[Anonymous]

We are in process of buying property in murcia and experiencing a few problems, we would like impartial advice thanks. A time line of events is detailed below

Mar 07 Found property and builder agreed to buy
Apr 07 Deposit paid, contract with completion date of 9/5/08
Jul 07 Moved to spain and rented finca from builder, promised to be in our house xmas 07
Nov 07 paid further amount
Dec 07 Moved into our house, no license would be there in Jan/Feb
May 08 No licence still
Dec 08 Licence rec’d by builder and now being pushed to complete.

Understandably property now down valued and banks lending less as a %

We need some help in understanding our options eg Can we walk away and get refund legally, do we have to complete, what are the consequences if we don’t

Any help or advice as to who we could speak to greatly appreciated, thanks

[Anonymous]

Not sure I entirely understand your situation.
You’ve been living in the house in question since Dec 07 but you weren’t able to complete on it until Dec 08? Now you need a mortgage in order to complete but can’t get one? Have you been living in the house “free” for this time? Was your purchase contract subject to mortgage and did you not have a mortgage agreement in place when you agreed to purchase? Is there a builder’s mortgage to take over? Do you have a lawyer?!

[Anonymous]

Not sure I entirely understand your situation.
You’ve been living in the house in question since Dec 07 but you weren’t able to complete on it until Dec 08? Now you need a mortgage in order to complete but can’t get one? Have you been living in the house “free” for this time? Was your purchase contract subject to mortgage and did you not have a mortgage agreement in place when you agreed to purchase? Is there a builder’s mortgage to take over? Do you have a lawyer?!

[Anonymous]

My advice is, do your sums
What the property worth now
How much will it cost you to complete, IVA legal etc.

If you sell after all costs taking into account a reduced value now will you be left with anything worthwhile (ie. worth the risk)

If not you could walk away as the developer can, but probably will not persue in a foreign court to get you to complete.

If you walk away you will lose your deposit. Taking your developer to court after the LFO is granted to reclaim your deposit will most likely fail leaving you with a loss of 20K costs.

Be careful, if you miss your date at the notary (like me) the developer will try to keep your deposit.

[Anonymous]

BTW

After the LFO is granted you have practically no rights from the perspective to litigation to reclaim your deposit. Even if like me you could not contact the developer for 5 years and the first correspondance was a letter with the LFO attached telling me to close on a specific date.

This is the unfairness of it all.

You wait, he wins. You should have done all this before he got the LFO.

Bad news I know but true.

I wish someone had told me this, I would have completed as I would have halved my loss as I bought in 2003 and prices are about that level now.

[Author]

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