Getting the money after judge finding in our favour.

Sorry everyone for being so negative - but winning your case, getting a Court Judgement for return of deposit, plus interest, plus legal fees, means ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. 

All the developer has to do is ignore the judgement and refuse to pay. Going back to court to get another judgement in our favour to seize developers funds and assets means ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, all the developer and banks have to do is IGNORE IT yet again.

Good luck to all who are fighting to get their deposits back, but don't expect too much, we have been trying since 2007 and all we have is the hope, that one day we will get a call or email from our solicitor to say the money is in our bank..

We have had a few GOOD NEWS, AND CONGRATULATION emails but until the money is in our bank all the court judgements in our favour mean ABSOLUTELY NOTHING !!!!!!!!!!!

Hi All

we as a group are taking the banks to court(not developer). after speaking to my lawyer a person from our building site has got their money(deposit, interest etc) back from the bank repsonsible for the generic guarantee issued. our case is at court as we speak and I hope for a ruling within a few months.

don't just write off thousands of pounds, get good advice and go after the banks

I was offered a ridiculous offer from the developer, which I still feel they will not honour.

regards

For those confused by this it's probably worth re-emphasising the key points and to repeat what  Maria has suggested for quite some time now, namely:

• that many developers are bankrupted or with very low solvency rates. Their developed properties all have a pre-existing mortgage in favour of a Bank (who funded the development) and if entered into a Creditor's meeting your rights are very poorly recognised.
• Law 57/68 established liabilities for both the developer and according to Maria mainly for the Bank who received people's deposits.
• This law is pro-consumer and enforceable in Spain.

Given the above, I would suggest that individual cases should be freely assessed by a law firm who is independent,  credible and most importantly have the experience to handle cases of this nature. They should be able to assess, advise and provide a costing, given detailed case evidence to date,  if you have a sound case for successful return of monies via this legal route.

As for the situation relating to court and judicial delays and their impact on law enforcement, without doubt there are major problems within the Justice Administration System (hence Keith's call for fast tracking of these BG claim cases). But it is important to recognise that in many cases it is as frustrating for Lawyers, Procurators and plaintiffs, as we have been advised that they do not seem to have "any suitable weapon" to put pressure on Court decisions although the CGPJ offer this kind of service.

All answers they receive regarding many of the proceedings are the same, more or less. For instance we were told by the CGPJ, after waiting 3 and a half years for a judicial resolution to the developer appeal (following a successful first instance ruling for developer breach of contract) the following:

"regarding the Appeal proceeding I inform you that we have received an answer from the CGPJ. However it is not satisfactory because they state that all the stages have been completed properly according to their internal organsiation and the general rules, consequently there is not a "real delay".......

So you see the complaint procedure appears flawed and ineffective so long as the true picture of the impact of these abusive delays on actual law enforcement are being hidden from view. Hence our attempts to educate both Governments in Spain and the UK and the European Commission and Parliament.

But in the interim I so wish that good legal professionals would come together in Spain to not only protect their client base but also to assist their own effectiveness, by establishing (via whatever means is at their disposal - via their law societies?) a workable mecahnism relating to inbuilt time constraints upon these procedures, and to have a standardised fair and effective means of monitoring delays and their impact, so as to provide a "competent" and credible system of justice in Spain.

Sadly as things stand now the system is neither competent, nor credible.

 We too purchased an off plan property back in 2005.    Ever since we have been chasing the developer after he walked away after laying the initial footings.   We have been to court and won our case.   We have continued to pursue him for our money  for the past year and have today been told there isn't much chance of getting anything as the developer says he has no funds.    Even with no evidence he has ceased trading it seems he can defy the court ruling and walk away scott free.   I am sure as many others have we are now finding out first hand how ineffective the spanish legal system is.

 The root of all those miseries is just one :lack of certificate of Bank Guarantees provided to clients.

In those crazy years no one paid attention to guarantees, just benefits were on the mind of everyone.

Just Banks had their guarantees as they all had mortgages on the buildings they were putting money in.

Good enough, Law 57/68 in Spain makes receiver Banks liable of lack of Bank Guarantees in relation to amounts placed in ntheir accounts.

Agreed Maria, but we still need to apply pressure from ALL QUARTERS to gain reasonable time frames to these legal actions. So many people fighting their corners are becoming disillusioned about the exhaustive timeframes relating to legal action in Spain and are wondering if they will ever regain their monies within the Spanish justice system. Understandably there is a growing concern amongst those stuck within the existing system as to whether they will ever regain their monies.

