- This topic has 22 replies, 14 voices, and was last updated 17 years, 10 months ago by
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I wonder if I might prevail on you knowledgeable folks here…
The story in brief – on 1st December last year while in CdS we paid an Estate Agent 6000 euros deposit on a nice apartment in Mijas. What with Xmas and New Year holidays there was a delay in accepting our offer, but on 31st December we had an e-mail from the agent to say that the vendor had sold elsewhere. Arrangements would be made to return our deposit.
Since then, it has all gone quiet – I have e-mailed the agent (who is one of the larger ones – no name, no pack drill YET) several times with no response. The man in charge of our affairs is the Manager at one of their offices.
I have tried the friendly approach, the formal approach, the rather irritated approach and now I am getting angry. Once again briefly, my wife and I cannot for the moment contemplate a purchase due to a sudden family illness at home which will take up our time over the next ?? months, therefore we want our money back! 👿
Any advice as to where I go from here?
Thanks for listening…
Mark -
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Not necessarily. Many agents have a policy of charging 6,000 Euros just to pass on an offer (resale). It stinks, I know.
I’d also like to know who the agent is. Please PM me. I guess they will return your money if you turn up the heat a bit (letter threatening legal action and denouncing them to the consumer protection office and the press, that sort of thing), Unless of course they are one of the agents in the process of going bust, of which there will be not a few this year. Boss of Remax Spain (one of largest REA franchises in Spain) is quoted in the press as saying he thinks half of all agents will go belly up in the coming downturn.
Mark
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I think I have now become irritated enough to name and shame – it’s Andalucian Dream Homes in Fuengirola…
We were given a very hard sell – the property will be mainly for our own holiday use as well as friends and family, but we were given some quite startling figures regarding the rental potential which, on further investigation on this site and elsewhere, was evidently a lot of hot air to get us to sign up. I have a copy of the receipt at home (I am away from home at work at present) but my wife has read out the details – the property has been sold elsewhere so we are not liable for any costs incurred by ADH.
I may be over-reacting too soon about the whole thing but as I intimated earlier we now have a worry at home over a family illness, and my wife has enough on her plate using all her nursing skills without this added problem.
Regards
Mark -
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The ‘normal’ way before the diffuculty in the market would be ONCE THE OFFER IS ACCEPTED a reservation deposit would be placed, usually with the agent giving the buyer 2 weeks or so to inspect the paperwork. Assuming all was well, 10% is lodged with the sellers lawyer(incudes the reservation deposit). In the event of the buyer not completing and running out of contract time, there would be an agreed split with the vendor, anything from 50/50 downwards – depends on each agencies rules.
If the seller pulled out he would be liable to pay the buyer double the deposit – this is spanish law.
However we have had quite a few buyers who have lost their deposits where other agents have kept them, certainly a sign of the times and in this case we request to show good faith that the deposit be lodged with the BUYERS LAWYER and then a notification can be sent to the sellers lawyer that this is the csase. Seller has some commitment and buyer can have the property taken off the market until due dilligence is complete. Both parties are then confident yet secure in their transaction.
We only get paid at notary.
Buyers should insist on this and if the answer is no then walk away! The agent will come running and agree to your request.
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I too made the mistake of going to ADH, My wife and I agreed to meet them in Calahonda to look at resales. They then insisted we then go to their Fuengirola office where they kept us waiting around for over a hour and then proceeded to try and hard sell us new property nowhere near our preferred location, needless to say we left.
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@Inez wrote:
The ‘normal’ way before the diffuculty in the market would be ONCE THE OFFER IS ACCEPTED a reservation deposit would be placed, usually with the agent giving the buyer 2 weeks or so to inspect the paperwork. Assuming all was well, 10% is lodged with the sellers lawyer(incudes the reservation deposit). In the event of the buyer not completing and running out of contract time, there would be an agreed split with the vendor, anything from 50/50 downwards – depends on each agencies rules.
If the seller pulled out he would be liable to pay the buyer double the deposit – this is spanish law.
However we have had quite a few buyers who have lost their deposits where other agents have kept them, certainly a sign of the times and in this case we request to show good faith that the deposit be lodged with the BUYERS LAWYER and then a notification can be sent to the sellers lawyer that this is the csase. Seller has some commitment and buyer can have the property taken off the market until due dilligence is complete. Both parties are then confident yet secure in their transaction.
We only get paid at notary.
Buyers should insist on this and if the answer is no then walk away! The agent will come running and agree to your request.
our agency follows the same procedure. The only slight difference being that if the vender is not using a lawyer, we will hold the deposit in a client account. With everything backed up for all parties in writing. (I’m sure Inez’s agency does that same).
