We are buying an off-plan property – having now been told of this forum may have not been wise! 18 months in and no real issues until now, we have been told by the constructer that there is “a problem” with water connection. We bought in an established village where the infrastructure is there in the hope of aviding such issues.
Problem: Today the construcer told me that the apartment will be completed in October (July 2005 on contract) but although they applied for water/electricity supply to the Town Hall 2 years ago, teis has not been actioned. Their proposed solution is bizarre….large water tanks may be placed in the underground parking area (we have paid deposit for one which total cost is 11000 euros!) Electric pumps will pump the water to the properties and water will be delivered by truck.
When asked who would pay for these deliveries, the answer was vague. When asked when the local town hall would connect a permanent supply…even more vague!
Question: Can we refuse to sign the property over and pay the remaining 50% BALANCE UNTIL A PERMANENT SUPPLY IS SORTED?
Can we demand our full money back and write this off to a bad experience?
I have the AVAL from the constructors bank and having gone through our current contract it seems there is no reference to compensation.
I know we can back out and lose 50% of the total paid to date but cannot afford to do this.
Any advice would be gratefully received
As I understand it, the constructors cannot force you to sign unless the town hall has given the building a habitation licence. They won’t get this until there is mains water connected. They might have applied to the town hall 2 years back, but this is them trying to pass the blame. The town hall can’t give the licence until the building is finished – obviously it’s not possible for them to inspect the installations until the installations exist.
The worrying thing is that if the constructor has to re-plumb the building, cash-flow problems might well send them out of business, unless of course everybody pays them the balance owed. Not that I’d recommend doing this for a minute. You need to speak to the town hall for their side of the story, and make contact with other owners in the building to ascertain what can be done to get mains water.
First of all , you should contact urgently a lawyer in the area where you have bought that property. your lawyer will contact the Town Hall and then clarify whether the project was passed as all new developments are: standard water supply, I doubt very much that the project of a water tank is according with the building license. If that is the case you can reject that solution. Anyway in my opinion they will not get the first occupation license with that sort of water supply infraestructure.
Regarding the bank guarantee, their aim is that any buyer can get the instalments paid back plus legal interests in the case that construction does not start or is not finished when the contract says, it should be enough to request the development using a notary public and then aproach the bank or insurance company who issued that guarantee. But as said before you must contact a lawyer who will give you a more accurate opinion and advise, and do it asap.
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