HOMEBUYERS who purchased their properties off-plan and were left empty-handed when the developers went out of business may get a refund thanks to a ground-breaking court case in Spain.
Among Brits alone, the pay-off could amount to up to €2.64 billion.
A solicitor’s firm, Spanish Legal Reclaims (SLR), has been fighting cases for tens of thousands of foreign property buyers who put down large deposits before the housing market crash and financial crisis, losing the entire sum when the works ceased indefinitely and never getting their new homes.
Some of these have remained as half-built breeze-block structures for up to eight or nine years, completely uninhabitable and not a saleable commodity.
But developers went bankrupt or decided to cut their losses and abscond, meaning claiming money back from them has been impossible.
Property developers, however, are obliged to lodge a deposit with the local council of the town they planned to build in, covering the cost of completion if they leave projects unfinished.
And many residential complexes left at half-mast have been repossessed by banks after developers defaulted on their loans, meaning as the legal owners, the lenders are liable for refunding off- plan buyers.
SLR’s chief executive Luis Cuervo said the bank guarantee fund was, in all cases, required by law to ensure buyers’ deposits were protected, and the town council deposits to complete unfinished housing estates and other works.
Cuervo reveals that a Supreme Court ruling found banks which repossessed incomplete developments are legally liable for refunding homeowners who lost out.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com