require financial institutions to make checks that the money they are handling is clean and not the proceeds of crime.  As I said when I started this reply - the law has been broken and someone is going to pay.

I fully intend to pursue this any which way I can and I will rattle as many cages as I can and see what falls out!

Sorry folks

Forgot I was on the happy forum - I'll post this on the ACC one straight away