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A new website has just appeared in response to bullyboy tactics from the Murcia developer Grupo Trampolin:
http://grupotrampolin.info/Home_Page.html
They’re demanding money from the residents for the builder’s utility supply prior to the Certificate of Habitation being available for the development – which is illegal?
A number of the residents have completed and have Escrituras with clauses stating that water and electricity would be provided free of charge until the Habitation Certificate was available.
Non-payment will result in individuals being cut-off – not a great situation to be in with Winter looming.
What recourse do the residents have? Can the OMIC do anything in this situation?
Would approaching Iberdrola and Aguas de Murcia for direct payment have any benefit?
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This a normal behaviour of managers/owners of Spanish businesses. It should not surprise any one who has dealt with Spain.
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Hi Garyco,
Im a little confused as to what’s happening here. I know Grupo Tramolin have had some problems with licenses etc.
Can you clarify if a community has officially been formed? Normally the builder forms the community using an administrator of their choosing (I wonder why) who would then call the first meeting, vote for president, charges for the year etc etc. At this point builders that have unsold properties can use those votes how they want. But if your community isnt formed it cant actually have a president.
I dont think approaching the water or electric companies direct will help. In general they are not allowed to supply anyone nowdays without a habitation license.
It’s worrying that some have signed escrituras without a habitation license. Those that have should never have done this. If any of them used a solicitor I think they should be contacting the solicitor and getting them involved to get the habitation license situation resolved ASAP. This could be a far greater problem than not having water and electric. Can you elaborate how this has happened?
Try and give more information. There is loads of help on here.
Best wishes
Bernard
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A prime example of why nobody should sign before the LFO (Habitation license) is granted.
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From my understanding, the developer has formed a community without involving any of the residents, has done this without involving an admin company and have then decided that €200 a month will be charged to all of the residents, regardless of whether they are resident in Spain or not. This figure could have been €5000 a month if they had so chosen!
Surely the fact that they have formed a community without involving any of the residents negates the legality of what they have done? If the forming of a community is a recognised process then their must be a burden of due process having to be followed, giving everyone affected the right to vote etc?
The residents are now forming their own community to look at taking on responsibility for paying for the utilities, but I think this is ill advised and don’t see how this will work without the Certificate of Habitation in place. This is further complicated by there being a mixture of residents/non-residents both with and without Escrituras.
I think a better course of action is to denounce the developer and community they have formed, then involve the police if any disconnections are made. Those that have completed have had clauses inserted into Escrituras stating that the developer agrees to provide water and electricity free of charge until the utility companies take this on.
With regards to why some people have completed the reasons are twofold:
– Massive pressure from the developer to complete so they can get any outstanding monies, with threats of seizure/resale for anyone resistant to completion.
– The fear of the developer going bust, thus residents would rather own a property without a Certificate of Habitation than lose everything. Individuals solicitors were advising this course of action as this made most financial sense.
Any advice on this situation will be warmly welcomed by the residents.
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Further news on this situation:
The developer has now contacted owners of one phase of this development to say that Habitation Certificates are finally ready. However they have asked that everyone pays €80 for the privilege, in advance of course!
It gets better – any resident who has refused to pay the €200 per month ‘community fee’ introduced in November (non-payment of which has already resulted in water and electricity being cut-off to individual properties) will have to pay all back-dated payments in order to receive their Habitation Certificate. As stated previously, the developer has formed an illegal ‘community’ in order to blackmail further cash from the residents, resulting in extreme hardship for many.
What recourse of action can be taken against this bunch of criminals? The President has already been denounced many, many times; this seems to be as much use as a chocolate teapot. Can any criminal proceeding be brought against them?
For owners who have paid for their properties and are already in possession of their Escritura, can they not approach the Town Hall individually to obtain their Certificates?
Do you actually need to be in possession of your Habitation Certificate to connect to Iberdrola etc. or do you just need the reference number?
I have been checking on the Murcia Ayuntamianto websites for publication of the certificates:
http://www.murcia.es/Inicio/index_.asp
http://www.carm.es/borm/vista/principal/inicio.jsfAm I looking in the correct place?
Any advice welcome.
Kind Regards.
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Hi Garyco,
Firstly, have you and the other residents got some independent (ie out of area) legal advice on this?
It may help determine the next course of action.See if your town hall Urbanismo can issue them again to those of you with escrituras. Get an interpreter to go with you, dont email a request as in my experience they wont answer. They dont like anything in writing!
Effectively, the company are committing fraud in any normal persons terms, however Spain plays by its own rules ie makes them up as they go along. You would think that the law would be on your side, but sadly in Spain this doesn’t seem to be the case. Such actions by unscrupulous developers should be stamped on hard and fast in order to restore faith.
When this happened to us and our neighbour/developer cut us off from their electricity supply, we went to the Guardia who did absolutely nothing and said it was between us, the neighbour and utility company.
They were useless. No matter that we had two frightened children under 6 with us who didn’t understand how our previously nice neighbour could be so mean.The utility company couldn’t/wouldn’t do anything as we did not have the habitation cert. They said that until we have the paperwork they cant do anything and although they know that the developer has stuck a transformer on his land and is tapping into their supply, they do not seem willing to take action (as far as I know). They have said that we dont owe them anything as we did not commit the fraud. (I at least have that in writing).
The developer is a bully who cannot be reasoned with and is adamant that we should pay this money despite the fact that it is illegal. So we were and still are stuck between a rock and a hard place until we are legalised (if that ever happens!) and the utility company can take the infrastructure over and some sanity (though probably large bills) asserts itself.
To make our situation worse, the other residents (4 in total) all paid the anomalous connection charge (anywhere between €800 and €2000). Most of us were already connected to the supply when we bought the properties and had been there for a year or more. One wasn’t happy about paying but still did as his wife didn’t want to fall out with the neighbours or risk being threatened with being cut off too. I understand the pressure.
They also bowed to extortion and paid consumption charges without seeing a copy of a factura. They didn’t want to rock the boat. We refused to do this too so got cut off. Luckily we had already taken the decision to return to the UK and had an escape fund. Not all people are so fortunate.
It then unravelled that the whole development is illegal and these payments to the developer would never get any of us contracts or habitation licenses. We found that his electrician hadn’t even issed boletins. What a scam!!
If you and others can get independent legal advice. Decide how to proceed from there.
This is the corrupt, despiccable face of Spain that is tainting its reputation so badly. Yet these people remain oblivious to this fact, seemingly.
Well it all comes down to money, doesn’t it? Nothing else seems to matter to them. It’s probably even worse now with the recession, outright greed has turned into a desperate greed!Good luck with what you find out and decide to do.
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