Concerns El Mirador

We  have paid a 40% deposit on an apartment on El Mirado which was to be built by late 2009.  We have now been informed by Polaris World that they have no immediate plans to start building these apartments.  We have been offered alternate accomodation but these are in position not to our liking and we dont want to proceed with an apartment that we would not have considered in the first place.

As we are a retired couple and were hoping to live in this apartment we therefore moved to Spain last year waiting for it to be built and we are now in rented accomodation.

Has anyone else who purchased on El Mirador heard anything from Polaris World.

Hi,  Polaris have stated that they are not continuing with Mirador, and have not given a date for work to resume.  I would suggest that you insist on a refund, do not accept an alternative, and if necessary get some legal advice.  Even if you liked the alternative, you could purchase it for something substancially below the full Polaris price.

Whilst not getting the property you want is a real shame, there could be some positives, as when you do buy you could get a bargain.  I have heard that properties that were selling for €130k+ euros are available at around €100k or even lower.  Get your money back and bag yourself a bargain - leaving you some extra funds to enjoy your retirement.

Good luck with finding somewhere that you will enjoy - I will say that having bought in the jardins I am very happy with what I have despite the fall in value and think it will be a fantastic place - unfortunately only for holidays, as I can't manage retirement just yet!!

Ted

Hi Ted,

Thanks for your comments.  We are indeed intending to get a refund from Polaris.  We have now instructed our solicitor to request the termination of the contract and the immediate refund of our deposit..

We realise it may not be that easy but all we can do is try and hope.

Thanyou again for your interest

Joyce

Hi guys,

It would seem that I am in the same position with our appartment in El Mirador. We have paid 40% so far and now we have been told that they do not have permission to build our appartment???? We are very confused, annoyed, angry........ and quite frankly don't really know what to do!

PW have tried to get us to accept a key ready property, which we are not accepting, cause this is the easy way out for them. They aren't even offering us discount to change?!?! They say that they are not in breach of the contract because although the contract states that we WILL receive the property within 18 months of building commencing - it doesn't actually state when the building WILL commence. So after selling the appartment to us with an expected completion date of this month, we could actually be waiting another 5, 10, 15 years before we complete - and they think they are not breaching the contract???????? RUBBISH.

Anyway, how are you guys getting on with trying to get your money back? I would be very interested in hearing any information or advise (and likewise, if I get anywhere I will be sure to let you know).

To date I have spoken to a solicitor at home in Scotland who is writing to PW as a first call of action. Lets see what happens?

Good Luck.

Best regards, Mark and Li.

Dear Mark and Li,

Ok, where to begin.  Well we also have paid 40% to Polaris World.  They have offered us alternative apartments but we bought on El Mirador because of the position and would not have bought any of the other apartments that they are building.  Therefore we have refused any alternatives. 

We are living in Spain at the moment as we decided over a year ago to move here to wait for our apartment being built.  We are now moving back to the England but will have to rent as we sold our house to finance buying this apartment.

We went to see our solicitor yesterday and was told that we should first apply to Polaris World in a friendly manner to ask for our money back. (This of course will not happen)  We then have to take them to court and she says that we have a 60 to 70% chance of winning.  This will cost from 5000 to 13000 euros. so this is a gamble.  We dont have to decide just yet on whether or not to take them to court.

We are also in touch with other people in the same position and some that have only made the first stage payments.  We are moving back to England on the 1st Feb and I will keep you informed of what happens next.   

Thanks for the info.

Wow, I didn't realise it could potentially cost that kind of money for a court case. My wife and I are both 30, and the thought of losing approx. £40,000 is enough of a headache without the thought of topping it up to £50,000ish. This appartment was supposed to be us being clever and investing our money for our future, now we are potentially paying a mortgage loan for NOTHING!

It's difficult not to get upset about the whole situation - when we do let it get us down we always try to pick ourselves up by thinking about the people that are in a worse position than us. Like yourselves probably, having sold your property to fund your purchase. I genuinely feel sorry for you, and hope everything works out - but for the meantime lets work out how to sort this crowd at Polarisworld out!

