phase 2 Terrazas

Hi All,

Just returned from Spain and went to Polaris Customer Services for a chat.  I am buying on the new Phase 2 and wanted to know what the party line was at the moment.  The guy seemed pretty genuine and I did speak to him blunt and to the point in that I wanted the truth in relation to timescales etc.  The reply was that Polaris are preparing for the worse time ever in the first 3 months of 2009 just like everyone else in the retail business, the work force are currently on Condado and Mar Menor 2 and concentrating on those sites.  Mar Menor 2 is due to be completed around April 2009 and when the work force has finished on Mar Menor 2 they will then be moved to Terrazas to continue work on there.  Realistically Phase 2 will not be completed until summer 2010 but he assured me that the whole resort would be completed in full but will take longer to complete than first stated.   Fortunately this suits me as I have just bought on Condado and don't want to complete on Terrazas due to the exchange rate etc and the current financial position all round.  I can understand other people being a upset at the wait of their property and polaris are offering exchanges to key ready properties should people wish to change and they will fly you over to see what options are available.  Having just got my first property on Condado I can confirm that it is well worth the wait and I am very happy with my apartment.  I hope this helps a little

Hello smivs,

I've just read your thread with interest as we have an apartment in Terrazas de la Torre Phase 2 (one of the frontline penthouse apts which was orginally named phase 5 two years ago for some reason???).

The reason i started browsing this site is that i - as with many others it seems - have concerns with completion of our property and Polaris World in general. I am infact considering a trip over for a similar visit as you elude to in order to gauge the lie of the land. Before i go ahead and do this, do you have any more information further to what you've already stated?

If summer 2010 is a realistic completion date i would be interested in pursuing avenues to bail out and recover the 40% already paid - do you (or anyone else) have any information on the success or likelihood of actually being able to do this? (I have original copies of the bank garauntee from Polaris World for the money already paid - i believe this is all i need?)

Any advice greatly recieved

Hi Mozzer,

Welcome to the forum.  I can understand you thinking about bailing out and I can only go off entries made on this forum in that people have really struggled to get their money back from Polaris however I think someone mentioned that they did get their money back it just took forever!!.  When I spoke to the chap from customer services he did say that they are offering the visits to see if another option would suit but that if I did decide to take them up on the offer not to leave it any later than the end of March to tell them.  What he did say was that as soon as they move the workforce to Terrazas about April 2009 then the offer to swap properties would not be available as they will be starting to build phase 2 then.

If I were you I would defo take Polaris up on their offer and see what your options are, nothing lost.  Like I said previouly I have just bought on Condado and I go over every month so I will keep my ear to the ground and see what I can find out about Terrazas.

I am in the process of buying one of the new phase 2 (previously phase 5) penthouses. I started the process over 2 years ago and have paid the full deposit. To date I have only received the first bank guarantee and my solicitors are trying to secure the second without much success. I am using Danil Services and they are now using a lawyer to chase the second guarantee. I have been out to visit the development (September) and had a look at a completed phase 1 penthouse and the quality was impressive. I was told that phase 2 would be delayed until phase 1 was completed and also that certain permissions were still outstanding for phase 2 which is a bit of a worry. I have been given the option, by my solicitor, to instruct a lawyer to secure a refund but the cost may be as high as 5000 Euro. It is difficult to guage how confident the lawyer is of winning and I am concerned that even if I do win, will the refund materialise. The most frustrating thing is that you never hear from Polaris, you constantly have to chase them. I was really looking to Spain as a retirement lifestyle choice, not an investment. The sad thing is that the finished article looks impressive and the reasons for buying are still there but I have lost patience.

If anyone else feels the same it may be advantageous to work together to see what options are available regarding refunds.

Sorry to be so negative but 2 years is a long time to wait for your dream retirement property.

My solicitor offer the option of sending Polaris a Burofax for around £200, which Polaris have to respond to within 28 days otherwise they are in breach of contract.  This might be worth a try.

Steve T

Could you give a bit more detail about what a Burofax is, what it would contain & how it obliges PW to reply? I have no faith in ANYTHING being able to move PW to action so I would be interested to know what is involved, thanks

Dave

This is the advice I received from my solicitor:

Hi folks

I have sent PW a burofax on two occassions. You need to send a fax from your post office. Although I have not resolved my issues as yet I would need to say they did respond by email within a week or so. Unfortunately it looks like we are going to instruct legal action for the return of our monies, although we are going over there next week to try and meet with them face to face. I think 200 GBP to send the burofax is quite a lot as it only costs about £1 to send it yourself.

Regards

Linda

Linda

I hope you don't mind me asking but what will the basis of your legal action be if you don't come to some agreement when you meet PW? I have had this discussion on another forum and frankly see little propect of successfully getting a return of funds paid to PW. Would hate to see more of your money vanish into the pockets of an over-optimistic solicitor!

