A RETIRED British businesswoman faces losing her UK property over a defunct Spanish property investment.
Summary is she invested off-plan, flipped at a loss to a Spanish buyer, and then the property was never delivered. Now the Spanish buyer is going after her UK home…..I guess arguing that she is responsible for the contract.
One can feel sorry for her but the fact is that each Country has its own laws. We have at least I have become insensitive to this non stop drip of heart ranching stories irrespective of the nationality of the victim.
As, we all know that despite people taking legal advise/ A Spanish solicitors advise is not worth the paper it is written on. NOT that a Spanish solicitor will give any advise in writing.
If I understand her situation there are two options:
*She can pay the 25K to the buyer, resume ownership of the flat, sue the lawyer who gave her the bad advice and move on with her life, possibly joining in the suit with the developer.
*She can continue to fight the with the person that she sold the flat to.
Here in California, there are very strict laws about not disclosing problems with a property to a buyer. The buyer here has a lot of recourse available. Not disclosing that ‘things were not going well’ would be actionable in court.
A simple clause in a contract disclosing that things were not going well with the development, with the buying acknowledging that by signing could have prevented this entire mess.
Sorry, I’m not very sympathetic. In the realm of real problems in the world, this doesn’t even qualify. I suspect she was looking for someone on which she could dump her problem.
Not speaking about this case, but in general: As for the attitude by some people in the UK, that they can act irresponsibly in Spain and skip out on their financial obligations by going back the UK, I imagine that this is a well-deserved rude awakening. Spain isn’t a ‘colony’.
” I suspect she was looking for someone on which she could dump her problem “
How is she dumping her problems ?? She sold the contract at an agreed price & took a loss on it. The buyer should have been aware of the risk he or she was taking when buying off her. ” Buyer be aware” Did her buyer not ask for a guarantee & did other due diligence.
I’m not aware of any Brit who thinks of Spain as a colony. In the past 10 years it’s the first time that I have heard it mentioned. Maybe if I was based on another continent and I didn’t live in Spain, I could let my imagination and prejudices run wild. Maybe I would come to the same conclusion.
Yes, because I don’t fully live in Spain and live on another “continent”, I am disqualified from commenting on superior, entitled attitudes, some of which I’ve seen in this forum.
And while the game of tag – dumping a property without disclosing problems – may be considered normal, it is hardly ethical. But maybe that is something confined to the continent in which I live as well.
Perhaps I was a bit harsh regarding the ‘businesswoman’ because it is clear that, initially, she was victimized by the developer.
I do believe that it is the duty of every buyer, including the businesswoman and the subsequent buyer to do their due diligence before buying. But it is also unethical for a seller to not disclose a known problem with a property.
As for my opinion being that of another tourist, if that is supposed to be in insult, you need to go back to insult school. That an observation is rejected because of one’s geographical location is an example of provincial, 18th century thinking.
One has to read the contract to figure out if she is the one responsible or not. Morally I doubt she had any clue about that the developer would never finish the project.
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