Refunds from Polaris World

Hi we're just wondering howmany other people are in the same situation as us. 

In December 2004 we purchased a property with Polaris World in Murcia. 6 months later we were told that planning laws had prevented this site from being developed. We were invited to another inspection visit and were switched to Terrazaz De La Torre and were told this would be approximately 18 - 24 months before competion.

By May 2008 we were getting rather anxious about delays and when we finally got through to someone we were told that there wasn't even a start date let alone a finish date for this development. So far we have paid 88,000 Euros. After approximately 15 phone calls and numerous e-mails we have finally received a cancellation document.

We have read some horror stories about people not receiving monies back from Polaris world. Has anyone been successful in getting a refund? Or should we be contacting solicitors immediately?


AD

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Wow, three years and still not sign of a property even being built.

What does your Solicitor say about this and when did your contract say the property was due to be completed.

I believe there is a set time after the contract has been broken when you can legally get back your money plus interest.  But you would need to check that with an expert.

Have a look at the Spanish Solicitor thread at the bottom on the listings as I'm sure this has been spoken about before.

There is someone on here who sells Polaris World properties and I'm sure he's mortified to read everything that's happened to you.

This does happen with off-plan properties but to occur to you twice is an insult and should be rectified asap.

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Dear AD:

I would certainly advise you to have an independent solicitor revising the clauses of your cancellation contract and assisting you on the perfection of the cancellation. You are entitled to interests on your money ( legal interets rate).

Best regards,

Maria

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We too contracted to purchase an apartment on Condado de Alhama after paying a deposit of 64000 euros.  Nine months later we received notice from PW that the development would not be proceeding due to planning problems.  We were offered a 10% reduction on another PW development which we declined & asked for a full refund plus interest on our money that PW had held for nearly a year.  PW agreeed the refund but refused to pay any interest or compensation as the cancellation was 'beyond their control'!  Our solicitor advised that the only way to pursue them for interest was through the Spanish courts which could be a very lengthy procedure & would involve untold fees.  We settled for the return of our money without interest but spent several hours at PW offices arguing with their legals over the content of the disclaimer they wanted us to sign to prevent us from ever pursuing them for interest on our money.  We eventually had the disclaimer changed slightly & they then gave us a cheque for our 64000 euros.  As this had been written out from their London branch & we paid it into our Spanish bank account, our bank then charged us 500 euros to clear it.  Buyer beware!!!

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Hi, We are in a simialr situation with our purchase on Terrazza dl Torre, our phase was cancelled in Nov 07 and we have still not seen a penny of the €70,000 back. We have been fobbed off with one excuse after another and we have had a solicitor the whole of the time. Not sure if he is of any use, he says we are not entitled to any interest on our money as its not written in the contract!!!

He read the contract, so not sure why he did not have something ammended.

Going out to the PW offices next week to argue face to face,

Rick

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Oh dear, interests are attached to the devolution of the money in the General Theory of contract cancellation of our Civil Code.


This message was last edited by mariadecastro on 9/30/2008.

This message was last edited by mariadecastro on 9/30/2008.

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Good evening folks
we are in exactly the same situation. We have cancelled the contract received all documentation and despite many calls and emails just keep getting told you will get your money but we cant say when. We have not bothered to ask the solicitor to help as he insisted that we could not cancel the contract in the first place and also that his off did not "carry out that type of work"  He did offer to appoint us a barrister but was looking for approx. 3000 euros up front, just to get the contract cancelled.We have found this whole situation a nightmare and honestly do not know what to do. We have in our possession the signed agreement agreeing that Polaris  will refund the monies, but what do you do if they just refuse to take your calls?
Will be great to hear how others get on. Any advice more than welcome.

Linda

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If that agreement has been signed by the developer, you need to send a burofax with an imperative request for its fulfilment. If that does not work, I am afraid you will have to go to litigation.

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Thanks for your advise on this matter, our solicitor sent a BuroFax back in May, it was ignored by PW, he then sent a 2nd one which was when Polaris signed the agreement. 
The agreement has been signed since the 2nd June. PW then said payment would be paid very soon. We are still being told this.
First the excuse was staff holidays, then the person dealing with it was ill, them it was August holidays and the directors were all away!!!!!! They now dont bother anwering anymore, not even our solicitor gets replies!!!!
Our solicitor was hoping they will pay without going to litigation, but they have not, he is now threatening them with court action and we will have to go down that path if my face to face meeting next week fails.

Rick

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I am having the same problem. We originally put down 104475 Euros deposit on a Penthouse on Terrazas de la Torre and were informed that this will not be proceeding in the near future. They flew us over to look at properties on Hacienda Riquelme and offered us 30% discount to take one of the remaining properties left.

My business partner who was buying the property with me decided he wanted one and half the original funds were transferred as a deposit on his new apartment. I have decided not to proceed but they are refusing to refund my money and have told me to sell my share to someone else!!!

