Another win for Costaluz Lawyers

Firstly, a big thank you to Maria, Charlie and team at Costaluz Lawyers.

Not only did they manage to obtain my deposit back,  they showed kindness and support during my recovery from a critical illness.

The whole legal action has taken less than a year to complete and although frustrating at times, I always had complete trust in Maria and her team.

I would without any hesitation recommend Maria and Costaluz Lawyers to anyone trying to retrieve deposits or even buying in Spain.

Good luck to all the non completers and completers at Corvera, I hope you all get what you have worked so hard for!

Well done to you and to them. As a matter of inetrest what phase were you buying on?

Well done María & the team.  Another great result!

krw - I think at the bottom of Arab1's message in the signature section it says Phase 3

Kind regards

Keith

Doh! didnt spot that

Cheers............

Again, congratulations!

Can you let me know who your bank Guarantees were with, was your place near the roundabout?

Best wishes

Daveandangie

Winning a case for phase 3 or 4 is a bit like Barcelona winning against La Murta (just turn up, probably don't even need a lawyer). Still haven't heard anything about CdLL winning any cases on the properties that are built though on phases 1 or 2 . Anybody heard of how those cases are going?............. Didn't think so!

http://www.laverdad.es/agencias/20110524/murcia-region/audiencia-dice-abuso-contar-plazo_201105240940.html

bit of a change from a few months ago when the opinion from the believers was " waste of time and money as no local court will rule against a local developer " ............ perhaps the reality and gravity of the situation is finally hitting home with the local courts .

Hi All, the point is that Phase three was never started and so as Steve says all deposit refunds will be repaid on a bona fide presentation to the court, getting a deposit back for a phase three purchase cannot really be described as a 'Win' because the ruling would be pretty much automatic, although the court proceedings are always lengthy. What the 'positives' like me were previously saying is that no one who bought an apartment or villa in phase one or phase two has won any sort of court case by claiming the lack of a clubhouse, hotel, spa, etc, means they should be allowed to back out of their property purchase and get their deposit back. This is what was being said previously and it is STILL the case now.

There is a clear differnce between ph1 and 2 properties and the later phases. The trouble is that some people mix the 2 up.

As it has been mentioned before, the earlier phases 1 and 2 have been built and signed off by the local council with habitation licences.

The later phases have not been built or licenced so can claim on the bank Guarantees.

The 2 situations are totally different and the same laws do not apply. Steve is right that winning a case against Corvera for ph3 is not difficult as it should be an open and shut case, which is why Corvera were bending over backwards to offer these later phase buyers deals to swap to ph 1 and 2. They knew they would have to give the money back at some stage.

Phases 1 and 2 need court action to decide what happens as the 2 parties cannot agree.

For Maria to claim victory is all good and well, well done but it has to be viewed in context, it should not have been difficult.

clearly calidona wanted people to move to the earlier phases so they would not have to give refunds , it also helped them get rid of unsold units on the these phases , the more people they could get to move the better .... more cash flow for them the people accepted completion on a resort without facalaties .... they now have no need to build the later phases or the cluhouse add to that the closure of the pros shop .. driving range ...no golf buggies ( in spain in summer !!) ... the renta and services operation closed down ... the issue of calidona and community charges .... it was as earlied posted  " a win .. win  situation " the question is for who ?  

Hi All, We still seem to be going round and round in circles with this discussion, yes we have no clubhouse but we DO HAVE a really nice residential community, personally i only play the odd round of golf so the fact the community is situated on a golf course is really neither here nor there to me, if the golf course was open to the public right now you would be paying 50 Euro per round anyway, it's all swings and roundabouts. Condado de Alhama the first Polaris World Resort in Murcia still has no clubhouse, their community seems to manage fine. I have had five lovely holidays at Corvera Golf since i completed in 2009, the views are great, the apartment is great and the weather is (usually) great. Some buyers are still in catch 22, do they complete or not ? I say if you bought on phase 1 or phase 2 and you have not completed yet, come out to Corvera this summer, stay in one of the numerous rental apartments or villas advertised on the internet and decide for yourself whether you should complete or not. I completed and i have enjoyed every trip out since, you really do get a false idea of Corvera if you spend too much time on this forum !

This thread was about the "win for CdLL", not about the general chat about the pros and cons of Corvera, Th efolks who completed generally like it and the folks who haven't don't, nothing will change this, so please keep this thread relevant.

Fact. CdLL win easy case on ph3.

Fact. No easy wins for ph1 or 2 reported as yet.

End of discussion until someone wins a case on ph1 or 2 and gets their money!