Dave

Hi Dave I dont mind you asking at all in fact you have raised a valid point. I managed to successfully cancel my contract in August last year and have the valid signed cancellation documents. However since then I have just had excuses from polaris world aying that I will get my money but they cant say when. I still have the bank gaurantees and have been discussing with Maria De Castro a way forward. She believes that we should now take court action to get PW to fulfill the cancellation contract. I would imagine that having the signed paperwork that clearly states PW will refund the monies would be the legal basis.  They are at least now responding to my emails since sending the burofax clearly ststing that it was an Imperative Request For Fulfillment. We have held off going to court as we will obviously incurr the initial costs. However should we have to take this step I also intend requesting the 6% legal interest that PW are legally obliged to pay.

Regards

Linda

Hi All,

I have also paid the full deposit on a penthouse in current phase 2 (old phase 5). I have been contacted by my solicitors (Danil services) over Xmas offering to take legal action against Polaris for return of deposits. Like others I'm not sure how successful this would be as the contract has very little in terms of contractual dates they have to meet. I am also concerned at the quote for this work (£5000). I have spoken to PW and they have said that they would give me the option of transferring to a key ready apartment on other sites. I am going out in Feb to look at these options but with the pound so bad against the Euro it may be that the best thing is to wait for phase 2 completion.

Dave

Hi Dave me again.

I have just found out today that you are also entitled to an official complaint form from PW. it is called Hoja de Reclamation. It is obtained and completed at the PW offices. The form is in triplicate and 1 copy is left with PW, 1 with you and the other is sent to the Officiana de Municipal al Consumer Ayuntamiete. I have heard that another PW trick is to get folks to fill these in at the office and leave two copies there thus defeating the purpose of the Trading Standards Mayor ever getting sight of it.

I have an address, telephone no and fax if you want them just PM me as I am not too sure if it is ok to post it here.

Regards

Linda

Hi Linda

Like Dave, we are using Danil and have been quoted 5000euro to request cancellation of the contract and obtain a refund. It looks like you are one step ahead of us, having received confirmation of cancellation. From our point of view Polaris have breached our contract on 2 areas. The first is their failure to send a second bank guarantee and the second is the rather suspicious build delays of the new phase 2. We have been told that cancellation and a refund will be very difficult because they have not fully cancelled our phase, just re-numbered it. Can you confirm that your successful cancellation is not because they have cancelled your build phase completely. If not, which contract breach was successfully proven to secure your cancellation.

Regards

Andy

Hi Andy

I read  alot of Maria de castro's stuff on EOS and found this very helpful. We were  offered a different apartment on another site but refused the offer. Our solicitor was not much use, apparantly he has to remain nameless, indeed he told us there was no way we could cancel the contract. I think the contracts are classified as "abusive" under spanish law as they do not have an actual completion date. to be honest I just kept trying. I am not working with my own PC just now but if you email me your details I will see if I can dig out the actual letter I sent.

Good Luck Guys

Linda

Hi Andy

I read  alot of Maria de castro's stuff on EOS and found this very helpful. We were  offered a different apartment on another site but refused the offer. Our solicitor was not much use, apparantly he has to remain nameless, indeed he told us there was no way we could cancel the contract. I think the contracts are classified as "abusive" under spanish law as they do not have an actual completion date. to be honest I just kept trying. I am not working with my own PC just now but if you email me your details I will see if I can dig out the actual letter I sent.

Good Luck Guys

Linda

We bought on Phase 3 which was totally cancelled.  Eventually got our money back after 9 hard months of bombarding Polaris World.  Our friends who also bought beside us were a bit lax about looking for their refund.  They sought it 4 months after we started the process but they got no where fast.  In the end they had to pay a solicitor EUR10,000 to bring PW to court.  They are sickened to the core.  It is disgraceful that PW having breached the contract then force people to go down the expensive legal route just to get back deposits to which they are entitled.

Hi Holly

As you stated, it cost your friends a lot of money but were they successful in the end?

Andy

Yes, they received the refund within 4 weeks of paying the 10K fee (which was mid Dec 2008).

Hi Andy

sorry I did not say that my apartment was not one of the cancelled ones. I think I was the same as you although I started to miss the whole phase thing. I think I was 2 and moved to 5. I will still have a dig about for the letter and send it on.

I also should say that I had both bank gaurantees which covered all the monies paid including the 3000 euro ddeposit.

It is also worth baring in mind that they fundamentally changed the whole development by building the penthouses on the lake area  as oppossed to the facilities that were originally due to be there. This also constitutes abreach on the part of PW.

Regards

Linda

Hi Andy

sorry I did not say that my apartment was not one of the cancelled ones. I think I was the same as you although I started to miss the whole phase thing. I think I was 2 and moved to 5. I will still have a dig about for the letter and send it on.

I also should say that I had both bank gaurantees which covered all the monies paid including the 3000 euro ddeposit.

It is also worth baring in mind that they fundamentally changed the whole development by building the penthouses on the lake area  as oppossed to the facilities that were originally due to be there. This also constitutes abreach on the part of PW.

Regards

Linda