maria de castro

Searay you are 100% correct

I certainly for one would never buy off plan, I think if local councils in Spain all got together and came up with one rule stating all the main infrastructure and  a percentage of the facilities should be built first before planning is approved for  developements then this wouldn`t happen

Obviously this is only my opinion though

 HI Roy,

I am afraid i have to take issue with your continued claim every time you post that you are giving a balanced,impartial and unbiased view. Nobody disputes that you area specialised snagger that carries out his job in a thorough and professional manner and is indeed knowledgeable on a lot of things to do with the Spanish market, but it seems that you are getting involved in posts that have no relevance to this and in fact just comes across as you being self-promoting.

I have noticed that you never really go down the route of criticising Calidona , you make a couple of statements about how it could be better but always qualify these by stating that it is worse else where and in fact they are not doing a bad job. For a man whose business is wholly reliant on people completing on properties to claim that you are not embedded with Calidona is somewhat laughable. It is in your interest that as many people buy properties on Corvera as possible so when potential buyers or waverers(non-completers) come on here and see someone claiming to be the voice of sense then you are potentially influencing people in parting with their hard earned cash. That is a tad cynical, especially as considering you yourself have not bought on either RODA or Corvera.

You also appeared on a post on the Corvera owners thread suggesting that Ash could show some good will and help out sort a website for Corvera owners that are completing, and in the same breath claim that you havent got the time or expertise. You have made in excess of 1000 posts and no one can criticise them being short ones so maybe considering you do have such a vested interest in this development you could be the one to arrange for this to be done? Obviously this could involve some free advertising for you on top of the advertising you get when you post . (not that i am suggesting your frequency of posts is at all connected with this).

I am sorry if this appears to be an attack on you but there are a lot of very worried people on here, both those completing and those who are going the legal route and although everyone is entitled to an opinion when one is being proferred with a definite biased beneficial interest then that has to be flagged. 

Once again i am not doubting your professional ability as you come very well recommended but i I just think you should be more selective on which topics you pass comment on unless you do want to appear to be mercenary. 

regards

Dave

Dave I think that the best way to anwer this is actually to leave it for people that I have actually done work for over the lat 6 years trading to answer thison sites including Polaris,RODA and many other.sites

I have one question for you however in that I believe that you own properties in Spain but I wolud perhaps query real local knowledge of the real economic situation when you actually live in Australia and when your purchases are clearly investment based

Again another developer United Golf changed their rules stopping third party companies carrying out inspections, why, because I was finding too many problems and this restriction is now subject to a court action 

There have been more than 20 courts cases where I have ended up the expert witness and where clients have won their actions

THe people that I have supported through court actions, where we have advised not complete and provide advice on developments like Finca Parcs and Fortuna Golf

As far as critising Calidonia is concerned you shoud have a look back at some of my old posts on the RODA thread and ay one point fact, they tried to ban me from site and introduced a policy and challenged the legality of my business so please don´t make statements that I am in bed with any developer which simply can be proven not to be true

Perhaps I can send you some of the mails that I have had in the past form RODA senior management

OK  Dave I am not ceratin where you live or work, me I live and work in Spain, meet regularly with buyers and, although I do´t talk about it also am involved in some local Spanish property action groups ti get things changed and I have a number of businesses s I don´t rely titally on people completiing infact I often advuse people not to complete, not that they always listen to the advice

The advice that I give is therefore based on practical experience and I would also hope that people that I have worked for will also agree that I have never influenced anybody to complete

I don´t also put all the advice I give to Corvera buyers on this forum read by the developers I do this via PM and e-mail, again people can verify this

i have carried out close to 50 inspections on this site, spoke to more than 150 buyers and I therfore believe that I am well qualified to provide feedback on their views on the development and even more on RODA  

You may not have noticed but I also give a lot of advice on how t get out of contracts and get money back, again look at my postings on the La Tercia Real and Porto Fina threads on this forum

Dave I also run my own forum and am a moderator on another one, they take a lot if work biu the point that I was trying to make about the Corvera owners was purely, for the benefit of the owners, that they need an independant forum, run by an owner, for the, what I believed was the original aim of the forum. I actually didn´t say some help but suggested the move of the domain name and assistance with the transfer of these members who went through the complex process of veryfying membership, rather than starting again, only a fair and reasonable suggestion I thought and nohing to do with helping Calidonia, it id to do with helping the owners

As far as my 1000 posts go I have been a member of this forum from the start, I write articles for the forum and I do´t think that this is an unreasonable number over more than 4 years  

Lets look at some of my other comments like the rental opportunity, there isn´t one initially, but agian I do what I can to help and advise people how best to find rentals

Again my comment, if you have bought these properties as a short term investment forget it yo¡u will loose money, again my statement on this forum

If your financial circumstances have changed, if you have lost your job, cannot get a mortgage you can kegally under Spansih Consumer Law get you money refunded, again my statement on this forum

In conclusiion Dave I can actually prove, beacuse everything is so well documented on numerous threads on this forum, not just this one, that I am one of the very few people that provides free unbiased informed advice to property buyers SO PERHAPS YOU SHOULD JUDGE ME BY ALL THE ADVICE THAT I GIVE OUT

Must say I agree with Dave on this matter as I feel Roy has relatively few poor things to say about such a dishonest  developer, at least that's how it appears to me. JMO and I wish you all the best in your business Roy.

