jimena latest

I could not agree more with Melanie and Tex on another thread. Arenal continue to treat buyers with complete distain. Remember, they have a problem - somehow they have to reallocate all those block 3ers who still want an apartment. Sounds to me like Arenal are cherry picking those who may just be happy to recover their deposit so they can reallocate apartments. They have had your 30% for 2 years (or thereabouts). They are not even doing the decent thing of offering this for immediate payment to anyone who cancels.

What it appears like is that they will wait until everyone has paid the remaining 70% before paying back those who cancel. But they have already had your money! The more people who go for this deal (daylight robbery), the easier it is for Arenal to shaft everyone. They should be offering compensation to pull out for the disappointment, loss of interest and legal fees incurred. They should even be offering price reductions to those who don't pull out on the basis of a fundamental change in the urbanisation and time over-run.  Now, if Arenal get their act together and deliver my apartment to specification before 30th May, then I'm happy to leave it at that. If they miss that deadline (only 2 months away) then I will go full out for every last centimo of compensation I can get. Collectively we can carry some clout. As individuals we are pawns in their game.

Arenal are a very large builder in this part of the world and form part of a larger group. They continue to build and sell in other areas. I wonder how many people there are out there considering buying on another Arenal site. My advise, don't do it.

Dear All

Just received an email from my solicitors who have informed me that they have now reached an amicable agreement with Arenal, whom they have been in negociation with,  in respect of my loss of apartment.  I am to receive reimbursement of my full deposit (20% - fortunately they have only had this money for less than a year) plus compensation and have been given a definite date in early June.  Arenal have made out the promissory note for the agreed amount in my name and it awaits collection.  My solicitors will be handling the whole matter on my behalf and will be taking possession of the note before signing the termination contract.   By the way, I was offered an apartment in Block 1 but turned it down as I felt it was inferior in size and location compared to my original apartment which was 3 bed,  front facing,  ground floor, end of Block 3.

Thanks to my solicitors I have got out of this whole sorry mess unscathed.  Somehow they have managed to get Arenal to stump up the figure they demanded within a shorter time frame.   I cannot thank them enough.   

Regards

Carol

Carol

That sounds like fantastic news - you must be delighted. Do you mind sharing what the compensation offer was (for anyone else left in the same block 3 predicament).

For those in blocks 2 and 3, the interesting point is that Carol will get her money (or is promised) early June. This would suggest that Arenal are now confident of delivering the apartments before the 30th May deadline. I make this assertion on the basis that they would not want to repay deposits and compensation without first collecting the remaining cash from other punters.

Could we be nearly there?

Carol

Did you actually get your cheque? I have heard that someone else who was promised one had their appointment to collect it cancelled.

hello everyone, have been searching online papers for news and came across the following new article

http://www.diariocordoba.com/noticias/noticia.asp?pkid=263336

had hoped when i saw imminent handover of keys that it might include jimena but it does not. however the carrera de caballo was a project with planning issues so i suppose it is good news that something is moving especially as gomez was reported to have some financial issues. only mention of jimena in article is that, wait for it ! they want to assure everyone that keys will be handed over before the end of this year!

Hi Folks

Just to keep you all updated on the progress concerning my apartment that never was. 

I do not know what problems others have had re. breaking of promises concerning their compensation but  I have the following news;  The following took place early last month.

1.  The contract was terminated due to Arenal's breach of contract  ie.  non delivery of said apartment.

2.  Promissory note was collected by my solicitors for the agreed amount (deposit plus compensation, including loss of interest, fees etc.)

3. Promissory note has been deposited into my bank account to be converted  by the bank on agreed date 15th  June.

I'm on the home stretch.  Things are looking very good indeed   :-)

Carol

This is to give hope to anyone in block 3 waiting for their money. My solicitor not only collected my cheque for a refund of my deposit plus compensation the other week, I had the fantastic news that the cheque cleared yesterday! My solicitor managed to get the cheque early  (instead of August 15th.)  She said it wasn't difficult to persuade Arenal to give me an early cheque so I would advise you all to get your solicitors to at least try for you.

What a relief. I have had many sleepless nights over this fiasco and I am delighted that I have now got out of this mess.

 A bit of advice to anyone who is based in the UK like me , try and get the money sent electronically via Moneycorp or someone like that to your UK bank account. I realised too late ( when my cheque was ready) ,that putting a euro cheque into a UK bank account can take up to 8 weeks to clear. I also didn't like the idea of posting the cheque. Alternatively, do as I did and open a current account  in Spain ( I used the Bank of Halifax and they were excellent and then it's free to transfer to a Halifax account in the UK). The whole thing  took about 5 days to set up as I had to get a passport photocopy and a utility bill verified over hear and posted out.  All in all it took just 2 weeks from cheque collection  and setting up the account to the cheque clearing.

Give it a try anyone still waiting and good luck.

 Good luck also to those who still have appartments, I'm sure that it will pay off in the end, Jimena is such a lovely place and I was quoted an estimated resale price (before my flat was taken away!) of about 30.000euros more than the off plan price at the beginning of this year.

Hi all

There has been a massive amount of work going on and the new road is now open. The town council must have bought a cheap job lot of tarmac because it seems like they are resurfacing the whole village now! Anyway, my wife visited the Arenal office on site (yes there is one again) and asked for info. The lady said you need to speak to Arenal's lawyers but her view was that the flats will not be ready for 31 May but should be very early June. My wife asked to see the show flat again and the nice lady showed her our actual flat. There was mad activity all over the site tidying up  so looks like it might be happening. One other thing my wife asked is if there are any unsold flats. The reply was there are 4 but the prices start at E165,000 - seems they think the market has picked up. Hang in their guys, we could be nearly there. Might have to rename myself happykeith then!

I intend to take a whole raft of pictures this weekend and will upload these - I apologise for not having done this a couple of weeks back but I've been a little slack lately.

Hi all

It has gone very quiet again. The rush of activity appears to have ground to a halt - at about exactly the same time as the elections were over!!! On a separate matter we are having some minor alterations done on our Jimena house which requires approval first but there is no-one to sign this as the new mayor hasn't been sworn in yet. Perhaps this is why nothing has moved on the Arenal front. Did anyone out there take the opportunity of pulling out with the passing of the 31st May? I'd be really interested to hear what Arenal have said to anyone going down this route.

Hello All

Just to let you all know that I received my deposit plus compensation from Arenal on 15th June as promised.  The money was paid into my Spanish Bank account (Banco Halifax)  with no problems, and I have since transfered some of it back to my account in England.  The transfered funds only took an impressive 1 day to arrive into my account over here. 

Sorry about the delay with the update but hope this news gives others waiting for the reimbursement of their deposit some hope.  Hang in there.  I'm sure you will get your money back soon.  

Good Luck

Carol