We get a quite a few clients that have been messed around by this agent as we’re only down along the paseo. They always seem suprised when we actually show them want they asked for and not some dev. in the middle of nowhere if guaranteed renal income…
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Good for you Fuengi. Yes we do hold deposits if clients are happy to leave them with us personally – sometimes these are cash!!!
Where are you Fuengi – I used to live near your office in the Feria ground and I am sure I walked past you many times on the way to the beach or the front.
Have a good day
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@Inez wrote:
Good for you Fuengi. Yes we do hold deposits if clients are happy to leave them with us personally – sometimes these are cash!!!
Where are you Fuengi – I used to live near your office in the Feria ground and I am sure I walked past you many times on the way to the beach or the front.
Have a good day
i’ll PM you as I don’t feel its right to use this sight as a free publicity tool.
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As a seller I had endless problems with ADH via the internetwork and Viva and on 2 seperate occasions after multiple viewings and very positive interest from buyers, ADH steered their clients away and into off plan 👿 I know this for certain as the sharing agent was angry enough to inform me.
Also had a “buyer” put down a 3000€ holding fee via the I.N. and after weeks of stalling, pulled out and most of the money, (being held by the I.N agent) was was kept by them for their costs 🙄 -
Hello Coatimundi,
Have a look at the posting headed BAD AGENTS and make of this what you like.
We had a very simular problem,agents who hide because they can,our agent passed the money(deposit) to a lawyer who we have been told passed it to the seller,before we had a mortgage offer,and our agent BuySpainProperties of Gandia has not replied to us on over 2 months.
Take your problem to the British Press based in Spain,lawyers will only cost you more money -
Good morning Coatimundi and Forum
In response to your post about the 6000€ deposit you placed with ADH for a property which the vendor sold elsewhere:
1) You are entitled to your money back in full. You have read the Terms and Conditions of the paperwork you signed with ADH.
2) ADH will try to hold on to your deposit & persuade you to leave it with them whilst they endeavour to help you look for something else (or in their case sell you something off-plan asap).
3) Shoot me down in flames, but as an agent I would also attempt to hold your deposit, albeit I would pass it over to your lawyer’s client account in the interim. You evidently have some intent to purchase on the CDS.
4) I’m sorry to hear about your family illness, but this issue is irrelevant to the matter in hand of the deposit and I wouldn’t mention it to ADH again. Fact: The property got sold elsewhere. Fact: You get your money back in full.
My recommendation: hire a local CDS lawyer quickly from one of the lawyers Mark recommends on this forum. Get ADH to pay back your deposit in Euros to the lawyer as this may result in a swifter transaction (if you paid your deposit by credit card last December this will take an absolute age to sort out with the credit card company to get the funds back on to your card in the UK – you’re just better off getting the money locally in euros). Get this lawyer to work for free on the basis that when the dust has settled at home and when you’re ready to buy again that you will use their services. Not all lawyers are greedy a-holes.
Good luck!
NB. About deposits.
As an agency we will take deposits from clients as this shows good faith to the vendor. On our paperwork should the vendor change their mind once they have signed and accepted an offer then clients are entitled to their money back + a further 100% of the amount paid – hence this situation does tend to stop gazumping.In reverse, some clients buy whilst on holiday and suffer buyer’s remorse when they get home and want to back out (talked out of it by jealous friends, their miserable stockbroker, greedy Financial Advisor not earning commission on the sale, the man down the pub “oooo, you don’t want to be buying in Spain now love”, et al).
Requesting a non-refundable deposit is a way of ensuring that the client’s intent to purchase that property is serious and saves everyone a lot of time-wasting.
Also, this isn’t time-share we’re selling – for us the majority of our sales are re-sales and these are people homes and lives we’re talking about. You want to try telling a spanish vendor that you’ve taken a deposit but that your British client wants a 14 day “cooling off period”. Give me a break.
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Fair do’s….
I feel I should update all you fantastically helpful people out there, I am pleased to say that my deposit has now been refunded in full and my wife and I can now concentrate on more pressing matters at home.
Just as an aside, I wonder if this forum is on someone at ADH’s reading list? I had an e-mail from them shortly after I posted my original query, to ask for various details to arrange the repayment… 😉 It took 6 days for the money to come through eventually but I expected that.
I will still be lurking in these forums as hopefully we will still be purchasing in Spain later on in the year. Keep up the good work!
Many Thanks
Mark -
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