Not sure what to do.

Our case against Aifos is due to go for the preliminary hearing on 4th February. Lawyers have notified us with options to SWAP to other properties. Aifos have offered a number of properties in four categories as follows (our lawyers quote):

1. The houses included on the point. Those properties has not habitation licence and not finished yet. All of them with mortgage.          - would they ever be completed and obtain their licences??????
 
2.- Does properties are finished and could have habitation licence (we should investigate). With mortgage.
 
3.- Properties without construction at all.   - WHY  offer these at all???????
 
4.- Apartments and stores. All of them are finish and registered (Aifos says). Ready to be resell after you completion.

I have highlighted points 2 & 4 for the following reasons. The properties offered in point  2 are all smaller than the original property we were buying, they have less bedrooms and are far more expensive. No discount is being given either. They would require us to raise more capital to enable us to swap. We DON'T have the means to raise the capital (credit crunch reality check).

Point 4 refers to apartments and stores - in fact they are PARKING spaces ONLY. Whilst  we appreciate they are assets, we don't  understand how we can market or resell them if we were to choose this option. If anyone could help with advice on this point, please reply.

They have had our money since 2004. We have, like many other people been trying to recover our deposit for a couple of years.  A straight swap takes no account of appreciation and compensation which IS being claimed through the courts.

We're not sure whether we should take the parking spaces or whether to allow the hearing to take place on Wednesday and then seek a better deal from Aifos to reflect legal costs, appreciation, compensation.

Has anyone had any luck with obtaining their money back or a reasonable alternative deal with Aifos after the preliminary hearing?

Not sure I can answer any of your questions but my experiences are very similar to yours and i'm a little further down the line than you so it might help to see what your likely timescales may be.  I purchased two apartments in 2004, same old story, no licence, no contact, no intention to build or return my money.  In 2007 I began legal proceedings using Lawbird, our pre trial hearing was in April 2008 and the trial was on 3rd October 2008.  We won our case, being awarded our money back, plus the positive difference in property values, plus compensation and plus legal interest.  In all, with the exchange rate as it is, I couldn't have been happier with the decision.  However forcing Aifos to pay is yet another long drawn out process in the Spanish legal system.  They have offered me alternative properties as well but as yet my lawyers have not suggested accepting them so I can only assume they are unsuitable.  On 26th November 2008 we were awarded an embargo against one of Aifos properties - again great news you would think.  However to this day I am still waiting for the Spanish Land Registry to acknowledge the embargo so that we can force it to auction.  My lawyers say that we cannot push the court and cannot push the land registry and have indicated that it may take around a year before we can force a sale of the property.  I am now waiting for a third lawyer to be allocated to me (the first two left the firm!) and am in the hands of a system that cannot seem to cope with the level of criminality that is rife throughout the jurisdiction it intends to protect. 

I'm sorry I can't answer your questions directly but hope that my experience may give you an indication of the lengthy battle that lies ahead of you.  If anyone is further down the line than me can give any helpful indications as to the path that lies ahead it would be greatly appreciated.

Good luck with your case!

Strangely enough, our lawyers are Lawbird and they have suggested we accept one of the properties on offer and transfer over (not like for like, with no account for legal interest or appreciation. It would definitely be a much smaller property). All the properties offered are more expensive than our original property, but then they would be five years down the line. Our original intention was to move over to Spain for health reasons. As a result of the delay, in April we bought a bungalow over here and have obviously used our capital for the purchase and don't have the additional capital to hand over to these rogues.

We have seen a couple of apartments within our means and yesterday sent an email to Lawbird asking them to look at feasibility. We haven't had a mortgage for years now and don't relish the propsect but don't have much choice unles we want to wave goodbye to £50,000 plus at todays rates.

Thanks for your input Coombsey.

UPDATE: Aifos didn't reply to the enquiries about alternative properties. Received notification this week that Judge has granted us an embargo on the assets of Aifos. Is there light at the end of the tunnel?

Ask your Lawyer because the judicial declaration of Creditor´s meeting, somehow freeze the embargos on developer´s poperties.

What does that actually mean please?

It means that  the execution of guarantees on properties of the developer for the securement of debts ( embargos) will not  be done till  Creditor´s meeting agreement is passed and them are not affected or till one year after the declaration of Creditor´s meeting by the Judge.

Well it seems the second request for Aifos to go into administration is over.  Aifos have mysteriously come up with some money to pay off their creditors.  They also claim to have negotiated a new agreement with the banks to repay their debt.  The longer they continue to trade the greater the chance of us all getting our money back!  I cant post a link to the site which confirms this so if anyone wants it please message me and post the link in this thread if you are able to.

I know. It's the best news I've had in ages.

With the stock market crash and Aifos situation, we were almost complete wiped out financially. So this is a relief. I've been picking up the latest on the banruptcy frm the link below. Hope it proves useful.

http://aifosbankruptcy.blogspot.com/