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Last October there was a thread concerning Spanish Lawyers and Bank guarantees. http://www.spanishpropertyinsight.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=315&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15
In it Drakan stated:
Clients and most of all lawyers MUST always ask (demand is a more suitable word) for bank guarantess or insurance policy of the down payments of clients done before completion under article 1 of Law 57/68. It is their (=lawyers) job and that’s why you pay us. There is just no excuse to fail to do this. No excuse whatsoever, and can be taken and confronted before Málagas Bar Council (=ICAM) and revoke their professional lawyer’s licence in the worst case or more likely, be imposed a hefty fee by the ICAM for professional malpractice. You’d win for sure Claire, and it0’s free as I’ve highlighted already.
We are in the position of having no bank guarantee for an apartment we bought off plan in 2001. We were totally unaware of this fact until we changed lawyers in March 2005. Our contract stated that we had a guarantee issued by an insurance company that came in to effect on receipt of each of the sums agreed and would become null at the delivery of the property. Our ex lawyers assured us on more than one occasion and in writing that this guarantee was in place. We instructed our former lawyers in November 2004 to invoke the guarantee and even provided at their request a power of attorney so to do. When the lawyers refused to act we changed lawyers and our new lawyer discovered that a guarantee had never been taken out in our name.
We made a formal complaint to the ICAM in August 2005. The investigating officer recommended in March 2006 that the head of the firm be suspended for 1 month and 15 days for breach of the regulations. (We have a copy of his 10 page report)
Last Friday we were astounded to hear that the junta of the Colegio had said that our former lawyer had not breached their rules and they had rejected our complaint. We are waiting for the details of the grounds on which they took this action.Our development is under threat of foreclosure by the bank as the developer has no funds to complete the project. We have therefore lost all the money we have paid to date.
Do any of the lawyers who contribute to this site have any suggestions as to our next course of action?
Jon
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The constant link through all these threads are dodgy lawyers. When employing a lawyer it is because you need someone on side that knows the legalities, the average man/woman in the street are not supposed to be experts and thats why they hire (and pay a hefty 1%) a lawyer to cut out all the risk. People have been very badly let down.
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I’m afraid not Jon, you’ve lost all your money.
I did warn people about this. I insisted ad nauseam for clients to demand their lawyers to fax them over a copy of said bank guarantees without excuses if they were buying off-plan. Mark my words, this is only the beginning of a real estate recession, we’ll see many more cases like yours.
Perhaps Jon you could litigate against the lawfirm and try to seek the professional indemnity insurance that we lawyers have for professional negligence. The developer is probably broke.
In any case litigation will be involved which can drag on for years and is expensive. The department in my law firm in which I work doesn’t specialise in litigation.
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@Jon wrote:
We are in the position of having no bank guarantee for an apartment we bought off plan in 2001……
our new lawyer discovered that a guarantee had never been taken out in our name……..
Last Friday we were astounded to hear that the junta of the Colegio had said that our former lawyer had not breached their rules and they had rejected our complaint.
Jon
I quite agree Katy.
If the Colegio is impotent (or unwilling) to act in a case such as Jon’s – just what is the point of this apparent regulator?
Just what are their ‘rules’ that can enable this lawyer to commit such a derelict of duty re. not protecting his client?
To me the Colegio is just one big ‘Boys Club’.It was Jon’s legal right to have a Bank Guarantee, supposedly a criminal offence re. the developer if he doesn’t issue one….yet who seems to care?
Not the lawyer, and not the Colegio.
What happened to the lawyer’s oath to protect their clients’ interests?Having read the threads this evening of so many tales of woe and difficulties, where so many have suffered such disservice from their lawyers, I totally despair of the legal system in Spain.
These corrupt lawyers bring shame on their profession, and am sure huge embarrassment to all the good lawyers out there.
Barbara
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@Drakan wrote:
I’m afraid not Jon, you’ve lost all your money.
I did warn people about this. I insisted ad nauseam for clients to demand their lawyers to fax them over a copy of said bank guarantees without excuses if they were buying off-plan. Mark my words, this is only the beginning of a real estate recession, we’ll see many more cases like yours.
Perhaps Jon you could litigate against the lawfirm and try to seek the professional indemnity insurance that we lawyers have for professional negligence. The developer is probably broke.
Drakan,
Are you now saying that no one should trust anything that a spanish lawyer tells you unless you have a copy of the documents in your hand?
This speaks volumes about the integrity of spanish lawyers.Why do we employ spanish lawyers?
Surely it is to ensure that all documents appertaining to the contract are in order. If all clients of spanish lawyers now have to be aware exactly what documents and checks are required (such as building licences, land registry, bank guarantees etc) why do we need to pay large fees to lawyers when we can lose our own money much more cheaply?
Jon
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The only thing I’m saying is that Bank Guarantees are there to secure your stage payments in off-plan. No bank guarantees, no money if the developer defaults.
It is much too important to take anyone’s word for it. It is a lawyers duty to provide them but then some lawyers act as they do and it’s you who ends up paying the bill.
That’s why I recommend everyone to insist on being faxed those Bank Guarantees. At completion the originals will be handed back over to the developer so as to cancel them.
Most spanish lawyers are very good professionals, it is only a few unscrupulous law firms and lawyers that taint the rest of us. I’m sure other forum members will get in touch with you regarding the Black List of Law firms and Lawyers in Spain.
I’m sorry Jon, but I’m afraid litigation will have to be your way out now.
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this is just so……….words fail me here. We all know there are bad people in every proffesion, but for one of the good one’s like Drakan to say in as many words, that the spanish system is so useless, that people cannot go to anyone for help when they have clearly been swindled by the very person we have to put our trust in, a so called lawyer.
It just makes me realise what a huge risk it is buying in spain. In my opinion it shows once again why there are so many crooks operating in spain, why wouldn’t they if the law won’t protect anyone that falls foul of them?
What on earth is the point of having a legal profession that has no effective regulation to keep in check or make it answerable to bad deeds?, it sounds like, if you get a good lawyer in spain, think yourself very lucky, because there is bugger all you can do about if you dont?
Just appalling.
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I hope Mark will make this thread ‘sticky’ so it stays permanently at the top of the forum to serve as a warning.
What a sad indictment of the system. It has been a common theme through many of this forum’s threads, but never has it been so clearly confirmed by a member of the legal professon.
The Spanish government should be hanging their heads in shame to have created such a sorry mess.
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tilly
with all the arrests on CDS, just how high up does the corruption go?
how many more people are going to be ruined before the people that could do something, get of their fat a*** and start implementing common sense laws? There has already been one suicide caused by this sorry state of affairs, how many more?
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