MarcoPolo, when you make comments like this on a PW thread on the the main forum today  I don´t think that you are really qualified to commeent on anything

opinions are like azzholes....etc and Kim is one and no I don't own on PW.

why dont u all just answer the question to this thread and leave your other opinions elsewhere - some of us are trying to make important decisions and get good advice!  do any of you have a comment on my original question?

Christine

Christine, perhaps it would be easier for you to get a reply,as to her successes,directly from Maria by sending her a private message.

Well perhaps you could ask her of an example of her successful court cases and look on the court archives, you may need to have it translated. Just trying to help without giving an opinion!!

My opinion is generally not enough advice backed up by facts to help with peoples queries.

What's yours?

Best of luck if you go to court.

 Hi Roy,

As stated i am not doubting your professionalism, but you seemed to have swerved the whole point of my message which was to say that you cannot claim to give a balanced and unbiased view when you make a living out of people buying on these resorts. You can have an opinion like everyone else but to try and represent yourself in this light i think is false.Of course you have recommended that people dont complete at certain times because i an assuming that sometimes in the process of your job you come across apartments/villas that are not up to standard. I should also hope that the people you work for havent been influenced to buy because the majority of those that do use you have already decided to purchase and are getting you to snag.

You mention your various other posts on other resorts etc but i am not really interested in those, i am interested in Corvera and my opinion was based upon what i have read on that specific site. You have very rarely condemned the developer for any of their many faults and if you do pass a negative comment it is quickly backed up with an absolution. As you well know there are a LOT of people both investors and lifestylers that are not happy with Calidona and want to be compensated for their outrageous behaviour. All these people have very different circumstances but at the end of the day the numbers involved prove that this is not something to be taken lightly. 

i also have to take issue with your comment" I have one question for you however in that I believe that you own properties in Spain but I wolud perhaps query real local knowledge of the real economic situation when you actually live in Australia and when your purchases are clearly investment based"

I really dont think even a man with your great experience can possibly pass comment on what i do or do not know.I have bought and sold property all over the world successfully for many years after doing copious amounts of due diligence so please dont make assumptions based upon my geographic location. Working in the finance industry for many years i was lucky enough to be able to see the potential disaster that was unravelling long before the man on the street was really aware of anything called "subprime" so i made the decision to sell property in Dubai and the U.K  late in 2007.One of my better decisions, it was just a shame i didnt have a completed property at Corvera that i would have also sold!

I repeat i am not doubting what you say or the fact that you are a well respected and professional man i am just pointing out that you do have a financial vested interest in this development so maybe you shouldnt declare you are unbiased in any way shape or form.

regards 

Dave

Hi Roy

I wonder if you can answer me my question please ,

Can you let me no what the Rain damage is, if any, next time you go .  When the rain like tonight and the last few days has been this heavy  I have my doubts about the drain system and the storm drainage ?

A few weeks ago the same thing happened and some of the Pent houses were leaking and with the 20 metre gradiants the storm drains could  not handle the Rain  and lots of surface water was around for days ?

Thanks in advance ( but only if you have the time )

Cheers

Dave this ois a pointless arguement as Ihave answered all of your queries in greayt deatail but if you choose to ignore all of the work that I do for people then that is your choice

If a property does not meet specification then we always advise so that the client can make a decision as per the legal actions that I have been involved with

The one thing that I don´t understand form many posts is that people ignore the actions of tghe lawyers and agents, the lawyers who allowe people to sign the contracts, the agents who took the commission amade the promises and are now no where to be seen

There are many people who read this forum that have used my service so perhaps it is better to let them post an answer regarding my independance and services

Dave this ois a pointless arguement as Ihave answered all of your queries in greayt deatail but if you choose to ignore all of the work that I do for people then that is your choice

If a property does not meet specification then we always advise so that the client can make a decision as per the legal actions that I have been involved with

The one thing that I don´t understand form many posts is that people ignore the actions of tghe lawyers and agents, the lawyers who allowe people to sign the contracts, the agents who took the commission amade the promises and are now no where to be seen

There are many people who read this forum that have used my service so perhaps it is better to let them post an answer regarding my independance and services

I was onsite yesterday and yes there was a lot of storm damage around the site as you would expect with the volume of rain that we had

More rain expected over next few days 

I arrived onsite at 10 in the height of the rain not  realising in Corvera there is a river that goes around the town but crosses the road whene flooded by the Corvera site like a ford so had to use the route over the small bridge 

Noticably, beacuse many of the surrounding banks and gardens are not yet anchored down with plants there was mud and stonees in the roads and some obvious areas that need work on drainage, similar to what happened with the gardens at RODA initally

The site actually faired reasonably well considering it is very early days, compared to Polaris La Torre, but yes in certain areas it will need work

Lots of mud in the pools which will need cleaning and yes this eally exposes internal leaks in properties and we ceratainly have one penthouse with some flooding

Roy,

i didnt think we were having an argument? For avoidance of doubt i did mention both times that i am not disputing that you do a very good job, i have only heard positive things about your snagging work.

I agree there are plenty of people to point fingers at but at the end of the day its the developer that is not delivering on all the promises it made in its lovely glossy brochures so they are ultimately responsible.

regards

Dave

Going back to the original question regarding Maria I have reffered a number of clients to her and tiday I received the following posting from a private Google forum that I help for another development 

I have blanked out the names of the original lawyer and agent but the development is la Tercia Real where the developeer just pulled the plug on the build

I think that the post speaks for itself but you can find plenty of recomendations on the main forum