Hi
I just won a case against Manilva Costa and against the bank Cajasol and after receive some emails from different people asking about this caseI want to explain all the details of it in order to give some light in this matter.
My clients bought 2 villas in phase 2 of Manilva Gardens development and I sued the bank and the developer to obtain the deposit back plus legal interests plus legal fees.
The most important issues in this matter are the following:
1.- The deposit was delivered to Ocean View Properties not to the developer but the contract establish that Manilva Costa authorised Ocean view to receive the money on their name, that´s means that you could sue only Manilva Costa and not Ocean View and that will speed the case because it is very difficult to notify Ocean View.
Manilva Costa argued that they did not received the money but there was several emails between the previous Lawyer of my client and the developer about the completion of the properties and the developer allowing to complete the properties saying that they have received these funds and the judge accept this as enough evidence.
2.- Original of the contract
There are a lot of buyers who has no the original purchase contract because they contract with the Lawyer called Leslye Alberici and they never received those originals.
Manilva Costa argued that they are not responsible for contracts signed by OVP.
The judge accepted a copy of the contract because of it was demostrate in Court all the relation between the developer and the buyers ( the developer tried to force them to complete the properties nad that´s means that they are recognising my clients as buyers and this is enough for the judge).
3.- Difference between apartments of phase 1 and villas of phase 2:
The phase 1 has got a bank guarantee of Cajasol and the phase 2 is not very clear.
The bank guarantee of Cajasol says that covers 258 properties of the develoment Jardines de Manilva but there is no word about phase 1 or phase 2 and the bank argued in the court process that this bank guarantee cover only the phase 1 and not the phase 2 because the phase 1 has exactly 258 properties, they argued also that Banco Sabadell had to be the bank who granted the bank guarantee of phase 2 but they never show in Court the bank guarantee of Banco Sabadell.
We demostrated in Court that Manilva Costa sent the previous Lawyers of my clients by fax the bank guarantee that we presented in Court and they did not demostrate the bank guarantee of the other bank so the judge established that the bank guarantee cover the phase 2 in spite of that it is possible that the phase 2 had no bank guarantee .
4. Difference between won to the developer or won to both ( bank and developer).
If you win only to the developer you will have to make an search of all the developer assets and if they do not pay you, very probably, you will have to freeze the best assets and force the sale of them in a public auction ( they should have a lot of properties of Jardines de Manilva except the ones that buyers completed on the notary).
You will recover the funds in 1 year more or less and it is not sure.
If the court condemn also the bank it will be very easy to find bank accounts of them and freeze them and you will have the money in 1 or 2 months after the judgemnt or probably before.
Best regards
José Ramón Gutiérrez Giménez
Abogado / Lawyer
Registered in the Bar Association of Malaga ( 6182)
C/ Alonso de Bazan 3 2º C, 29602 Marbella ( Malaga)
Phone and fax number 0034 952771938
Mobile phone 0034 699794751