Property Purchase has gone wrong!

I would be really grateful if anybody can help me find how to make the complaint against the estate agent in Almeria.  I cant find an equivalent link in this area, or anybody who might be able to help. 

Thanks

According to members on this forum you do a denuncia...Bet thats spelt wrong....And again according to members once this is in place they have to act on it, apparantly business's have to have these forms, you ask for the complaints form.

Where is the business in almeria, the town please

Lisa there is a mountain of information  here about how to use the complaints forms (hojas de reclamación)  which I suggest would be the way to precede:

http://www.juntadeandalucia.es/temas/vivienda-consumo/consumo/reclamaciones.html

But I cannot find an English version.

If you do not have a digital signature then it appears you may need to submit the complaints from to an office of the Junta de Andalucía.  So a problem if you are not in Spain.

Maybe someone will suggest a better way.

I have used the system successfully several times but I live in Spain so have dealt directly with the establishment I was complaining about. It works very well when used that way.

Good luck

PS  here is the English version of the form : 

https://ws231.juntadeandalucia.es/hoja/englishImpr.do;jsessionid=249B79268E354A3DA7BBC7EC3F58C883

Loopylisa

The estate agent should have a “complaints book” at his place of business and all you need to do is ask for it.

The forms in the “complaints book” are in triplicate and I believe the process is (certainly in Torrevieja, Canaries and Balearics – might be different in other regions such as Andalucía)

You fill out the complaint then the business owner can complete his section with his response.

Both parties sign

1 copy for you, 1 copy for the business and you have to take or send the 3^rd copy to the authorities who will follow up within 3 months

If you complete the form in English it will probably be returned to you for completion is Spanish so best complete it in Spanish in the first place

Or as johnzx says use the electronic form but you may still have to get the business to respond on the form before sending it on to the authorities.

A link that might help you

http://www.spanishsolutions.net/legal-issues-in-spain/hojas-de-reclamaciones-customer-complaint-forms/

Used this system many times and it worked every time. Completed form in english. I think if I was owed this money that I would get on a plane and visit to meet them face to face

Lisa.  I got the impression you are

not at present in Spain. That was why i posted as I did.    If you are in Spain my advice will

be slightly different

Maybe if you have used commerce in Spain before you have used a notary?   

They should be able to submit and sign forms on your behalf, they can in the uk and I understand it's an international system.  

That should be way, way cheaper than flying out and visiting them and may be a little more scary?    Look into it, johnxz may have experience?  

Thanks for your help.  Today we have been informed that the lawyer for the seller has been instructed to commence court proceedings and requesting the estate agent not send the money back until we have a court ruling.  I am assuming now that cannot make a complaint against the agent, and we have to wait now until this is heard in Court.  I am intrigued to find out what they say in the claim.  Well, we will counter claim for 3000 euro for their breach, if they are going to rely on the reservation contract to get the deposit, whilst in the same breath saying that it has expired, we will rely on it. 

I am going to complain about the agent though, but that may have to wait until we are in Spain.

Lisa.  

Isnt your personal contract with the agent?   You paid the agent, they were selling you the property, so what has any court instruction between the agent and the vendor got to do with you?

Go ahead and complain, I would, anything coming back from the complaint will add to your own information down the line anyway.  

Thanks Brian.  We didnt pay the agent anything, he was just holding the deposit.  The whole thing is a f***ing mess and is causing me untold annoyance and stress.  Not least as we have spent a whole year faffing about being promised that things are being sorted out and then finding that they arent and a whole lot of this has been down to the agent failing to facilitate the matter as he was meant to do. 

Can anybody PM me if they can help me sort this out.  I am really at my wits end and just want to scream. 

Why hasn't your lawyer instructed the agent to forward your deposit to them as soon as they started acting on your behalf? 

Perhaps another lawyer can advise of your legal position in this regard?

I am sorry but this is just starting not to stack up here. There has been such a lot of sensible advice given here which seems to being ignored. So many questions asked which are not being answered for example where is the agent in almeria and are they an AIPP member

who has told you about a court case, the agent, where's the contract, why isn't YOUR lawyer helping you, the list goes on

For what it would cost for a flight and a couple of nights stay get on a plane abd sort it out in person, must be worth it for 3k

Lisa.  If you didn't pay the agent anything, how did they get to hold the deposit?  Surely you gave them that in money?  