I'll keep you posted on any headway we make. Incidentally what solicitor is it that you have used over there? We have approached a company in Torrevieja (don't have their name to hand right now) who think they could make a good solid claim against Polarisworld as long as we have our bank guarantee, but we are wary incase they have any connections??? It was initially Parador Properties who put us in touch with this solicitor, but I found out recently that Parador have been taken over by administrators. Ahh, it doesn't get any better eh.

We'll be in touch.

Hi again,

Yes Parador Properties have gone into liquidation, we also bought through them and we joined the owners club at a cost of 900 euros so that's more money up the spout.  Well our solicitor is the one they put us in touch with Aniorte Abagados, C/Ramon Gallud, 74-3 C-03181 Torrevieja.  Tele:- 0034 965718549.  fax 96 571 93 86.

Keep smiling you never know if we all stick together we may beat them in the end.  It cant possibly be legal what they are doing.

Will keep in touch

Joyce and Alan

Ah yes, the Owners Club - money well spent there! We joined, payed our money and never seen or heard anything of it since and haven't really benefitted from being a member at all???

We actually visited Condado do Alhama in May 2008, but ended up organising everything ourselves because Parador were hopeless. And at that point it was full steam ahead at PW, they actually suggested that our appartment would be ready a month early. The site will be great when completed but like yourselves we are refusing to accept anything less than what we chose ourselves, that's what they sold me - if they can't give me that now I can't see how they can say they haven't breached their contract?

The solicitor you mentioned is the same solicitor that we spoke to, they seemed to think that we would have a good strong case - but like I say, can we be sure that there is no interests between them and PW?

Have you approached anybody at PW? If I was in Spain I would be knocking on their door everyday, if they want rid of me all they have to do is give me what is due to me.

I hate this hurry up and wait bit!

Best of luck!

Hi folks,

We're so sorry to hear about the problems you are having. We got caught with Parador as well but the reason for my post is to say we have the same solicitor.

We experienced a few problems with Polaris during completion and just wanted to tell you that the the solicitor was superb. I do not believe that they are in any way in 'connected' with Polaris based on our own experience.

Hope everything works out for you.

Thanks for that ladylola.

That has given me a boost of much needed confidence.

Best regards,

Hi all

I am in a very similar position. I have paid my 40%. I was flown out in an attempt to get transfered to another key ready at the same price. I to declined. Since then i have had no answer to my emails about my concerns and when I can reasonably ask for my deposits back.My contarct does alos state 18mths from commencement of building works. I have been out on 4 sepaerate occasions and as far as I am aware this phse as been pile drived, levveled and goundworks. Surely this means commencement of building works. I have recently wriiten to the Foreign Secretary David Miliband about my concerns. I feel taht it is cruel that we the customer have to be treated this way. I am in agrrement with on elady who sugeests a peaceful demonstation at Haed offices of Polaris World. Furthermore i feel we should all unite,  appoint a brillaint solicitor and share costs.As a united team we can pool resources ideas in an attempt at getting our depsosit monies back.

I must say I was tottaly sold on the concept of POLARIS and still am, but I chose Mirador for its peace and tranquity for my retirement.

Red Devil Vince

There seems to be a growing number of us emerging in a similar position, and not very happy with the situation with El Mirador. I sincerely hope that there is a majority that do not bow to Polarisworld and accept another property! What is happening is wrong, and hopefully if there is enough of us willing to stand up to them.........I'd like to think / hope to get my money back.

To date we have had a solicitor from Aberdeen send a strongly worded letter to Polarisworld - we are currently awaiting our response (I'll let you all know what happens).

I'd be interested to know if because they have started preparing the land if that counts as building commencement??????

I look forward to hearing of anyones progress, or at least dealings with Polarisworld.