Is there nothing more that can be done by the legal fraternity to improve this position relating to indefinite delays? I have tried to identify where legal actions could be combined to speed up the process in other threads and blogs, but no-one seems to be prepared to fight from within for a more effective system of justice in terms of acquiring "reasonable" timescales.

Why is this Maria?

Maria,

You say "no one paid attention to guarantees".

It is true - the Banks, Agents, Developers and many Lawyers did not pay much attention to Bank Guarantees or LEY 57/1968.

The only place many agents and developers did pay attention to the Bank Guarantees was in their promotional brochures and advertising!  This was all part of the mis-selling process.

Buyers either had no knowledge of the law surrounding Bank Guarantees - and the developers and banks were only to happy to take advantage of that ignorance or buyers were faced with a complete 'brick wall' when attempting to demand the guarantees from the developer, bank or lawyer.

At Finca Parcs the subject of Bank Guarantees was an integral part of the sales process.  All the advertising made mention of 'BANK GUARANTEES INCLUDED'.

We were promised Bank Guarantees within 6 weeks of paying our deposit - that was in November 2006.  By January 2007 the guarantees had not arrived so we began chasing the developer - the rest as they say is history.

I am sure this scenario was repeated on many off-plan developments throughout Spain.

So it is not quite correct to say 'no one' paid attention to the guarantees.

Many buyers did pay attention and only reserved plots due to the fact that they were 'guaranteed' to have their deposits protected according to Spanish Law.

Unfortunately due to the lack of 'attention' by the Developers, Banks, Agents and Lawyers many buyers now have suffered years of stress and have their hard earned money at serious risk.

I have no compassion for most of the developers and agents.  And certainly no compassion for the Banks!!

Kind regards

Keith 

You are so right Keith. Our decision to purchase was made on the premise that Bank Guarantees as per the marketing literature were to be made available. We did pay attention to this matter. If we had known that consumer protection in the form of law 57/68 could be ignored in this way by conveyancing lawyers who lacked due diligence, and Banks who chose to turn a blind eye to the need to protect deposited monies from the outset, and that justice would have taken so many YEARS to enact we would NEVER have considered an offplan purchase.

Developers have abused the system of delays within the justice system to their own ends and should never have been allowed the right to appeal without strict time constraints in place for a judicial resolution and automatic preliminary enforcements in place according to first instance rulings. This way no developer would have been able to asset strip in the interim and monies according to successful rulings would have been protected. Likewise when a judicial resolution for developer breach of contract was finally reached, the judge should have had the Bank details relating to the Bank Guarantee to hand (or lack of) and the Banks should have been automatically made accountable for return of deposited monies at that point. It's a nonsense that these legal processes are not brought together to effect timely justice and as things stand they have compromised the innocent purchaser at every stage of this disjointed legal process.

What we need now to correct this is a fast track system of justice to clear the backlog of cases to make the Banks accountable for return of monies according to Ley 57/68. So long as these indefinite delays continue the more likely it is that consumer confidence will fade.

 So if its not to rude to ask . HOW MANY P0EOPLE HAVE ACTUALLY GOT THIER FUNDS BACK IN THEIR OWN ACCOUNT AFTER A CLAIM , Whether it be by suing the developer or on this law 57/68..

Intersted to know because we have a claim against the builder and weonder if any of this is worthwile or is it good money after bad.

 Thank you for any answers that come 

Hi All

we claimed against the builder and they offered us 65% of our cash back in 5 yrs (12yrs in all), and I believe that won't happen as they have spent all the deposits.

Some of us have taken the BANK to court and I believe we are in the process of getting our cash back within the next 6 months, the reason for this, is that other people on our development have got their cash with a similar route( generic BG) and we've had our first ruling from the courts in our favour.

regards

Hi Trowell1

That's good news.

Maria

Can you clarify something please.

When you follow this route to justice against the Bank who provided a generic Bank Guarantee, is this a speedier legal process because it is a declarative process and you don't have to take the developer to court first? 

For those who have already taken the developer to court and won their first instance ruling or perhaps have won against a developer appeal, can the costs associated with this legal action to date be reclaimed if they then choose to follow the alternative generic bank claim route? Or will all these legal costs (including appeal) associated with taking action  against the developer have to be written off?