Aureus Update

 I have well placed friends in Gibraltar who are going to provide me with contact details of what I hope is a reputable lawyer there. If this comes good it may offer access to English speaking Gibraltarian lawyers who are also fluent in Spanish and have contacts with the legal system in Spain.  If anyone is interested, please let me know.

Hi Irish Buyer

I'm interested and I hope you've received my private e-mail (I appear to have a problem with my PC).  As you know from my update, I'm awaiting my lawyer's response with regard to her providing me with the bank guarantees she never received from the developer.  Needless to say, if I had known, and if this scenario applies to other purchasers as well, we would never have agreed to continue with the purchase.  I'm no lawyer but the lawyers must have been under a duty to provide us with such crucial information..  If I and/or we had  known we should have then been given the option to withdraw from the contract at a very early stage, possibly after the first stage payment, that's why its so important to know what's in our contracts and to get legal advice.  As we are all in the european union how different can spanish law be from english law, the whole point of being in europe is that we have the same rights and protection under the law, etc or is that just a load of BS.  

I've checked with the Law Society  who have a list of lawyers who specialise in spanish property law.  I would ask everyone whose interested to google Manuel Martin based in New Cavendish Street,  London they do property and litigation and have an office in spain.  We could then compare what's on offer for what price and go from there for those who are interested.  however, I don't think any option will be cheap but I also believe that if a purchaser acts alone s/he is fighting a losing battle and I firmly believe we should act as one.

I'm currently going over all the correspondence I received from my lawyer from the very beginning just in case I've missed something.  I understand my lawyer is 'acting' for 10 aureus purchasers.

Regards

rosemaryb

Hi All,

I would also be interested in finding out if we can join forces and start a class action or something.

I think we need to find out what our rights are and why the banmk gaurantee is not stilin place.

My lawyer does not even return my calls now.

Dave W

I too would be interested in joining up as a group to see if we can get any solution to this , As I have previously posted It would be good to get a list of all lawyers involved in any action for Aureus buyers.

We are currently using FGV & ASOCIADOS as our lawyers but previously we were using Diana Zurings.

 http://www.fgvasociados.com/english/index.htm

Alberto Sánchez Aprell

Abogado
Salvago, 3 - 4º Izda. 29005 MALAGA
Tel: +34 952 229 940 Fax: +34 952 225 719
Avda. Ricardo Soriano 20, 3C 29600 Marbella
Tel: +34 952 906 185 Fax: +34 952 816 813

I have received this from DVA:

The bank guarantees were required but never handed over for you or any of the purchasers in this project. The developer’s company went into legal investigation and the legal administrator acting appointment by the Court did not issue these either. Let me point out that this is the developer’s company obligation to grant and hand over the bank guarantees and there is nothing we can do more than requesting them to fulfil this obligation as we did in several occasions.

However, you only decided to pull out of the contract once the project was ready for delivery. By then, the bank guarantee is expired so you would have not been able to use them anyhow. This is why I informed you that these are expired.

If you would decide to sue the developer’s company the lack of bank guarantees could of course be an argument for the resolution as it is their legal and contractual obligation to hand them over. However, you already have the resolution of the contract accepted by the developer. The problem is that said company does not have the money to refund you.

Your choices are:

- To wait until they have funds enough to refund you with the risk of the eventual bankruptcy of the company.

- Complete the purchase.

- Sue the developer’s company trying to obtain from the court the embargo and execution of some properties to get paid. This is possible but involves litigation costs and it is a slow process.

I hope this information is of help for you,

Received from my lawyer in Gibraltar 16 Feb 2010 - it seems we may have to take legal action, obviously as i'm sure most of you agree we are stronger as a group, we may have to act quickly as if the developer can sell our properties without our consent what chance will we have then?  Any thoughts

ALL brand new (off plan) properties have a mortgage. Developers need loans to build developments. The property is not yours as it will belong to the developer until the full price is paid. The developer/vendor is obliged to sell the property free of charges, but with a view of cancelling the mortgage, the developer needs to receive the money from the buyer. The developer’s mortgage is useful for non resident purchasers who would not qualify for a mortgage, but has a chance to substitute the developer on his mortgage.
 
As the developer did not fulfil his obligation of finishing the flats within the agreed term, you have a right to cancel the contract and get your money back. But as all the flats are mortgaged, the only chance to refund is getting, at least this 70% value.
 
The Judge order the cancellation of your contract, so, in fact, the property is not yours; you do not even have rights over the same, as the developer, according to the judicial cancellation can sell the property without your consent.
 
The Judge order also included the developer’s obligation of refunding all deposits, but there is no money…..