POLARIS WORLD NIGHTMARE CONDADO DE ALHAMA

We signed contracts for 2 apartments in 2006 overlooking pools in the same garden at Polaris World. Before signing at the notary in October 2008 our two families who are related went to see the complex which was beautiful on the brochures we had been shown when we signed the contracts in 2006 and paid deposits. When we got to the site Instead of 2 pools as shown on the brochures there was only one in our complex. One of our apartments was overlooking a play area which was supposed to be overlooking a now non existant pool. We refused to sign for the property and they offered another apartment on another complex but we signed the contracts in 2006 under the impression  our families would be together in the same complex so we could holiday there together. Polaris has now said it is keeping our deposits total 120,000 euros and reselling the two apartments. We said we would sign at the notary for the one apartment when they return our deposits for the unacceptable apartment. Even though there is now only one pool and if all apartments are full about 1600 people could be sharing that one pool. They have said we have breached the contract by not signing for either apartment. How can it be that they can try to force you into buying something you did not agree to in the first place. We had a solicitor in Alicante we thought the further away the better as corruption is still rife, now they say there is nothing that can be done as we did not sign at the notary for the other apartment. We have lost our life savings. We even said that why could they not transfer the deposit from the unacceptable apartment to the acceptable one. It is disgusting the way that Polaris World treats people they care only about money,surely someone out there needs to put a stop to this. I just hope that if our experience stops other people from making the same mistake as us it will help ease our pain. The company is obviously very very desperate for money. We should have saw danger signs even with the name POLARIS it is just a big bomb waiting to explode and take as many people as possible along with it . Is it right that they can keep all our money. 
We have also sent Jack Niklaus a letter to inform him of the type of company he is actually putting his name to on their supposed 3 golf courses none of which are ready yet.

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Glad you made it from the other forum . Hopefully you will get some good advice from here too. I imaging there is also a development forum devoted to yours where you can get more info from other purchasers.

Mark

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Hi gullible, welcome to EOS.

So many people are in similar situations, they trusted that what they were shown was what they would be getting, which does appear to be quite a novelty in some parts of Spain.  

I suggest asking Maria de Castro for advice.  Maria is a Spainish lawyer and a regular contributor to EOS.  She has helped me personally and many others.  I hope you get some good news soon. 

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Hi I'am so sorry to hear your story, time and time again we see people having problems with developers. I can fully understand the heartbreak in losing hard earned cash which has been paid over in good faith. It is high time that new laws are introduced to make these companies face up to their commitments and responsibilties. I only hope that one of the lawyers on here who are very experienced in dealing with cases such as yours, can help you. Best of luck.

Bob

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Gullible

Try here, to speak to others in your development

http://www.eyeonspain.com/Secure/MsgBrdsThreads.aspx?dev=C139&name=Condado%20de%20Alhama

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This might be of interest:

 

http://www.eyeonspain.com/Secure/articles/article.aspx?article=/publicity-contract.aspx

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Hi

I have just read Maria's article with interest but would like to make the following comment.

It does seem that people may have a case against PW with all the changes they have made. However, it would take a very good lawyer such as Maria to take on a case like this but I would imagine that it would be very drawn out and expensive and here lies the problem. I don't think there would be too many people who can afford or take a finacial gamble to take PW to court due to the length of time to pursue the monies if PW lost, many years I would imagine. I hear stories of people having their contracts cancelled on one of their resorts due to completion date failures and PW have actually agreed to refund the client's money. However, I have also heard that these same people are having to take legal action to actually get the money back and then when it is actaully returned, it's without interest.

PW are very arogant when it comes to things like this and they know that very few people will actually chalenge them, even with the backing of excellant people such as Maria and her team.

Maria, I would also like to say that your contributions to this forum are invaluable and you have helped many people and we need people like you to assist in matters such as these but for the reasons I have stated above, I think people would rather let things be, which is a shame. Please feel free to PM me if you would like to add to this.

Thanks

Phil

 

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Judicial paths are always though but very often the only way ahead for many people.

Legal costs can be reduced if you make a group or can be paid by instalments if your lawyer agrees so.

There are many things to try and do before trowing the towel. And I know how difficult it can be!

Cheers!

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Hi I think even though you have lost your money to these crooks you have had a lucky escape really. The prices they were selling at Condado  are now down by about 50% less than what you probably initially paid. Also I know someone on there who is in nil equity as their mortgage is now higher than the actual value of their  apartment. They cannot get any rents on a site that is not finnished has none of the promised facilities at least not until 2011 also the current economic climate is against them.. We also hear Polaris are in big trouble financially and if they take any handouts  from the government to keep them afloat, they then have to agree to letting the government use the site for low cost housing.  The Spanish Government has advised all Construction Companies to lower their prices by 50% now. So bearing this in mind its very likely that Polaris World will have to take the Government  handout and then they will have fill up all the empty unsold villas and apartments on all their sites by means of low cost housing Government sanctioned projects.

