I like many other ACC clients have kept away from OTCC - in the hope that there may be another solution.
I think it is clear now that for almost of all of us ex ACC clients with no BG's - it looks almost impossible for us to recover anything via the courts. The court system is totally clogged up again. Even some with BG's are still struggling with Banks - having to go to court.
I also did a credit check on Huma Med a year ago via a local solicitor and the massive liabilities and debts they have were nearly 75m - similar to the figures quoted on the previous post on this thread - so I can confirm the dire situation.
I did try in one last desperate bid to purchase one of the remaining unsold empty properties on MCC last year - but the Huma mortgage and extra charges on the property - far outreached the sales price. Huma did not come back to my solicitor with a plan to settle the charges to enable me to complete - so the sale just collaspsed and left me with more abortive legal costs. Huma pretended they did not know about the charges & never informed me or my solicitor there were charges on the plot - so allowed me to incur costs and progress with no chance of purchase.
With this in mind - it seems the only way out for ex ACC with no BG people & owed substabtial amounts looks to be OTCC or the rumour of a partial restart at ACC. I am looking into OTCC possibilities, but the same problems accrue to potential ACC restart to finish any uncompleted bulidngs.
It seems to me that Huma mortgage a property immediately when possible to raise cash. Then the plot/properrty is fair game to have a court charge against it for any creditor (and it seems Huma owe a lot of people). Therefore OTCC purchasers have 3 worries on the actual completion of the purchase.
(I am pretty sure the Banks are owed vast amounts and also could have a floating charge over the future assets of Indalo - which may not be identified by plots/properties - so the future financial arrangements may be very complex. With the Banks owed so much - there has to be a legal understanding over OTCC & Indalo - otherwise Med would be in liquidation. There has to be some incentive for banks not to close the Huma group.)
1. If the balance that you pay is not higher than the mortgage - where will Huma get the money (in their Group of companies) to pay off the balance and allow you to complete? Money disappeared from Huma Med - I am sure mortgage money will disappear from Huma Indalo to prop up or repay debts in their 10-15 companies in their group of which Med is the biggest disaster. The Banks must be expecting Huma to repay that Med debt.
2. If there are any further charges on the property at the time of sale - the mortgage + charges may be higher than the sale price.
3. Will Huma repay any third party charges - irrespective of the amount. You must avoid completing and be in this situation at all costs!
I think it is essential that any purchasers on Phase 1 expecting to take over their property this year - get their solicitor to ensure what mortgages/charges are currently against their plot (if they can be identifed) and even on Indalo future assets and monitor closely any charges against the property when part built or completed. It probably would be prudent if someone on Phase 1 did a financial/credit search on Indalo to see if there are any horror stories there - but often published accounts can be for 2 years ago - so may not show anything up. Rowlands did say to me that he thought that deposits from Med should have been transferred to Indalo when clients moved over from ACC to OTCC. If that is so - there should be a heavy cash balance in Indalo - (I can't see it!)
Whatever happens - you cannot sensibly complete unless all third party charges are removed from the property. I have heard first hand that there were cases in MCC (still outstanding today) - where the property was completed and the charges were not settled by Huma and made the property unsaleable. God knows what the lawyers were doing to allow this to happen. Presumably there were promises from Huma to settle the charges and this probably did not happen and they have made no attempt to rectify this since.
It is obvious that reserving a property and having a contract is no guarantee that you will be able to complete your purchase and move in with full legal possession and no encumberances.
However, I am looking into OTCC with Carmen - but it is hard going to get any answers to the many questions I have.
Even if I can be assured of the financials - I still have the worry of HC, water/electricity supply, maintenance & post contract charges, facilities and resale value.
If I go ahead I will try to do a search on Indalo - but I do not want to waste any more money on this currently until I decide to proceed - but maybe someone else might be encouraged to do so through their solicitor.
I have a horrible feeling that you will not find out the problems until the point of completion and you need your lawyer to be very vigilant on your behalf (that in itself is a worry). Most respectable lawyers I am told will not complete without a HC. A neighbour of mine used Davies for a purchase in Vera before us and he made them wait 18 months to get the HC first. before completing & that Builder was not in any type of financial trouble.
John