- This topic has 41 replies, 27 voices, and was last updated 18 years, 2 months ago by
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So many of you know what we have been through.( and you’ve probably got sick of hearing about it!) 😉 We’ve travelled the entire spectrum of emotions. Finally, we have achieved our goal. We had great faith in our lawyer. He achieved for us in 3 months what the other two lawyers we had, told us couldn’t be done. IE, we had to wait until the expiry date of our BG.
We have to thank “Charlie” & “Sofia” for finding him, although back in March 2005 we were recommended his company by a friend of ours living in Spain. One of the partners is his lawyer. We could have saved ourselves a great deal of time & money if we had heeded the advice then!All of you who are treading a similar path to us…keep fighting on! Perseverance pays in the end. 🙂
Thank you all for the support you have shown us.
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I would like to add my ‘twopence-worth’ before we open the champagne, and my spelling deteriates beyond recognition as a result!!
It is to thank someone called Drakan.
We have never met, but he is a lawyer who contributes and gives of his free time on this forum to help people with legal advice when they pose questions (often in despair).Like Claire, we are not with our original lawyer – who badly let us down, let us sign a really lousy contract, did not obtain a Bank Guarantee, let over two years pass by without even informing us that not a brick had been laid (despite having another client at the same development for whom they obtained an alternative apartment at another location).
While we were between lawyers, our despair led us to great depression.
This forum proved a Godsend, not only by putting us in contact with someone in the same boat in the same development (Claire), where we began to enjoy mutual support.
But also we were able to throw legal questions by the dozen at the forum (re. Bank Guarantees, Administrative Silence rule etc. etc.) and while in between lawyers, Drakan was nothing other than our ‘mine of information’.We listened and learned from him in matters that prevented us going totally the wrong way – and were able to ‘come back’ at our original lawyer with legal knowledge they obviously didn’t appreciate. They realised they couldn’t ‘hoodwink’ us any longer.
I think it reached a point where poor Drakan exhausted every single bit of knowledge re. Bank Guarantees that he had, as no sooner he answered one question, Claire and I asked him two more!
And he replied promptly.
At the time, a real life-line to us both, and for that, Drakan – a BIG thankyou.This forum really can be the most wonderful help and support (if the twits of the world don’t clog up the postings with lunatic rantings and criticisms of people who genuinely need help) – so my thank you to Mark for starting it.
I wish all of you in a similar position to Claire, Sofia and myself all the best wishes and luck for success in your particular cases.
Have faith in the Spanish law – you can get there in the end if you use it, and you can only do this with a good lawyer.The first priority now is to open that champagne, the second priority is to start a new court case…..for damages. Ready Claire??? 😉
Good luck to all
Charlie -
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We decided to take our bubbly down to the beach tonight on our Greek island to celebrate with the burning-red sunset! 8)
While there, we cooked up round three (after round two for damages..).
That is we have decided all our original lawyers concerned with this development, who happily/readily took our money – supposedly as a fee for taking care of us throughout the property purchase process, but failed us miserably to the point of derelict of duty, really need to return our money.
Remember they swore an oath when they became lawyers, to protect and serve their clients and the law!They are sitting on thousands of euros – especially in Claire’s case – for doing nothing other than putting a signature on the original contract.
Since then – not one word of help, not one word of advice – a case of head down and any problems may just go away – including the client.We had the same treatment – e-mails unanswered, telephone calls not returned – and this, supposedly one of the most prestigeous lawyer firms (International no less!!) in the Marbella area.
Certainly, at the very least – a letter to the Collegio, enmasse, reporting their total disservice.
So once this is all over for ALL the purchasers at Green Hills (just waiting for their court hearings) – an organised naming and shaming of these ‘crap’ lawyers will be sent to the Collegio de Abogados.
As Drakan once said to us, the law is there – USE IT!
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Hi Claire,
I am so pleased for you. The fact that so many people wrote to congrulate you speaks volume about your character. Perhaps you could let the forum know about the name of your lawyers to ensure that others who get caught out in the wild jungle of property market on the Spanish coast do not waste their time and suffer. -
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Thanks Shakeel & Maureen. 🙂
Shakeel, unfortuately we are not allowed to name lawyers, agents, etc. on the forum 🙁 . It’s also worth bearing in mind that whilst our lawyer has achieved a fantastic result for us, not every case is as clear cut as ours. Not every case can be so successfully resolved. I would hate to recommend someone and their case was not proven. He is trustworty though and communicates well. That is worth a lot.
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Great!! Awesome!! Congratulations!!
Specially as this will help you to recover your faith in the Spanish legal system. Let´s keep fighting!!
I will have a drink for you too tonight if my little baby of 7 months-old allowes my husband and me to do so.
I may be the month of July in Grazalema, wonderful place. So, if you pass by there, make a call.