Hi,

we heard through the grapevine about the problems with Polaris and we have heard nothing direct from them concerning the appartment we have bought at El Mirador.  We live in Switzerland and decidecd also to invest for our old age in an appart in Spain.  We used an English agent in Marbella and he indicated a good Spanish lawyer to us.  Now that things are not going ahead we have asked this lawyer to go ahead and try to recuperate our 40% plus deposit. Fortunately we found out about this just before we were due to make the second down-pament, which was a godsend.  I have received no word direct from Polasris and they did not even bother to answer my registered letter to them, sent in January.  Our lawyer says we have a good case and is fairly confident that he can get our money back.  We are keeping our fingers crossed.  Wishing good luck to one and all who have encountered the same problems.

Lea & Pascal (Switzerland)

Can anyone update me on the progress of getting deposits back on golf suites el mirador.  I have been offered alternatives but they were all more money and I dont want to invest any more.

Please post your reply as I cant get into private messages or email me my username is my email.

thanks Barbara

Hi Barbara, it's been pretty quiet on here for a while but unfortunately I cannot offer anything more than what you have already read. We have heard nothing from Polaris in months, since we told them that we were not interested in another apartment (especially without any incentives offered?!?!) We didn't even get a response from our solicitors letter, and we cannot afford to have a solicitor on the case unless we are confident that we are not just adding losses to the potential 40% deposit that we may have to write off.

Oh, it makes my blood boil!

The folks from Parador (or working on behalf of them seeing as they went into administration last year), our selling agent, sent me quite an interesting e-mail yesterday however - Seemingly there was a meeting on 17th June where Polaris admitted that there was no plans to develop / build the El Mirador part of the site in the forseeable future! Now I'm sorry but if they are telling me that they now have no plans to build my apartment which I've paid deposit on, surely we should be offered our money back if we don't want to accept one of their less appealing apartments that they haven't managed to sell yet?????????

Anybody else managed to get anywhere with these *%$*.................?

As always good luck to you all and keep us informed of any changes please.

Hi Mark and Li, could you email me to my private email, its my username on eye of spain as I cant get into the private messaging service for eye of spain for some reason.  I would like to discuss our options further.  If anyone else wants to email me please do regarding this matter of non building of golf suites.

thanks

Barbara

Hi everyone. I have just being reading all the posts regarding Condado and properties not being built and Polaris trying to get you to take another property. We are in the same boat only we have bought in Terrazas in the old Phase 5, now the new phase 2 but still no start date but loads of lies, lies and more lies. I have contacted them daily and getting no response to emails etc etc etc. Going by all all your experiences this seems to be part of the course. Has anyone had any success at all or can advise how we get past Customer Services or even better had any success in getting their money back. All advice would be welcome and if anyone on this forum can give any update as to where they stand now with Polaris then at least I know what to expect. Thanks and thanks to the quiet man for pointing me to this forum. Cheers

Hi Michael,

Sorry taken so long to get back.. Ok this is the latest position that we are in and the latest news I have had.

We bought on El Mirador, Condado de Alhama in August 2007 and as you will know they have put a hold on building these.  They probably never will builld them but are reluctant to say so because then they will break the contract which says they will be ready 18 months from start of building.  We bought our apartment to retire into and have sold our home in England to finance this.  We are now having to rent in England.  We have been in touch with  (had to remove)who arranged for us to go over and look at other apartments which were unaccaptable to us, mainly because of the position they were in.

We have since heard that polaris world are set to go bankrupt. if you look at (had to remove)

We have got a bank guarantee so hope that this will help to eventually get our money back.

Hope that you have one too.

Hope this helps

Regards

Joyce and Alan

PS.  unfortunately when trying to post this I was not allowed to include email address or web addresses so if you like you can ring me on 01422 200586 I can then give you my email address and forward the links to you. Or I will try here to give you my email but in parts

joyal214 and we are with yahoo and its ,com

Hi Michael, you will need to litigate to get a refund even if you have a bank guarantee pm me or email me direct.  our case is at present with the courts awaiting being heard by the judge.

regards Barbara