Taking Huma to Court

A bird in the hand.......................... and all that.

I'd take the money and run

I agree, I would certainly take the money and desperately wish I was receiving an offer like this.  Darren, is this money which was covered by a bank guarantee anyway or  were you taking the bank to court for not issuing you with a guarantee?

 If you had no BG then this is by far the best offer anyone has had - if it was me I wouldnt even be asking I would be biting their hands of before they change their mind - particularly as you probably will make on the exchange rate and also if you are buying again in Spain prices have come down substantially.

Having been in the same position,we were not prepared to accept anything less than what we were intitled to,that being the garantee money plus full interest that paid the legal fees and some!

Our instructions to the solicitor were take it as far as you have too,the bank realised there position and paid up in full!

The only other question is why pay an extra 10% on top of the legal costs? the only people making any money out of this is the solicitors,if the job had been done properly in the first place we would not all be in this mess!!

OK, so it seems the only way forward is to take action against the bank as people have been saying. Now we have actual evidence that this has been successful in two instances.

So lets discuss cost,

Obvious question how much and how long??

I know that he had a bank guarantee for one payment but the second one was never issued. We used Aldea (like everyone else) and then instructed Miguel. I must admit he has been really good and i have instructed him to accept the offer as we have had enough of it all now and realise that the offer is better than nothing.

I just hope that the money comes through in the next few days as he has promised and i will let you all know!

Pleased to see someone has got a result at last but the painful part of this is the 10% paid to Miguel, as someone else has said, its the solicitors making a killing out of our misfortune!! The Spanish system has a lot to answer for. 

I agree, howver i know that he has already paid out nearly £2k to Miguel to get this far and this will be offset against his final bill so not that bad really i dont think!

I cant see any other way to be honest and the stress and strain of it all over the last 5 years has really taken a toll on him so he is relieved to get his money back!!

It's good to see that someone may be getting their money back from the banks. If I had that offer I would take it as I did not receive a bank guarantee for the 71,000 Euros I have paid. That cost me £48,000 and if I were to receive it all back at today's exchange rate it would be about £59,000 so that should cover the legal costs. I know I would have lost the interest but I just want my money back ASAP.

If there is going to be any group action against I will definately be in.

 Halegate - did you have a BG and did you get your money back?

Hi. I would take the money as well. But it makes me sick, it's as though the banks are doing you a favour by given you your own money back. But it sounds as though they don't want to go to court, so we might have a good case. 

 I will email  Maria and find out how we stand and would she be willing to do a group of us who have no B/G,

all those  interested please PM me so i can get a rough idea of how many there are.

Nigela,

Yes we had a bank guarantee for one of the stage payments tha t we have had back with interest,if i had been in espania i would have claimed the money back direct and not used the solicitor, they got us into this mess so they should get us out! but they charge,for what a few phone calls and maybe a visit?
The next level is to get a judgement against huma. another expensive way to burn money with no resolve and then an embargo,and then when this action is proved fruitless you look towards the banks, but you have to prove the steps described previously have been taken as far as i am aware because i am not at this stage yet,only part way down this costly and unproven legal route!

 Hi Halegate

I think getting money back with a BG is not really the problem - and if I was going down that route then yes maybe I would ask for interest etc.  I think dallen sounds like he has his money back from the banks without a BG - to be honest I think the solicitor has done well to do this and deserves his fees.  I know we all critisize our solicitors for getting us in this mess but if you have moved to a different one then you cant blame them and they have every right to their fees (even 10%) if they are successful.

I have no BG - have sued and won and have embargos on property that have mortgages on.  I think going after the banks is my only option now - but I would rather go with a group of people than on my own.   

I dont feel  any of the other options ie taking criminal proceedings against HUMA (there may be some satisfaction but it wont get your money back) pushing HUMA into administration - even worse because all the embargos get revoked and all assets are sold to pay of the bank and government first - we will be left with nothing.  The only other option is to hold on to the embargos and hope HUMA trade out of this - but to be honest with all the bad publicity they have (much of it from us) who it their right minds will buy from them in the future. 

No the only positive way forward is to go after the banks.

Hi Nigela,

I think Trudge is in the early stages of championing some sort of a group, if enough interest is shown. We are in, as to us it seems the only way forward as you have stated is to go after the banks now, but as a unit!?

Thanks

K

Nigela,

If you reed Dallans earlier post he says that the offer to his solicitor from the bank was to pay him the ammount covered by the b.g plus 2000 euros .

I think that going after the bank for monies not covered by an issued guarantee is uncovered and unproven ground and will be a long and no doubt costly road for anyone to take.

Hi all just an update for those who want to go after the banks for not issuing B/G. I have been in touch with Maria and she has sent me a data for all to fill in and send back ,she will then give us a cost.  I will get the data sent to you all asap.

On another note we have heard from Miquel and its not good news .I don't understand, that when we advised him about going after bank for not issuing B/G, he basicaly said no, that wouldn't get us anywhere, and it's too big, yet Nigela has same solicitor and got thiers back. He is now saying that although we have won the case againt Huma, they still won't pay up as they expected and the courts can't or won't do anything about it. We already  payed him to do  this, so that was a wate of money.  He now wants more money for the next step, which is to place embargos on Humas properties and assets,which we know they don't have any ,so surely he should no what a waste of our money this is. 

 I just don't no what to make of it all, I won't put in words what i feel because it will offend. May be someone else can work this out, but somethings not quite right here .Any one else had the same ???

 Hi Trudge

Unfortunately it wasnt me who got my money back - and I am not using that solicitor - that was dallen.

Interesting though becaude Dallen said they made 2 stage payments - 1 with a BG the other without - I read his message that he got both payments back but perhaps it was only the one with a bg.

I think placing embargos is a waste of time (I have 3) and HUMA appear to have everything mortgaged.  The only way this would be any use would be if the mortgages get repaid or the property market picks up.  This could happen in several years time but for it to be any good to us HUMA must have survived as if they go into administration all embargos are cancelled.

Our solicitor failed to get our case even to court....Then....... wanted more money to place embargos on assets Huma have. (Oh yea I look like a mug!)

Your idea of collective group action is the way to go. Also get the AUAN movement involved.

In the current climate solicitors can only make money from the poor folks like you and I that have got caught up in this whole disaster.

Noone is buying property out there (and who would)  they are calling this the ''never ending buyers strike''-  so no money to be made from sales the solicitors carry out. Hence the above....

Companies such as the one we name on this ACC forum have done untold damage to their own industry and country and really should be ashamed and taken to task for it. Spain now has 20 / 25% unemployment in part due to the property market crash.

Philmel, agree with your comments but to be fair, the Spanish government have a lot to answer for as they let these companies get away with it and now are doing nothing to help the likes of us, they defend their banks behaviour, do nothing about bent solicitors and do nothing about court orders etc etc I could go on but we all know what they have brought upon themselves! I for one will never consider buying in Spain now and I'm sure there must be many thousands who have heard of these horror stories which the press have covered numerous times.