[Anonymous]

Hi all,

Just a quick question – I see that there are a few solicitors that browse the forum and perhaps they (or others who have had similar experiences) would be qualified to suggest a good course of action.

I have reserved a couple of apartments off plan, and I received a letter late last year regarding changes to the size of the apartments. The letter began by saying that the first apartment was being increased in size and went on to say that I would not be charged anything additional for this. The letter then went on to simply state the new sq. meterage for the second apartment, and of course I assumed that this was also an increase. It is only now that I am attempting to sell the (second) apartment that I have noticed that it is actually almost 10% SMALLER than in the original plans that I have from the developer.

The contract has the usual stuff about being able to change things in the apartment due to constructional constraints, but I do think that reducing the size by nearly 10% is stretching things a bit. Do I have any redress? To be honest I would dearly love to walk away from the second flat, so I’m hoping that this might be all the justification that I need. Any suggestions as to what I might be able to achieve, or is this all just wishful thinking?

Regards,

777 Driver. 🙁

[Anonymous]

I am curios , who the developer is. They should not be allowed to get away with this so I would say you could get out of the contract, it is like signing up for a villa and get an apartment instead

[Anonymous]

I’ve answerewd this in an other post…

http://www.spanishpropertyinsight.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=3503&highlight=#3503

The Law, in general, says that vendor has to give you the building with the meters specified in contract, and when that is impossible (lets say a building mistake ) you have the right to choose between getting a percentage refund or canceling the contract, but this second option only if the area missing is more than the 10% of the whole surface.

You have the right to choose, not the vendor.

Anyway, sometimes Courts have soften this rule in behalf of the purchaser when they had considered that the missing meters, though smaller than 10% of the whole area, was essential in the house (imagine you have in contract a 200 m2 house, with four bedrooms and the vendor/developer gives you a 182m2 house with only three bedrooms, the area missing -a 18m2 bedroom- is less than the 10% but you wanted four, you would never have bought a three piece house…)

[Anonymous]

Cesar,

Thanks for your reply – The changes to my apartment do not result in the loss of any rooms, but we do lose storage space/wardrobes in a couple of rooms and one of the bedrooms and the bathroom are considerably smaller. I think that the overall loss in terms of a percentage is, believe it or not, 9.4%, so I suppose we fall short of the ultimate legal safeguard you just mentioned.

Since posting this I have given the matter to my solicitor, so hopefully she will be able to find us a satisfactory solution.

Thanks again,

Best regards,

Mike.

[Anonymous]

Cesar,

Just to let you know that my solicitor has spoken to the developer and I received an email from them offering to reduce the price of the aparment by 9.4%. Although I think I would rather have pulled out completely, this represents a fair solution in my opinion.

Thanks for your kind advice.

Regards,

Mike.

[Anonymous]

well well, my apartment in miraflores is about 25% smaller than contract! as well as one pool less!! i assume i’m in my rights to pay 25% less for it, at completion? (aifos built)

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