I can (sort of) understand that those of you who have completed on a "holiday home" at Corvera might be happy even if not ecstatic, but would any of you really want to live there, with no facilities, all year round, summer and winter.  That is the prospect that some people are faced with!

going round in circles indicates you are stood still .... corvera is definatly not stood still it is going backwards with facalaties not being built and current facalatied being withdrawn .

Hey Steve,

probably the reason for you not hearing anything about the cases re phase 1/2 is because they are ongoing, and probably will be for some time to come. So try not to read too much into that although i am sure its very tepmting.

I also dont think its quite as simple as turning up and being rewarded your deposit back if you are on phase 3, as i have just been reading about someone having to go to appeal to claim on their bank guarantee and still not being awarded costs even though they won.

What amazes me though is that anyone who was on phase 3 would have given up their guarantee and swapped across to phase 1/2... ouch!!  I remember reading posts about these amazing deals to be done but me thinks the greatest deal of all was to get your money back and walk away... After all it appears that slowly but surely the "country club" is becomming less and less on a daily basis. Its bizarre how peoples expectations are also backing away.. first of all we read how we dont need a hotel or a business centre or a sports centre...Then a golf course without a clubhouse is totally acceptable, Now im hearing from simongolf that he only plays golf every so often so the course and buggies are not that important (note to Simon...if the golf course was open to the public NOBODY would pay 50 euros to play it!!).. Even your good self said that you got tee pegs and a trolley from the internet so who needs a pro shop!???... What next , maybe some non-swimmers out there that dont really need a swimming pool? Or how about a few soap dodgers that dont require hot and cold running water?

Dont worry though, cos everything is going to be fine when the new airport opens alongside the Paramount park...DOH!!!

I just re-read through the lovely pamphlet that Calidona sent me in 2004.. i cant type anymore as i am crying too much.........

Hi All, Spanhod that was an excellent post, i enjoyed reading it even though i disagree with most of it !  You appear to be one of the handful of contributors to this forum that loves to run around shouting 'Dooooomed, we are all dooooomed' a bit like the character from the Dad's Army TV show. I honestly believe that YOU may well turn out to be the deluded one, you still believe that you will bang your 'lovely pamphlet' down in the Spanish Court and say 'No Clubhouse - No Completion' give me my money back !  I don't believe that will EVER happen, so i hope your lawyers are working for you on a contingency or pro bono basis because otherwise in your parlance you might just be throwing good money after bad. If you look back at my postings on this forum from 2009 and 2010 you will see that i have been consistent throughout, i really like my holiday home at Corvera and like many early completers, i suspect, i was and still am a little jealous of the swap deal completers, i think some of them got a really fantastic deal.  The reason we have not got a clubhouse yet is because the financial crisis hit the Spanish property market like a tsunami three quarters of the way through the building process at Corvera Golf. My bottom line is that i have got a really lovely holiday apartment, a nice swimming pool, a fantastic view and the occaisonal free round of golf, i am not desperately scanning the papers for news of the new airport or the paramount theme park, i am happy with my holiday home as it is right now !  

Wrong again Simon on all counts bar that i do believe you think you are very happy with your purchase..i guess years of telling yourself its great has finally won you over!..

I am not a doomsayer, i am a realist . I am afraid your good friends at Calidona are the only ones to blame, if they had completed the project as promised on time then everyone would have completed before the letters GFC had ever been heard of...But no they sat on our deposits and renegged on all of their promises and still expected everyone to take a giant leap of faith . Best of luck to those of you that did but given whats happened over the last 2 years its looking increasingly like there are going to be very few winners coming out of the "Corvera" experience.

As for lawyers and all that guff, well i am not one of those that decided to go the legal route. I wish those that did the very best of luck as i do feel that the developer has been negligent and donwnright corrupt in their blatant misrepresentations. The case is very strong but my personal belief is its going to cost half of whats owing in fees to go through the court process and even if there is a victory i dont believe Calidona will pay up. You can be sure the company will have stripped itself bare and will jump into liquidation if the court cases start tumbling, because thats how those guys roll- dishonest, lacking integrity and rotten to the core.

anyway as for your envy towards your phase 3 swappers that i believe is a little mis-placed, a cursory look at the secondary market will tell you that anyone that paid Corvera any money is deep underwater (like the rest of spain.) .So please try not to covet your neigbours ass or is that arse? After all the bottom line (no pun intended) is that no matter how happy you are with what calidona have dished up for you there is a lot more out there for a lot less money at other completed resorts- when i say completed i mean ones with, clubhouse,hotel,gym,restaurants,shops,sport facilities,pro-shop,buggies, key-holding, rentals,onsite reps, and even a view!!!!!!!

