Nueva Ribera progress

Also informed by Town Hall that they are similarly going to accept various issues with Phase 2 and only require the developer to do a few things and they will issue licences to Phase 2. They have said that the developer can have 12 months to do this. This removes a major block on phase 2. It will however now be down to the judicial adminstrator to either instruct the develpoer to do the work or appoint another builder to do it. My guess is that they will get it done as they will be needing to max the assets of the developer to set against creditors.

Given the pace of things to date however I wouldn't hold your breath.

Hi all,

Well, I suppose that this is good news for those of us that want to hang on to their properties, or who have already completed.

I think it might be bad news for those who are trying to get their money back from the developer/bank as my understanding is that the bank guarantee becomes worthless once the certificate of final occupation is issued.  Another very worrying development is the Bank of Spain taking over administration of CCM.  Not sure if the bank guarantees are safe any more.

Regards to all.

Mike.

Dear All

We have actually received a  cheque from the bank for the total of our deposit  and are awaiting it to be cleared -Lets hope that there will be no issue  .Our british bank seems to think it may take  up to 6 weeks  to clear

I had not heard about the Bank of Spain  taking over the ADMINISTRATION  of CCM!!!!

Whatever next !!!

KR Caroline and Phil Wales

 Just to clarify:

As far as I'm aware, CCM is still solvent - the Bank of Spain was trying to arrange a takeover, but no-one had come forward yesterday, so the Board was sacked, and civil servants put in place to run the show.  The government has agreed to back the bank to the tune of €9 bn!

If anyone has been sitting on their hands (unlikely, I know) then the preceding posts should be enough to prompt some action!

Best regards,

Mike.

Dear all

Spoke to my Spanish lawyer this morning and the update is that CCM have gone into liquidation last week.  I would not be immediately concerned with this action until you have discussed your personal legal situation with your lawyer. The Spanish government are currently looking to support two banks in Spain at present, which one of them is CCM. The Spanish government are looking to invest €9000m into CCM to secure customer deposits and bank guarantees. This procedure is nothing new in the current economic climate we are in and has happened to a few banks in the UK recently.

In my opinion and based upon discussions with my lawyer, the action to be taken by the Spanish government will result in our deposits and bank guarantees being more secure than they were before the Spanish government was involved. Therefore, a better chance of recovering bank guarantees. However, due dilligence and reviews of CCM records will need to be performed by the Spanish government, which may result in a delay of receiving deposits, etc back.

I also asked my lawyer about the possibility of recovering one of deposits where we do not have a bank guarantee. Stating that if we have support relating to the transfer of funds and CCM resisting sending us a bank guarantee for this money, we will have a better chance of recovering this deposit? He replied by stating that there would be a better chance rather than trying to recover some monies from the liquidator, which could be good news.

My overall advice is not to panic but to pick up the phone to discuss it with your Spanish lawyer. If anyone has any further news please update everyone.

Regards

Mark 

Dear Mark

Your last post concerned me greatly as our cheques is awaiting clearance from CCM as we speak .

I contacted my solictor immediately and she has responded

 She reported that CCLM has not gone into liquidation,it is just being supervised by the Bank of Spain in order to control its bad financial situation. This measure is in fact to protect customers  as you suggested and she does not think it is going to delay the payment of my draft which is a guaranteed draft.

Lets hope she is correct

I will keep you posted

Caroline and Phil

Dear All

Interesting updates!

Caroline, would you mind advising us when your cheque is cleared. It would make us all feel more optimistic.

Presumably your pay out doesn't include your legal costs or interests - is that the case?

Steve

Hi Steve

Will let you know once its cleared

Our payout did not inclyude interest

but CajaCastillaLa Mancha  bank did pay  3.983,82 euros towards barrister fees and the full 900 euros corresponding to our procurator fees.

KR Caroline

Dear All

Great news

Our deposit was credited to our english bank account today .

It has taken about 4 weeks from the time we received the cheque from CCM to be cleared .tThere were some small charges amounting to about £300 but with the exchange rate in our favour we are very satisfied . At one point we thought we might lose all our deposit so so get it back plus some is a miracle

We wish you all the very best in your claims against the developer and /or CCM

Best Wishes Caroline and Phil

Caroline and Phil

Congratulations. I will have a drink for you both tonight!

Its good news for all of us.

May I ask one or two questions just to determine how if at all your case differs from ours.

Did you serve notice to terminate the purchase after the date for completion in the contract or did you wait until many of us - until it became obvious that they weren't able to complete at all?

When did your lawyer serve the writ? Presumably it was before December (we haven't even been notified of a court date yet).

Steve

Caroline

Excellent news and there is some light at the end of the tunnel for everyone else. Could you confirm that your refund of deposits was only for deposits where you had bank guarantees and did not include any deposits received where there were no bank guarantees.

