Bank Guarantee-Money Refunded

Hi Everyone,

I have not posted on any forums for a while for various reasons, but just thought I would let you all know that we have received, through our bank guarantee, all monies paid to San Jose. Our Bank Guarantee was with SGR- Sociedad De Garantia Reciproca De La Comunitat  Valencia. We had to go in person to their office in Alicante where we signed a note saying we accepted the payment as Full and Final and then were given a bankers draught. This was paid immediately into our bank and cleared after 2 days. We can now put this whole affair behind us. I have posted this for 1one reason and one reason only and that is to encourage those of you are fortunate enough to have a Bank Guarantee to continue to harrass your solicitor and don't take no for an answer! It can be done no matter what scare stories they tell you.

I will add some advice to this regarding your Spanish Bank account:

We were charged €70 for the privelage of paying the Bankers Draught into our account!

When I arrived home and tried to set up a payment from my Spanish account into my Currencies Direct account, I was told by my bank that I cannot transfer large amounts of money or amounts larger than €3000 through the internet and that I would have to do it in person in Spain.

The only other way around this is by giving your solicitor Power of Attorney and they can go to your bank to sign for you!

This I believe is a relatively new rule-Because things werent complicated enough!!

Anyway good luck to everyone and please contact me if you want to ask any questions.

Ian

Ian

Its so nice to hear that good news is starting to happen for those with bank guarantees.  Just like to ask whether this whole mess has put you off from wanting a place in spain or whether you will continue to look for another place in spain with the added knowledge of what needs to be in place before parting with your hard earnt cash and of course you now obviously have a good lawyer which is an asset in these situations

Good news and thanks for sharing it witb us.

Best wishes Chrissie

Hi Ian.

Very well done. I said recently that the flood gates may begin to open for those with bank guarantees and it is begining to look that way. Enjoy Ian.

I have also sent you a PM.                 Bob.

Hi Homer,

I too am pleased that you have got a positive outcome and shown that BGs can be actioned. It is just a shame that 75% of purchasers do not have one but saying that I am still happy for you.

All the best

Tony

Hi Tones. More of a shame that they trusted their hard earned cash with a developer who couldn't perform, didn't issue BGs and told stories for many, many, months, rather than come clean.

And, guess what. There are still some who put their faith in the same developer and listen to all they say. That is a shame. No, second thoughts, that is stupidity.

Hi Twiget,

Must have had to much of your medicine on your trip or is old age catching up on you. Seem to have forgotten how to spell your name.

David

Hi Ian

I've only just joined this forum.  Great news that you've had all your money back.   We have a bank guarantee through the same company but it is a group one rather than individual.   Is yours an individual one?

Maria

Ian

What fantastic news for you

 Hawkings alias Bob knows where SGR offices are so I am off to see him, but first I am going to see my solicitor tomorrow with a copy of your post.

I am not surprised that you are not able to move large amounts of money it happened when we bought this house the vendor had to come to Spain personally to pick up the money and we had to sign to say we had sold to a non resident

 Hello Ian

When they found out you were a scouser they thought they had better give you the money!!!!

When did you apply before or after the administration proceedings? Did you have to get san jose to resolve your contract first? Had this happened?

We are thrilled for you. Bet it will make your home a happy Christmas. Bet Jean has had a trip to Liverpool one too!

Well Done.

Lollppup..I don't think there are such things as group ones??? Check you have an actual bg and not merely a letter of intent to your agent. the two are very different. the later will mean that you are not covered and have to be a creditor like everyone else

hi Homer

Nice one and good news for us all waiting in limbo. Tell me if your completion date had run out. I do have a bank guarante but as the completion date ia May 09 plus 3 months, I still have no clue if my deposit will be returned and £40,000 is something I cant aford to loose.

I'm sure many others are in the same boat, but if others are getting their money back it must make a good case for all of us.

Hi Homer.

Anyone with a bank guarantee is fairly safe, however, you cannot execute your guarantee until your contract has run out which as you know is a 3 month leeway on the contract date. In your case it looks like you will have to wait until next  August 09 before you can execute it, but execute it you CAN and receive all your deposit back, so be of good cheer mate.