BELIEVE ME YOU REALLY HAVE HAD A LUCKY ESCAPE

 

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Jpssaps

Where di you get the informaton of PW having to allow low cost housing on their empty appartments. PW are building Condado to a certain standard and allowing this to happen will put off any future buyers. This is something I thought PW wouldn't want.

Phil

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Hi

Ive just read the thread slaging  off PW.

I hve quite a number of friends who have bought on a polarise world site. La torre , Mar Menor etc and though there are always teathing problems at first  PW have always come up trumps in the end.

As for PW being in trouble financially.

No you have it wrong. PW Director has almost the same name as a director of  a company  on the Costa del Sol who built illigally. and it is he who has been told that rather he knock one of his  buildings  sites down he  can sell the remainder  properties at a lower  price to local spanish families.

I have a friend who bought on that  particular site &completed last year.

She doesnt appear to bothered as she lives on the site she feels it will be good for her  to have the apartments perminantly ocupied rather than being a woman living alone on an almost diserted site.

As for Condado looking different from the original plans. This is nothing new. My son bought a 2 bed apartment here in england almost two years ago & it differed quite a lot from his initial viewing of the show home to  apartment on completion.

There is always some small print some where that will tell you that  "plans may change at the builders discretion." You just have to look for it.

And negative equity. No matter what country you live in. If you have bought over the past few years it will apply  now

You just have to ride out thestorm if you can.

A happy PW purchaser i

Jan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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In reply to gullible - even if the larger jardines now only have one pool (albeit a larger one) it is highly unlikely everyone would be using the pool at the one time.  To be honest we are delighted with our apartment on Condado and on walking through the jardines who should have had two pools and now only have one I stll think they look great.

 

Linda

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I felt I had to bring this thread back up if only to also bring something positive to the discussion. I dont think developers do themselves any favours but in the case of Condado I do think Polaris has pulled out all the stops to make the resort viable in the face of the recession.The progress is slower than anticipated but the resort is up and running with the 1st golf course, a sports zone, a restaurant, good bar and a supermarket. Condado de Alhama had a ten year plan so some of the facilities suggested in the viewing process were never going to be availabe in the first couple of years. PW are mid way through a 3 month insolvency protection procedure and we wait to see the outcome, but non the less the resort is autonomous now anyway- he only question will be 'will any further properties be built?'

Developers cannot just hand back money- deposits are long gone before the ink is dry on the paperwork. They are also well aware that some clients change their minds or suddenly have money problems and want to back out, so they make it as difficult as possible to claim a refund. I would think this will have been their practice even more so in the last few years and of course they have waled this road many times so know how people will fall by the wayside due to the expense of fighting for a refund.

I personally know how disappointing it is when the expected apartment doesnt materialise and the options become that you wait and see what will happen or change to another location, its how we ended up in the Jardines rather than the Golf Suites. I know that there are people now in that position as Terrazza's de la Torre aren't building a planned phase and so purchasers are swopping to Condado- many of them will be fuming that their carefully selected apartment isnt going to be built. I think you can only put these experiences down to'off plan' purchase. Whatever the legal expectations are or legal advice is; for the lay person 'off plan' means that things can change and it says the developer can modify plans on the plan you sign.

That said I feel you (gullible) must have had very bad advice in the first instance and had niavelly believed you can sign a contract and then back out of it. A knee jerk reaction no doubt and I know many others felt the same way but eventually either moved location or decided to stay put. I do not know why you weren't offered other pool view apartments as an alternative, there are still pool view apartments available. Or were you; but the thought of having to pay a transfer fee was rubbing salt into the wound? I also think you didnt really understand how the development design worked as each area is its own resort but contained all are within one main resort with many shared facilities and no great distance between them. There are about 11 swimming pools in the Jardines alone, Naranjos and Villa Janas share a similar number and La Isla have swimming pools also, eventually the club house will have a pool area. All are open unrestricted to owners and only 1 third occupancy is expected at any time anyway- including peak weeks..

As for negative equity- disappointing, but only a real issue if you planned to sell. On CdA flipping the apartments for a quick profit was never really going to work. There are about 3,500 apartments at the moment and within the individual phases they are quite similar so it would always be very hard to make a profit on a sale. Had the expected phases gone ahead through 2008 and 2009 there would have been other similar phases added to what we have now. Again this would limit resale opportunities- of course some would be located in places some people would find more favourable than others ie near the club house, near the shops etc.. The development really has to take off big time to make resale viable and this is still early days, although the golf course is proving popular and already bringing in rental custom.

I would be interested to read the final outcome, did you loose 1st deposits or actually loose more and why wouldn't PW let you progress with the purchase of both apartments in the end ?

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Thanks Quiet Man and am in agreement in the main with your observations.........Anyone wo has bought a PW property off plan in the last 4 years will have something to moan about......... off plan is risky as you don't know exactly how it will turn out.

