Just came across this article from the Round Town News it is from way back May 30th 2008 it is quite damning surely if there is no truth in these alligations SJ would have sued .Does any one know if they did or are the allegations true.If so should we have taken this double pronged legal route to protect ourselves or were we to busy being persuaded tha all would be well . Makes you wonder if we have protected ourselves enough from this company .
San Jose Developer Leaves Investors up a Creek Without a Paddle
L
ast week, Costa Blanca developer giant San José Inversiones y Proyectos Urbanísticos SA filed for a court protection against its creditors. According to court records, the company is approximately 30 million euros in debt. Their developments, mostly unfinished, include El Pinet in La Marina village, Albatera Golf and Santa Ana del Monte resort in Jumilla, Murcia. Anyone who has invested in an off plan property, basically must add their name to the creditors list in order to try to retrieve their money. The company blames the current state of the economy and the fact that the banks have withdrawn their commitment to the building projects, in particular El Pinet urbanization in La Marina, for their current financial crisis. In an interview with Everyday Spain, Oscar Ricor, a lawyer based in Torrevieja who is organizing a class action suit against the developer said, "From our professional point of view, the most effective strategy to be taken would be to combine two separate kind of legal actions; firstly, to take a lawsuit against the builder and its administrators through the criminal courts for fraud and illegal misappropriation. Bear in mind that the buyers are not in the same position as an ordinary supplier who might claim compensation as a result of unpaid invoices.
"This means that the money paid to the builder has a special nature and, according to the Law, it is considered as a special kind of deposit. It means that all the deposits paid should have been suppported by 'bank guarantee' and kept in a separate deposit account. "The builder used all the money for their own personal purposes and subsequently all this money is gone...the builder has been using the external frame of a limited company in order to conceal illegal activities. This is why the criminal lawsuit should be combined with a civil court bankruptcy process, taken in Alicante. "It is highly advisable to use the legal services of a local professional solicitor such as ourselves, because at the end of the day both lawsuits are going to be dealt with at the Alicante Court ( the civil process for bankruptcy) and Orihuela or Torrevieja ( for the criminal one). "We strongly believe that with the combination of both lawsuits, the client will be able to increase the chance of a higher amount of compensation (capital + legal interests + moral damages). This is independent of the fact that this unscrupulous builder might end up in jail as a consequence of stealing all this money from innocent, elderly people, like one of our current clients for example, who put their life savings into this project and now have been obliged to survive in a caravan." Obviously there are many legal complexities to this case that have not been possible to cover in this interview. If you need help with this matter, please contact Everyday Spain.
This message was last edited by julie anne on 10/19/2008.
This message was last edited by julie anne on 10/19/2008.This message was last edited by julie anne on 10/19/2008.