I wonder if anybody here can help, and I mean BIG HELP! I believe DRAKAN and MARIA are lawyers who regularly read this forum so if you are reading, please, please help.
We have put a holding deposit down on a MACARENA villa on the Royal Dream development being built by GRUPO TRAMPOLIN. The builders have been very professional, we did not go through agents rather through good friends who have heard about this development. The price of the macarena villa was 163k euros, including the plot. The villa is 3/4 beds and swimming pooll extra option. Our solicitor changed some of the reservation details and then advised us not to proceed with the sale due to the classifacation of the land, being urban and not rural and no liciences in place by the developer. GT have advised the same however, they are just awaiting it to be finalised by the town hall in Murcia. Other people we have spoken to have also purchased the same on the same development, and are not worried about it. Can I ask please, does anyone know anything CONCRETE about this development and the builder and licicences and whether to proceed or not. We are due to pay a further 35k euros in 2 weeks and before we do, we need to have some evidence in place to either prove that the development isnt going to happen due to the licience although the developer assures us it will and other people have said it definately will. Also, the payments are covered by a bankers guarantee by the SWISS INTERNATIONAL LTD, so i don’t see the problem. We just hear so many conflicting stories regarding this development and the GT please could DRAKEN or MARIA advice asap. I appreciate any views or assistance anyone can give on this delicate yet urgent matter.
Many thanks.
Have no knowledge about this particular development but if you mean the developers are waiting for and to be reclassified from rural to urban ( not other way around) then I would suggest your solicitor is in cahoots with the company and would advise waiting until licences are in order.
Juliet – Many people have ‘Bank Guarantees’ but are still having to go to the expense & stress of going to Court to Force these ‘guarantees’ to be honoured.
As Melosine says, wait until you have the Licenses – you are under no legal obligation to complete without.
Our solicitor…advised us not to proceed… GT have advised the same however, they are just awaiting it to be finalised by the town hall in Murcia.
Unless I’ve reard this wrong, both your lawyer and the developer have said the licences aren’t in place yet, so don’t proceed. Isn’t that your answer?
Are you actually wanting to proceed, knowing that the licences aren’t in place and ignoring the advice of your lawyer?
Just because others on the devt have gone ahead doesn’t mean that they were in possession of all the facts nor does it mean that you have to follow suit. Wait until your lawyer has evidence of all the permissions etc etc and follow the advice you are paying him/her to give you.
Suzanne, I have had returned the first round of responses in respect of German nationals who may have run into Spanish property problems and to date ,there does not appear to be any major difficulties reported, I have a few more sites to check on but but It seems that due to a number of factors that German buyers have largely avoided the difficulties that British purchasers now find themselves in
You talk of a “sale” when clearly you are purchasing.
You write that your lawyer advised that “the land being urban and not rural” it was not advisable to proceed. Surely you mean it the other way round.
Then you talk of “no licenses” in general without specifying which type. I assume you refer to a Building License.
Just what is GT awaiting for the Town Hall to finalise ?
You say you have only paid a holding deposit which probably is only in the range of 3000-6000 Euros and yet you write that it is covered by “Swiss International Ltd”. Firstly no bank gives you a bank guarantee for such a small amount and secondly I’ve never heard of that group. Normally it’s a Spanish bank or insurance company that guarantees the stage payments. Be careful with foreign companies that issue so-called bank guarantees and are not based in Spain.
So, assuming from your post that you are purchasing property on rustic land with no Building License and your lawyer has told you to forgo proceeding albeit the developer says everything is fine and yet you ask if it’s ok to pay 35.000 euros ?
I think it doesn’t take a lawyer to reply to that question, common sense ought to do the job, wouldn’t you agree ?
Drakan, thank you for clarifying my obvious mistakes. My apologies as my head was spinning due to all the conflicting advice i was receiving. Yes, you are correct, the builder is awaiting for the town hall to agree to change the land classification from rural to urban. The bank guarantee is only issued after payment of the 35k euros and it is at this point that we will have this safeguard in place.
The reason we are asking for further advice is due to the fact that our solicitor was telling us not to proceed but would not give us answers to question we were raising. ie: won’t the bank guarantee secure our interest?, solicitor – no answer.
For the record, we have now sacked our solicitor due to lack of contact and have appointed a new, recommended solicitor and we are currently waiting for their report into the situation.
Then a developer has built a whole development in rustic land, not just one house. Forget the licenses, you just cannot do that in rustic land.
If I were your lawyer I would tell you you are gambling with your money.
If you are rich, sure go ahead and pay, on the other hand if you are just an ordinary-working-law-abiding-citizen, I would try to recover my deposit and … flee.
No, they are planning a development and have cleared the land. They will not start building until the licence has been granted for the land type change.
Reclassifying the land type does not require a license, it’s the Town Hall who decides this.
It is always very difficult always to give a reply without seeing first all the legal documents and my reply is based on what people post. perhaps if I read all the documents I would think otherwise but from what you post it seems very unclear.
But you just cannot pay 34.000 Euros in 2 weeks time to buy a unit pertaining to a development whichis to be built in rustic land without it being classified as urban. You play with fire.
OK I appreciate it’s difficult for you to give your complete view without all the facts. Thank you for the advice you have given. We will await comments from our newly appointed solicitor.
Why did you get rid of your other lawyer if he was telling you not to proceed ❓ He was doing the right thing. Hope you are not changing Lawyers just to get the answer you want.
Why did you get rid of your other lawyer if he was telling you not to proceed ❓ He was doing the right thing. Hope you are not changing Lawyers just to get the answer you want.
Katy,
The lawyer was not answering our questions about whether or not the bank guarantee was a safeguard. Neither was she answering other questions we had put to her. She also had not asked for or recieved a copy the builders new contract that we had seen when we visited the site and then received a copy of identifying the changes and the safeguards which had been put in place. They had not even sorted out the paperwork for the plot reservation even though we had paid the money over a week previously.
We have not changed lawyers just to get an answer that we want. We have changed because we lost faith in our original one for the reasons mentioned. We just want a lawyer who we feel is giving us the facts, answering questions and giving direct advice based on the whole issue and not part of the issue. If the new lawyer says that this is a bad investment and provides the reasons why then we will take that advice and walk away. If they advice that everything is OK and provide evidence to back this up then we will make our decision based upon this.
The original post asks for advice. Advice is given.
Old lawyer advises not to proceed and now a new “recommended” lawyer is appointed.
Listen to the advice!
Advice can only be given when all the facts are known as dracan has said. Perhaps the original post was worded incorrectly and we should have just asked what people knew about this particular development and builder.
The new “recommended” lawyer has been recommended by friend who lives in Spain and used him for their house purchase.
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