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8)
Well done Claire and good luck for the future but what a stressful time for you and many others, I hope this might help kick-start the proper regulation of the dishonest larger estate agents (mainly run by Brits) and their buddies in the legal profession and their developers in Spain.
Thankfully we have seen that there are honest lawyers and agents who post on this site who would also like to see things cleansed there so to speak because the corrupt ones tar the whole industry with a bad name.
angie
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Congratulations on your Success.
We have read your comments over the last few months and can only hope we do not experience what you have gone through.
We hope it will also sends a message to those people who want to make a living out of creating misery and sadness for others.Spend the return funds wisely !
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I’m really happy for you. Sorry not to say as much earlier, but I was 10 days on a little island in the Balearics where there is no such thing as electricity, let alone an internet connection.
There are various things we can learn from your experience. One is that it pays to stand up for your rights, and fight with tenacity. You, Barbara & Katerina have been a great example in this respect. If only more people would behave like this it would reduce the incentives to try and take advantage of buyers.
But your experience also goes to show that in Spain, justice may be slow, but it works. I know it has been a bad experience, and that getting your money back plus legal interest is hardly compensation for all the stress, expenses, and the opportunity cost of having your money tied up unproductively. But lets face it, it’s a lot better than loosing your money, which is what will happen in places like Bulgaria when things go belly-up.
Anyway, congratulations, and I hope that’s not the last we hear of all the knowledge you have acquired.
Mark
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Hi Mark,
Thank you for your “congratulatory post” 😀 It is a HUGE relief for all of us, although the money has yet to hit our bank accounts! 😕
We owe you a massive debt of gratitude for making this forum available to us. Without it, we would probably still be crashing around in the dark! No value can be put on this commodity.It has enabled us, “Joe Public” to air our problems and professionals, particularly Drakan, Cesar and Maria to give us excellent advice…even though it doesn’t always sink in!!
We also met Barbara & Katerina through the forum, as well as the others in our group, now totalling at least 23. Katerina has been a Godsend as she is all but fluent in Spanish and has been able to converse with the official bodies such as the Town Hall, Omic and the developers+ many written articles in Spanish, including our contracts, Avals, and snotty correspondence from unhappy lawyers 👿 whereas we could never have done that. We have been able to access information from these sources that have helped us get our result in the Spanish Court.
Barbara has definitely made black days much brighter with her brilliant wit and sense of humour about things that would otherwise have driven us to despair. Our phone bill has increased, especially since they are now on the phone in Crete as I am sure have theirs! Out of all of it we have formed a great friendship, and we are hopefully going to visit them this summer to have a “Grand Celebration”!! 😆 Through all our footwork, we have(hopefully) been able to share our knowledge with others who had bought into our development and along the way give advice to other members on the forum, where we can. We’ve also been the butt of some rather unpleasant comments from some of the REAs who read the forum! Win some..loose some. 😉 The whole thing has been a great learning curve.
We are awaiting the outcome of another “upper level purchaser” who has a court case in Marbella tomorrow(6th July) against the developers. His well known lawyers did not get him a BG 😈 I really hope he is successful as it has been very stressful for both him & his wife. He contacted me, as have many others, through the article you wrote in the Sunday Times.He was actually in Marbella when he read it, doing battle with the involved parties. He said he couldn’t believe it when he read the article! It was an answer to his prayers , as he had been completely alone in his fight. Another vote of thanks to you, Mark. Hopefully, all the people who bought on the failed development of our apartments will soon be sharing in our successful outcome. It’s been a loooooooong battle! We have two more rounds to go though!! We are still a big minus in the money we have lost, as are several others who have been paid by the developers with NO INTEREST 😯
I will certainly will not abandon the forum… much to the chagrin of some, I am always checking the topics,…. and replying!!! 😆
Thanks again Mark,
Regards,
Claire.
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claire
well done, this gives those of us, who are thrashing about in the dark, hope that we don’t have to accept being ‘ripped off’
it never ceases to amaze me, that despite contracts being breached on many issues and habitation licences not being issued, (and bank guarantees also not issued in our case) alot of lawyers still seem very reluctent to fight peoples corner for a fair result? Several people on our site, (not all the same lawyers) are going to complete whatever, due to being terrified of losing either their aparment, deposit or both!
our current lawyers have given us two options, either complete and claim compensation afterwards or don’t complete and sue for breach of contract, which they themselves say could take years and we may lose our deposit as well, due to the well known developers in question.
I have said neither of these is acceptable, we want to delay completion until the habitation licence comes through and negotiate a discount equivalent to our 23% smaller apartment compared to size on our contract. That was over a week ago and no answer?
We are now trying to get a lawyer that will just fight for a fair deal, why should that be so hard? we have the law and a very breached contract on our side!
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