El blog de Maria

Your daily Spanish Law reporter. Have it with a cafe con leche. www.costaluzlawyers.es

Legal tip 178. Fifteen years to claim against the developer
Tuesday, November 10, 2009 @ 10:03 AM

You finally just decided to walk away from your off plan purchase in Spain due to whatever reason, but no cancellation contract or any sort of other agreement is being signed between you and the developer…..

well, that is an unfinished or stand-by situation ( non closed or definitive) which can be finally concluded in two different ways:

A) The developer asking you to complete: if you cannot get a mortgage you have rights for the full devolution of your money.

B) The developer finding a new buyer and selling the unit to that other one. In that case, a cancellation contract between you and the developer needs to be signed before him being legally allowed to sell again. If this cancellation is not performed, he is comitting a double sale crime.

So....if you are leaving things in stand-by know that you have fifteen years to ask your developer for a refund of 80% of the money you paid as a deposit from the moment the house is sold to someone else if that happened; and, well, I am sure he will be willing to accept on this better than having a criminal punishment for double sale.

For the above reason it would be good for you to have records of the registration number of your unit in the land registry for periodical checks on ownership.

Tools and leafs / Aperos y hojas por . SantiMB ..

Tools and leafs in Sant Jaume de Frontanyà, Barcelona (Spain) by SantiMB at Flickr.com

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14 Comments

Sheel said:
Tuesday, November 10, 2009 @ 3:05 PM

This is really useful. Why do not we have more people like you helping the poor buyer to gettheir hard earned money back from dodgy developers and their agents.

Maria said:
Wednesday, November 11, 2009 @ 3:01 PM

they lose! the defense of individual people is the most gratifying way of exercising the Lawyer profession.
Thanks!

Russ said:
Thursday, November 12, 2009 @ 12:44 AM

Hi Maria - would you please explain what happens if the developer asks you to complete and you can get a mortgage or you have the finance readily available to complete?
Surely Spanish law offers more protection to the developer otherwiise most people wouldn't bother to complete in the present economic climate.

Maria said:
Thursday, November 12, 2009 @ 9:02 AM

In that case, you need to complete and maybe ask for a price reduction if there is a delay. You can also ask for a cancellation of the contract if the house sizes -10% of what it was contracted by you or even if important equipmen ( pools, gardens, sports courts... ) are not delivered with the house are they were included in publicity. Every case is different so we erally need to look into each individual case before issuing a general opinion.
Hope this helps!

Russ said:
Thursday, November 12, 2009 @ 2:28 PM

Thanks Maria that confirms what I thought the situation was - Russ

Russ said:
Thursday, November 12, 2009 @ 7:19 PM

Hi again Maria - just another point - if the developer has not provided the advertised facilities is it possible to then leave things in stand-by until they are delivered? If yes, then who pays for the mortgage costs and community fees etc?

Maria said:
Tuesday, November 17, 2009 @ 11:17 AM

Yes, it is possible. You will have to prove before a Notary that you have funds to complete and make the formal statement regarding the wait for the advertised facilities so they cannot claim a breach by yourself.

Hope this helps,

Maria

Russ said:
Tuesday, November 17, 2009 @ 12:33 PM

Very useful thanks Maria - this seems to make perfect sense but would doing this actually involve any legal judgement in a court of law?

Maria said:
Tuesday, November 17, 2009 @ 1:47 PM

It will depends on how the developer reacts to this. initially, it should not involve any legal judgement.

Jonny said:
Tuesday, November 17, 2009 @ 2:27 PM

So really it's realistic to expect them (the developer) to object and then potentially use their influence in the local legal system. Written law and what's applied in practise are often 2 very different things.

Maria said:
Tuesday, November 17, 2009 @ 3:35 PM

Well, even when I cannot say it has never happened, I am confident those influences are now less commun and more controlled and punished. See today´s blogpost for instance.

nikki said:
Tuesday, February 2, 2010 @ 9:09 PM

Hi
We are having problems getting a mortgage our lawyer has approached 3 banks and they are all saying no for different reasons - is there a way for us to cancell - when we reserved we did have a mortgage in principal but the bank now say things have changed since 2007.

Maria said:
Wednesday, February 3, 2010 @ 11:23 AM

Dear Nikki:
You can cancel due to lack of financiation. You need to prove to the Judge you were not able to obtain the necessary funds for completion.
Best regards,
Maria

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Maria
Lawyer. Director of the Costaluz Lawyers team. Useful legal tips for an easy way in Spain. www.costaluzlawyers.es

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