Firstly though your lawyer will have to send a burofax to either SJ or HDT depending who your contract is with and officially cancel it because it is out of date and been breached. Then they will have to contact the court to confirm same. If the court confirms the contract is breached[and why would'nt they] SJ or HDT will have no say in the matter and it will be pay up time by the bank. SJ or HDT can confirm the resolution of the contract but it makes NO difference if they dont.

We are just waiting ourselves for the court confirmation now. It is taking weeks but as you can imagine the court is up to its eyes with bank guarantee claims as well as possibly lots of other sort of claims and not all are concerning just SJ and HDT but many different companies. Those 2 are not the only ones with problems so you must be patient, when you claim in August.

                         Cheers.    Bob.

Sorry folks.

I dont know what happened there, but i am sure someone, maybe Twigit will soon put me right.

                     Bob.

Hi all, I will try and answer as many questions as I can rather than reply to all of the individual mails as most people are asking the same questions.

Firstly:

Did I instigate proceedings before the administration?

The simple answe to this is I don't know!!!! I handed a letter to SJ stating that we were cancelling our contract as they had not provided our property by the date stated in our contract, to my solicitor in person at the end of February.  She told us we then had to give them time to respond and she would then deal with the matter. We arrived home from holiday in May to a barrage of e-mails from our solicitor telling us that SJ were about to go into administration and that we had to move quickly to get things in place before they did. After many conversations with my solicitor it was becoming apparent that she had not in my opinion actually actioned my Bank Guarantee previously and it is anyones guess if she managed to do it before SJ went bust.

Had our contract expired?

Our house was due in December 2007

Did we have to go to Spain and sign for the money And did you have to go to the office with your solicitor?

Yes to both of these.

The SGR offices are very easy to find in Alicante for anyone who needs to get there. Just make your way to  the Marina in Alicante and their office is on the opposite side of the road about 400yds up.

Hope this helps

Ian

Ian the only other question I have which may help some of us did your BG have an expiry date and was it spent ?

My original one expired in March, but had it renewed and the new one had no expiry date (as it shouldn't)

Hi all.

A bank guarantee covers you if your property is not completed on TIME, also if your developer goes bankrupt or goes into voluntary liquidation. As our lawyer said to us when she started our claim: Your contract is out of date and breached, thats GOOD and HDT are in voluntary liquidation, thats even BETTER. So for everyone with a bank guarantee, just SOLDIER on as Twigit might say, but just make sure your lawyer is going through the correct proceedure. i.e. 1/ send a burofax to the developer cancelling your out of date contract. THIS MUST BE DONE FIRST!   2/ Write to the bank confirming the same and stating you WILL be claiming your deposit back from them.  3/ Write to the court for them to  confirm the resolution of the contract, its cancellation. 4/ Once received from the court, contact the bank for repayment of deposit.

It took well over 4 months for our lawyer to get nowhere fast and he did not adhere to the correct proceedure, hence we changed our lawyer, because we started proceedings BEFORE the official start of the administration which i believe was 19th May 08. We should have been done and dusted by now.

           Bob.

Hi All,

Very helpful and informative postings which I am certain are of  help to those with BGs  and appreciated.The only small error ( I mention this politely and not as a daft point scoring excercise) is that SJ/HdT are in Voluntary Administration  and not liquidation. As it stands the report goes to the court at the end of next week and then the process enters the next stage. All being well with the refinancing SADM will go ahead and those of us without BGs will be able to have a propert and for those who wish a repayemtn of their deposit to get their money back.

All the best to you all

Tony R17 18

Hi Ian,

We have of course met. I think you are being a bit unfair to your Solicitor. The fact you have got your money back suggests that she did what she had to do and in time which is what is important, . As you are aware you and I are far better off then a lot of other people who are still trying to get their money back. The end result is important so credit where credit is due.Being in the job myself I know how hard she worked and undestand how close we were to not having a positive result . 

Cheers,

David 

But shouldn't fee earners work hard in return for their fees?
You make it sound that it is something special that your solicitor worked hard for you. Why the hell would you be expected to pay their fees if they didn't do so.
Would you expect to pay fees to your solicitor if they had c**ked it up for you?