What can I do as they have 52237 Euros that belong to me. I am not bothered about the interest lost, I'd just like MY money back??

Thanks
Martin

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Rick:

They may react definitely once they are notified of the Lawsuit, before incurring in legal costs.

MRM3P:

Start sending to them official and time deadlined requests for the refund. Do no stay unactive.

Best,

Maria

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Hi Everyone, my personal nightmare is over, Polaris sent my money on Friday through direct bank transfer.
I beleive this last minute decision to fly to Polaris World offices was a big factor.

Although my solicitor had been on the case, things started to happen when I told them I was flying out with a jounalist friend to demonstrate outside the offices to put off potential customers. They did not like this at all and their attitude DID change although refund was not immediately forthcoming.
I told the PW customer services that I was informing them in advance that I was coming over on the 9th Oct  (told them my flight times etc) with the intention to disrupt their sales. I was not going to get myself arrested, at least I was not trying to but I was going to print some "home truths" on some plain white T shirts, wear them and to go inside to talk to the PW team and then picket outside too, in order for them to react.
I told them that this was what I was going to do and that I was going to bring my journalist friend, (i dont have a jounalist friend),  my daughter is a media studies student.
They did not react well to the news and said that they "did not want any trouble". I told the customer services to tell the directors or anybody who would listen that this would happen at the end of next week and they could avoid this by paying me back my money, I told them this last Monday, Friday I get my refund after over 10 months of waiting!!!
Maybe conincidence, I will never know.

Glad to be out of this nightmare.

Do not let up on them in anyway, on some days I emailed/spammed them over 200 times, every day to try to disrupt their email system, from several different accounts, big files of silly pictures. Anything to let them know that I had not forgotten about it and I would not go away. I took this action after end of August as I grew more frustrated at their excuses and lack of action.
All the staff at Customer services knew my name, which says something!

In short be a real pain in the ass, it may just get you noticed above other passive buyers. I was told there are hundreds/thousands of us waiting for refunds. 

Good luck
Rick Paris

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Congractulartions!!
Maria

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new to this forum after searching polaris world refund, my story starts in 2004 i bought a apartment on HR paid all the deposits and waited for 2006 when we were told it would be ready.
it became quite obvious that it would not be so i had a 15 day window 1-15 january 2007 to cancel.
the solicitor cancelled and we duly waited for the refund, they kept fobbing the solicitor off that they were sending it, every excuse was used to not pay including a phone call to say we had lost our money.
anyway i had to fly over to give the solicitor power of attorney to put them in to court, we paid 2,850 for a insurance policy to cover us for the legal action in the summer of 2008 and this week i had a call from the solicitor to say polaris want to settle the court action just the deposits paid and nothing else.
no interest, no court fees, no damages. they have a cheek.
anyway we will see how far we can go as if we accept a offer they will pay us in about a week.
the main thing is we have the majority of the money offered.
will let you know when its in the bank.
my advice is dont take any nonsense and put them straight in to court, the sooner the better.

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Hello there,

We have received our money back from Polaris today.

We bought an apartment on Hacienda Riquelme in 2005 with completion date of Dec 2006. No info from Polaris so I rang them in Nov 2006 and was told of a 3 month delay. This was not too bad so did not cancel contract within the 15 day cancellation window as stated in the contract.

When we had heard nothing in June we went to Polaris with a cancellation letter in case of further delays. We were told that property would not be completed until Nov / Dec 2007. We handed over the letter and asked for signature as proof of delivery. We were told that we could not cancel as failure to cancel within the 15 day period meant we had accepted all delays.

We visited our solicitor who explained this was nonsense but that we would probably need court action to get our money. We agreed and paid 3500 euros as deposit.

Polaris did nothng until almost date for court hearing (approx 10 months since first visit to solicitor. A strike in the Murcia court system had increased the period we had to wait - we were told approx 6 months). They then offered to pay back all deposits but no interest. 

Our solicitor said we could carry on with court action if we wished or ask Polaris to pay half the costs we had incurred. Although we were tempted to push for court action the current economic climate made us accept the offer. If the case went to court and we won Polaris might have appealed and it could have dragged on for quite a while. We have also seen the Spanish press reports of Polaris apparently offering Riquelme as collateral against the debts they owe to Torre Pacheco council. 

In view of this we considered the money in our bank was the best option. Polaris agreed to pay and payment was received within the two week deadline set by our solicitor.

As a matter of interest our solicitor said they had many other cases pending. So do not give up hope of receiving a refund of deposit..

Jean

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Can you give me the details of your solicitor so I can contact them to see if they will assist me in getting my money back please

Many thanks
Martin

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Dear MRM3P,

If you need any assistance, we are here for you.

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Dear MRM3P

I have sent you details by pm as i do not think we are allowed to put details on the open forum but not sure if your pm facility will be up and running yet. 

Let me know if you have not received.

Jean

 

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Thank You Jean :)

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My pleasure. Best of luck.

Jean

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