If you did then there is an immediate contract with the agent, wether you are told it's just to 'facilitate', it's business that he is party to, and accepting money for. 

I think the agent is something of a con artist, and lots o agents are. The world may be better off without this guy, take the advice about how to complain and do it straight away.  That's my thoughts. 

You must have a receipt for the payment who issued the receipts 

OK.  Back on the thread is how we came to give the agent our money.  But basically we were a bit naïve and led to believe that the property was going to be sold from under us by the agent.  His email to us said “if you are interested you need to secure your interest by paying the deposit etc” and we didn’t have a lawyer in place at that time, so we gave it to the agent to hold – apparently we were told it was perfectly normal for this to happen.  So we were so worried about losing the property, we paid the agent the money.  Then approximately a month later we received the signed reservation contract with all signatures on it. 

Then the paperwork with the house was incorrect and the “shared driveway” to the house wasn’t shared at all but the first 100m was in fact entirely in the ownership of a third party (who wasn’t known to the seller!!!) We said “hold on, we want a proper agreement in place” or “proof that there is a legal right” – that didn’t happen, and so it dragged on and on.  Then the agent told us (September) – hooray we have spoken to the owner and he will enter into an agreement but the seller says that is something we will have to sort out when we have the house.  We asked “why” and the agent said – “there is no benefit to the seller in this agreement”.   We argued that we wanted it sorted out prior to buying the house.  They said “lets put it in the sales contract”.  So we said would rather it wasn’t but OK.  We want to get this whole thing sorted.  Quite early on in the process the agent accidently copied both us and the seller into an email.  And we received loads of emails directly from the seller, and in one of those emails we realised that she expected us to pay directly to her the rest of the deposit of nearly €30k.  We said “no way” we have a third party involved and if they choose not to enter the agreement we are stuck.  The agent offered to have that person removed from the contract and a collateral contract (or similar) set up and we agreed, but reluctantly and that the money would be held by the other parties lawyer until the final payment at the notary.  The sellers said no, we do not accept the contract and refused to enter into discussions, changed lawyers and pulled out of the deal – sending notice that the Reservation contract was cancelled. 

Our lawyer, has said that she deals with the conveyancing and paperwork and is not a court lawyer, so like in the UK – you find a lawyer who specialises in the area of law you want assistance with.  We used her for assistance with buying a house.  The solicitor for the other side, who is in Marbella sent an email yesterday to the agent and to our lawyer saying “… following instructions from my client I will start legal actions in the next few days in order to recover the deposit paid by the buyers towards the purchase of the property of ……….. (details omitted).  We have tried to reach an agreement out of court and my clients have been very reasonable ………….”   

So we are still no further forward with this whole issue, I am quite happy to jump on a plane and come out to sort it out but that it is not as easy as it sounds, I have commitments that cannot be passed on or changed without a lot of aggravation, I also don’t have much leave left as I don’t want to owe my employers any time when I resign.

The agents are based in Almeria and they are not a member of any trade body that I can see; the house we were buying was in Almeria province.

I have printed the form off and am going to complete this and try to find an agent to act for us to deal with the complaint on our behalf.  I sent an email at the weekend to somebody who was recommended, but they cannot do it at the moment.    

The lawyer doesnt deny he has our money. 

Hope that clarifies things and you understand our issue abit more. 

Where in Almeria in the city or in a town

Sorry all the way through you have been saying the agent has your money and won't return it, now you are saying that the lawyer has the money, who has your money because it could change some of the advice been given

Ok.  

No need to go any further than the first paragraph.   The agent advised you in writing to secure by paying a deposit, the deposit was given to the agent.  

Anything else is just circumstances beyond your control following a deposit, the agent has a duty of care to the customer to ensure the deposit is being paid over for a property ready for sale   They failed in their professional duty, you should complain about the agent.

The agent should not be in business, they should be prosecuted for taking money without providing any service in return.

The alternative viewpoint is that you have been careless with your money and left yourselves exposed to people who want to make money for doing nothing.   

Keep it as simple as possible, don't get involved in any 'snow job' of information, zone in on the deposit, who has it, what it was for and what right they have to keep it.  

Forget the property, don't buy it, it will end in tears anyway I think  

Thats all I can offer, sorry  

Inspectahome - the agent has the money I dont know where i said the lawyer had it.  We asked for the money to be held by the lawyer and they just ignored our requests!  I dont think I can name and shame but will pm you the details about the agent.