PW were very good to us 4 years when we wanted to upgrage our Hacienda Requelme 2 bed to a 3 bed ground flooor on Mar Menor 2. I doubt that would be on offer now though. PW have changed the specs since we first signed to MM2..... There are no electric shutters to living room doors or kitchen windows, the bathrooms are not the quality of MM1 even though we were told they would be.

The resort is finished though and for that we are lucky even though there are a large number of unsold apartments........

I am more concerned that  if PW don't get the outcome they need then the on site facilities like the supermarkets and bars etc will either close or be left to run down until they are sold on. For rental purposes this would be very bad news. Lets wait and see.

 

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You are quite right about the uncertainty facing the facilities- although we're holding out some hope that the fact PW seemed to push to get the pro-shop and restaurant up and running for Christmas (albeit behind schedule) is a positive as they could have just settled for a bar selling food and some sort of temporary portacabin for the golf. There is also a rumour that the snack bar at the sports zone will re open as soon as the gym opens (two weeks?) we will wait and see, but as they are run by another company and not PW thats also hopeful, The supermarket here has PW name but is run by UPPERS so maybe less chance of a closing.

Having re-read my post I do want to say that I'm in full sympathy with anyone in a quandary about a purchase with any developer. We took a pragmatic approach when our plans fell through and it was the financial increase from buying a 1 bed apartment to a 2 bed apartment that kept me awake at night well after the paperwork had gone through, not the concept of whether we should still go with PW. I dare say that was part of Gullible's problems too as its likely the price of the apartments had risen between deciding on her 1st choice and wanting to swop.

As my in laws have purchased a number of times in Europe may be we were more au fait with what can happen. Certainly the idea of waiting to see if Golf Suites were to actually be built was dismissed very quickly, trying to get a refund was a 'no go' as you have to wait a long time and spend alot of money so our alternative was to go ahead with another property. We also decided to rent out for a few years to ofset the financial increase- after all we had already made the big decision about why we wanted to buy in Spain and what location and none of that had changed.

There's a post by  jpssaps saying that the resort is unfinished- well yes to an extent it is but as it was to take 10 years anyway there's still lots of time for the two further golf courses and the Oasis to appear- the fire station, medical centre and other external facilities where to be at the end of the project. Some of those are for the greater local community in Alhama de Murcia and may go ahead with other funding. In reference to the low cost housing that is certainly now an option for some developers however any purchaser still has to be able to raise a motgage whatever the cost and has to be able to meet the community charges before they are considered. None of this appears to have affected rental opportunties at all, we are having regular enquiries-particulalry from golfers.

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as we will need to rent our apartment out from April( once it is furnished etc) are you happy to share where your rental enquiries are coming from.

Whilst I know I will need to put it on a couple of websites to start with, an earlier posting from Lavaclip said that after some careful analysis of rental websites, he felt they weren't worth the money and gave advice on how to proceed with rentals without using the holiday website approach.

We are building our own website too........... as I want to link it to other PW developments( mainly for the golf).

I welcome your thoughts.

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Hello everyone, I have completed on jardines 2 in December. As I bought off the bank,
It's a great place now , I have heard stories through EOS but you have to get amongst the folks who bought on CDA and who live ther, they know its took time to get the place up and running but they would not change it for the world

I bought my place substantially lower than those off plan and got a bargain, I would like to thank all who have made me very welcome ( great people) who are the back bone of the community and who have made it what it is today

In Al Kassar (that's the main commercial square) in CDA there are now several great places to eat and drink especially the CLOVER
With the American Diner and a French restaurant opening this year also a specialist furniture store opening this is what comes as a complex developes Rome was not built in a day
So to all those who have missed out TOUGH
Cheers Me

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I am often on Condado fitting or servicing Air Conditioning and I've got to say although it is huge, it still manages to give a small community feel.

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You can still buy on CdA at €77,000  furnished, with a 100% mortgage.

If anyone wants to know how, drop me a PM.....

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Hi

Sorry to hear that you have experienced the same problems as us with Polaris.  We purchased 2 apartments. paid the staged payments, only to find that when they should have been completed, they had not even started building them.  We took them to court, lost the first case, went to appeal and have lost that case.   They are now terminating out contracts because they say we are in breach and they are keeping our money.  There again 120,000.00 euros. Like you our life savings.  Even today we do not know whether the resort was ever completed to what we bought into.   The magistrate took the view that the apartments were built within the 18  months from start to finish even though the build was 2 years late.He took the date from when they started the build, not from when we paid our deposits!!!   What they did was to move the workers off of our resort and reassigned them to Mar Menor, to build some more apartments there, as this was a viable site for them, whereas ours was not.  They moved them for over a year, hence the lateness of ours.  And they say we are in breach of contract!!!  I don't know where we go from here.  Our lives are shattered as well.  Now they are selling off the apartments for as little as 59,000 euros and originally they are 137,500.00 plus tax,

 

Tricia

 

 

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