If anyone has received any deposits back without bank guarantees could you please let everyone know. Because I think there is a better opportunity recovering these deposits due to the Bank of Spain are in a better position of supporting these deposits compared to CCM.

Regards

Mark

Dear all

Just to clarify our journey so that you can compoare with your own

Purchased June 2004 with a planned completion  for 2006of our phase and completion of whole site 2009

Made initial small deposit and then 2 staged deposits ammounting to 40% of the total ,both the staged payments had bank gaurantees .

Once the completion date was passed we wited 6 months and then started to ask the agents one propoerties about recovering our monies but they would not consider this blaming the marbella corruption and town hall elections

We eventually contacted our solicitor and Started proceedings to recover the moneies due to non completion of site in Nov 2007

Both bank and developer refused to accept responsibilty for the delay and so proceeded to take them  court ,both CCM and the Developer . -Court case was Nov 2008 and the verdict was for more information to be brought to them and a second date for the case to be heard was planned for march 2009. At this November hearing our solicitor spoke to the CCM solicitor and told them htat they had more cases to be brought against the bank

At the start of this year it became apparent that a few people had recovered their monies without going to court ,both from the same solicitor as we were using . WE were informed that this was because the banks (CCM ) solicitor had advised them to settle out of court to save costs . WE asked to have the same offer .Our solictor was hoping to obtain interest and court costs from the CCm bank as well as our deposit . We really wished to conclude the case as quickly as possible particularly as reports of the developer going bankrupt and the CCm bank being in trouble emerged and agreed that we were happy to receive just our deposit . THis was offered to the bank and they agreed to pay not only our  2 staged deposits but also a portion of the court costs . WE received the cheque from the bank at the end of march  and it has just been claered and is now in our english account

I hope this helps

It has been a long drawn out process of 16 months since the start of our court proceedings but well worth the result

KR Caroline and Phil

Caroline

Thanks for that.

Just goes to show how information is so important.

It would seem then that negotiation is an option for most of us - perhaps dropping the claim for interest in return for a quicker settlement. Who knows for instance how long the pound will remain so weak - holding out for the maximum could just yield a smaller return.

Steve

 It's great to hear that people are finally receiving their deposits back. Congratulations to all of you.  Just keep your fingers crossed for the rest of us now!

Rgds,

Mike.

 Dear All,

I've just had a reply to an email I sent yesterday to my solicitor, enquiring about the progress of my action against CCM.  When we last corresponded I was informed that they were awaiting documentation from the Town Hall to support our claim against the bank; if you thought the wheels of justice ground slowly.......

Anyway, I'm relieved to say that the procurator has informed my solicitors that the Judge has found in our favour, and has ordered the bank to pay face value of the bank guarantee, plus interest and legal charges.

There is a 20 day period for the bank to appeal.

Question:  

I know quite a few parties have already received their deposits back.  If you went through the same process as I am doing now:

1. Did the bank appeal?  If so, how did this affect timeframes?

2. If no appeal, roughly how long before a refund of the deposit was made.

3. How long to clear the cheque!

I'm not getting excited yet, but I think I can see light at the end of the tunnel.

If anyone still needs a recommendation for a solicitor, then Maria De Castro (Costa Luz Lawyers) has been simply outstanding. I have been very impressed by the professional service which she provides once you are a client; communication is one of her main strengths; especially important when one is doing business via email, and something which is clearly not a priority for the solicitor who I dumped at the end of December.

Best regards,

Mike.

Mike

I can't answer your questions because we are behind you in our action but congratulations!

I would be interested to know what month your solicitor issued the claim in the court. I would also be interested to also receive the answers to your questions because, hopefully, they will be relevant to us in early September when our case will be heard in court.

Steve

Hi Steve,

Timeline roughly as follows:

16 Jan - accepted fees and transferred funds to Costa Luz Lawyers.

23 Jan - cancellation notice (burofax?) delivered to Developer and Bank

I can't tell you exactly when the claim was admitted to court; Maria did not have all the required documents (original bank guarantees etc) until end of Feb, and then it was the end of April when we were last informed that Costa Luz lawyers were still waiting for documents from the Town Hall in Los Alcazares.

ATB

Mike.

hi all my case was heard last wednesday . awaiting judges decission. i will keep updating as soon as ihear anything .

Chindo,

Good luck - although I'm sure you won't need it ;-)

ATB

Mike.

thanks mike . has anyone got there money back via the courts, if the judge finds in my favour and the bank appeal  any one got any idea of how long the proces will take.  i am not willing to settle with out full costs and interest on my deposit, as on numerous occasions my solicitors almost begged for an out of court settlement with the bank.