27 Sep 2007 12:43 AM:

Hi All,

our property is overdue by some months now.  the builder has offered us our money back through our bank guarantee -  less 15% ( commission between builder and agent) and no interest.  after discussing this with my lawyer he says it is because we are cancelling the contract. he says they ( the builder ) are not in breach of contract until 24 months + 120 days after planning permit is granted. he faxed me a copy of this which was stamped 10/10/05. that means he thinks - - - - - are not in breach until approx 7/2/08. that is why they are prepared to offer me this deal now, because it'll cost them a lot more after 7th feb next year !

do you think this sounds fair / reasonable ? should i just wait until this date ? i don't think LFO will be granted for a year or two yet ?  the date for completion was supposed to be 1st feb 07.

the wording of the contract is set out below: quote:

  - - - - - S.A.U. undertakes to start the construction works refered to in paragraph 3 ( our property ) herein within a time limit of 120 days after the planing permission has been obtained and such works shall be completed within a period of 24 months after the beginning of the same.

The house shall be put at the disposal of the Purchaser within the time limit of a month after receiving the administrative authorisation for its occupation, except when there is fair consideration,  unquote

what should i do ? does the contract mean 24 months + 120 days or should the 120 days be included in the 24 months ? and even if it's the latter, by the time i pursued this through a court would i be wasting my time and be advised to let time take it's course??

regards,

ken

This message was last edited by kennym on 9/27/2007.

This message was last edited by kennym on 9/27/2007.
Thread: Builders versus owners - what can be done?

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18 Sep 2007 7:32 PM:

hi to all,

i was speaking to a finance company based in the south of spain today. a senior advisor told me that it is now illegal for a bank or financial institution to lend for mortgage purposes to anyone buying a property in spain which does not have the LFO granted. he said this law came in about 6/8 weeks ago and applies to the whole of spain.

is this correct ? is this now the law ?

regards,

ken..   

Thread: re furniture

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12 Sep 2007 10:08 PM:

Thanks for the replies we have had in relation to our post.

looking at our english version of our contract we have detailed under a paragraph " beginning and completion of works " the following.

  quote:  - - - - - S.A.U. undertakes to start the construction works refered to in paragraph 3 ( our property ) herein within a time limit of 120 days after the planing permission has been obtained and such works shall be completed within a period of 24 months after the beginning of the same.

The house shall be put at the disposal of the Purchaser within the time limit of a month after receiving the administrative authorisation for its occupation, except when there is fair consideration,  unquote.

 we have asked our lawyer to confirm to us the exact date that the original planning permission for our development was granted. are we correct in thinking that the 24 month period from this date incorporates the 120 day period or should we be adding this on?

Another question is, does the phrase " administrative authorisation " refer to the LFO/ habitation licence and can anyone  clarify what could be construed as " fair consideration "?

Any help appreciated.

regards

ken .

This message was last edited by kennym on 9/12/2007.
Thread: Contracts, Lawyers and Compensation

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11 Sep 2007 1:37 PM:

who else is in the same situation ?

we came to murcia to buy a property and had initially intended to buy a resale, but we liked a small development we viewed so much we decided to buy off plan here and wait a year until it was completed. this was feb 06. we paid our 40% by april 06 and our property was to be completed by feb 07. fine so far...

right from the outset we had been on at our solicitor to make sure all the paperwork was in order as like many we had heard some horror stories about buying in spain. we were assured verbally and by email from him, that all paperwork was in place and the builder had a very good reputation locally and we shouldn't worry about anything. still fine so far...

around oct/nov last year whilst reading posts on eyeonspain someone dropped a bomb shell by asked the question,  " whats this habitation licence all about ? "  well like many people we had not come across this before so we immediately asked our solicitor who explained, it was issued by the council and it might take a few months to get granted. we were really angry about this since he had failed to discuss this at anytime up until we broached the subject with him. since that point he has told us that in our region it can take a long long time to be granted and there's nothing anyone can do to speed it up. brilliant ! 

 if he had mentioned this back at the beginning we would have walked away from this site and bought elsewhere. he would still have had our business on another property so we can't understand why he said nothing ? he's surely there to guide us and to answer the questions that we don't know to ask. anyway we sat tight hoping it wouldn't take long. our house was ready by jan 07 but our mortgage lender won't lend without this licence. the weeks became months and still no sign of it being granted. we have been told it may not be granted until sometime after the whole development is completed at the end of 08. but how long after this point could it take ? no one knows ?

the wife and i made a decision in july that we weren't prepared to wait  so we approached our solicitor to have our bank guarantee cashed in and get our money back from the builder. our plan is to go back over in oct and look for a resale which is what we had originally planned. i wish we had!  what ever we buy we'll make sure this time that ALL the paperworks correct.  unfortunately the builder is reluctant to allow us to cancel as they believe they have fulfilled their part of the contract. our solicitor whom we blame entirely for this situation has said they are in a strong position. even more brilliant !

so this is where we are right now. here is a couple of questions for anyone with a bit of knowledge in this area. is the builder entitled to force us to wait until this licence is granted, even if that is a couple of years away, for example, when the builder offered the property to us for completion in january 07 they hadn't even applied for the habitation licence at this point. it took them until april 07 before they did this. can they do this? can they offer it as ready before applying for this ?   if we did complete, there are no facilities on site yet. they haven't started the pool, tennis courts, gardens etc.. which was in our contract and on their brochures.  how can we complete if the builder hasn't completed what on the contract ?   plus can we put any pressure in anyway on our solicitor about his conduct here ? we even have emails from him telling us that all the paperwork is in place for our property. it clearly isn't. 

some people on our site don't see the lack of this licence as a problem and have gone ahead and completed. that's there decision. we have no problem with that, but surely we should have had the right to decide for ourselves if this was something we didn't want to get invovled in . we believe we were kept in the dark at the beginning of the buying process by the builder, agent and our solicitor and suspect this was no accident ? can anyone suggest a way forward for us, or are we just to sit back and fume, for as long as it takes. we know from many other posts on this forum that we are not alone in our frustrations over this issue. in saying all of the above, if this licence is granted suddenly we would be happy to complete as we still like the our house and the development, but i doubt it will.

regards

ken..    

 

 

 

Thread: Contracts, Lawyers and Compensation

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21 Mar 2007 7:51 PM:

Hi Vox,

If you take a look at Taray's website then you will see the plans for phase 2 at San Cayetano. Sorry I have no idea of costs but if you contacted Taray direct I am sure they would let you know. There are now townhouses on offer as well as all the other properties. I would imagine that you are looking at a build start date for phase 2 of around Autumn 2008 as this is when we believe phase 1 will be completed but again I don't know for certain .

Hope this is useful to you

regards

Elaine & Ken.

Thread: San Cayetano Quarter Villas

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