Hi all,
we have assisted a client who had signed a purchase contract for a property in Mirador de Alhama. Surely the story is similar: the deadline to complete was 18 months since the building works started, but after one year, Polaris staff contacted him by phone to report that there was going to be a delay in the delivery of the property, so that he could "transfer" the moneys he had paid for that property into similar ones which were for sale somewhere else. When the client asked what the problem with EL Mirador was, there was no reply in writing.
On this point, the client contacted us to get information on the Mirador and also what the chances to pull out were, as he was not sure what was going on and no information was supplied by the developer in writing. After checking the contract, we found that the client had signed it without getting neither a copy of the developer's planning permission to build nor the original bank guarantees which are supposed to be obligatory. Consequently, we sent contiuous requests to Polaris in order to get those documents. I did this nearly every working day, during three months.
At the same time we started actions at the town hall and other institutions to get information on the development and to start making pressure, as this is essential if you want to have a case against a developer: the party seeking cancellation of a contract has to give proof of the other party's default if he wants to win the case, filing a writ without proof is a guarantee of failure...The results of the searchings - which took some time - were these: it seems that the area was classified as urban land, where it is perfectly possible to build (certainly a relief, in contrast to Aifos, where developments were started in an area not suitable for building). More interestingly, the planning permission had been applied for more than a year ago, but when the town hall requested additional documents, the developer did not submit them, so that the application apparently was dismissed because of the developer's inactivity. No further application for planning permission had been submitted afterwards...Following that, as the Mirador development properties was still for sale on the web site, we contacted the agents to get information on that development and we were told that the development was "paralized".
It seemed clear that by reasons which were never ascertained or explained (lack of financing? weren't they able to sell enough properties to finance the building of the complex? he crisis?), the developement was not going to be in place in 18 months, as so we renewed our efforts, by dealing with some other administrations, which proved really helpful. We also tried to send a notary to the Mirador area to have a photographic proof of the fact that the works apparently had never started, but we were told that the Security people of the Condado de Alhama urbanisation does not allow the notary to enter, on the allegation that it is a private property,... in my opinion, this was surely in order to avoid that the Notary takes photos of the non performance of the building works.
When we had the writ ready to submit it to Court, we were contacted because Polaris wanted to refund the paid moneys, what they did in November, (to the client's relief, as court action can easily take 2 years in the first instance and 1,5 more on appeal, and the court expenses have to be financed in advance!). Furthermore, even though Polaris did not refund interests, the Sterling had dropped that much that the amount in euros somehow compensated those non paid interests.
Now, by the end of December, there are news in the www that several companies belonging to Polaris group had submitted an application of insolvency. I personally do not know wether this is true or not, or even if the developer company from the Mirador is included in such request, but I can tell that the mere request of insolvency proceedings does not guarantee its approval unless all the companies of the group are included in the application (you are not allowed to liquidate only those companies which go badly, you have to submit insolvency request for the group as a whole).
In the event there was someone interested in checking the situation, we are at your disposal.
Yours sincerely,
ÁM
Fairway Lawyers