Hi Spanhod, you have made 89 negative posts about how bad you believe Calidona have behaved and how we are all going to hell in a hand cart and yet you are not prepared to put your money where your mouth is and take Calidona to court ? You really are a pragmatist as you said. Just what is your motivation for all your negative postings ? Perhaps you would like to explain ? I am genuinely happy with my purchase at Corvera and none of your negative postings have made even a dent in that. I am lucky in that this was for me a holiday home purchase, i agree with the earlier comment posting that it might be a rather different story if my Corvera Golf Apartment was to be my main residence, but as a holiday home it is ideal for me and i have had five really enjoyable holidays since my completion. You seem to sneer at owners like myself who are happy, yet that truly is only a reflection on yourself, you are clearly an intelligent person, yet you would have us all believe you wimpered like a puppy when you read the Calidona leaflet in 2004 and rushed to the Calidona office to make your purchase believing every word and syllable in the pamphlet, even a modicum of research would have told you that none of the 'buy a piece of paradise' leaflets put out by builders across Europe are ever 100 per cent fulfilled, let alone in Spain which has gone through several property booms and busts in recent decades. I still believe that when the next upturn comes, phase three, the clubhouse, etc will be built. Only time will tell which one of us is right, but at least i'm going to enjoy the meantime.

Good morning SH (Dave) nice to see you are still keeping an eye on the forum. From this I deduct you still have a financial interest in Corvera ?

To be fair the development has in reality become stagnant at the moment, with those that have completed enjoying the use of their apartments and Murcia in general being the great attractions. Yes, there are problems with the development itself but they are ALL based on cashflow, or rather lack of cashflow from the 600 properties that have been purchased but not completed on. Do the sums yourself ... a minimum of 120'000 euros per property owed to Calidona x 600 properties.

600 x 120'000 = 72'000'000 (yes 72 MILLION euros owed to Calidona by people that signed a contract that never mentioned anything but their property but then refused to pay once the hard times hit, the exchange rate collapsed and a certain lawyer (who must have decided to do a bit of ambulance chasing because there was less and less purchase work); THEN brought the CONSUMER LAW to their attention as a possible means of getting out of something they could no longer afford, which as a sidenote has kept the lawyers in business only to the detrament of the developers and the development.

Back to Calidona.

At the moment, they CANNOT afford to finish the clubhouse for the above reasons. Should the ongoing negotiations with the seven banks involved in the development for additional loans etc. bear fruit and financially allow them to then they will. Until then they cannot open the course to the public. Until then the development will remain in limbo with all services to those that have honoured their contracts run at minimum cost.

It is so easy to blame Calidona for all their shortcomings as far as the facilities are concerned but remember when the 600 point the finger of blame

a minimum of 72'000'000 euros owed by non-completers

Corvera may be a bit of a short-term nightmare for some but still has the potential of being a log-term dream.

Me? Still love my own apartment, enjoy the company of my neighbours on site, love Murcia in general and can't wait to get back out there at every possible opportunity.

good morning/evening ,

Yes Steve i do still have a financial interest, Calidona have 60,000.00 euros of my money . They can have it and thats all they are getting from me. Simon i have explained my reasons for not chasing them through the courts, luckilly i am in a position to be able to write off that money and get on with my life. I am afraid many others are not so lucky and have been forced to take action to get back their funds and also to get the developer off their backs. You guys wont have seen the underhand tactics used by them, threatening phone calls from solicitors,ditto from debt collection agencies , making already very vulnerable people very nervous. Then there is the case of a terminally ill man (now sadly passed away)who had to fight them  tooth and nail to get his deposit back. Not trying to garner any sympathy here because i do understand that there will be very little of that coming from people who have completed and who are blaming the state of affairs at Corvera on non-completors. The point i am making is there are 2 sides to every story, and given that this is a free society and a msge board that is open to all then its only fair that both sides of the story are told. I am certainly not sneering at anybody that has completed , i have mentioned on various occasions that i wish you all the best of luck. I guess both sides are guilty of a little insensitivity when trying to explain their respective positions.

However what does annoy me is this refusal to lay the blame at Calidonas feet. They had all the opportunities in the world to build the resort and take our millions of euros BEFORE 2008. But they didnt and the other crux of the matter is they didnt have any intention of delivering the advertised facilities and they continue not to do so. If they believed in the dream as much as they wanted us to then surely they would have taken the leap of faith themselves. After all they were a very successful company , with plenty of money in the bank! But no thats not their model and they have been caught out by their own deception.

We are all losers in this matter and all in varying degrees, but i believe and i think most agree that the developer is at fault. I guess we will have to wait and see what the courts make of it. But in the meantime i will continue to profer my opinion as i have just as much right as anyone else.. ( hey simon make that 90 "negative" posts now... but who is counting??)