Pm me if you walked away from corvera phase 1 and was working with Maria

hi,

we negociated to cancel our contract direct with corvera in December/January. Maria was helping me, although my experience was poor with them being understaffed. I have a question on the fees she charged those who also canelled their contract and lost their deposit - i believe there were quite a few of us who did this around the same time. Please pm me as i am outraged with not only her costs but attitude since.

Chris & Grant

15 pm in only a few hours..... sounds like BUYER BEWARE :) ! 

Chris

 is there nothing we can do? People need to know - hopefully some of you who dont are starting to ask questions?

Chris

Craig I am not really sure what point you are trying to make here and if it is a issue with Maria or Corvera but talking in code and about 15 Pm's isnt really helping anybody

If Maria and there are issues with her service then I know that if you actually post it on the public forum that she will answer and of course it would benefit everyone, surely you were advised about the costs before you started the action

If with Corvera and the process I am certain that the same comments apply as we are all aware that some contracts have been cancelled with people loosing their deposits and paying their own legal fees

As with most of these types of issues it can be much better putting information into the public domain as there are many people who are still sitting on their Corvera contracts and not doing anything

I had (now over) 15 people comment to me in a short period of time on how they feel Maria has treated them when it comes to the service/advice, and more so the costs associated with walking away.  They could also post their thoughts, I just wanted to bring it people's attention to maybe ask more questions if they are still deciding. Most of those who replied have been asked to pay the same amount of legal fees for walking away than if the case had gone to court. That to me does not make sense - how can it be the same if nobody spends all that time in court/ and in the prep work. Most of the work is a duplicate too due to the number of cases... One pm was an email fwd from Maria basically saying she is charging the legal maximum (clearly working in her client's best interests)?

Christine

Thank you for the clarification and I  apologise that I called you Craig

I on a regular basis use Spanish Lawyers, they are expensive, move slowly, but I always get a written agreed schedule of costs upfront and put a sealing on charges so that if they have to exceed this they have to get permission first.

On a few occasions they have not been able to justify the increase in charges, basically they have tried to take the p where I found duplications on billing items and time, again I always ask for an itemised account which the accountant then audits

In Maria's case I belive that she first produces the same agreed estimates upfront but most of the preparation work does go on upfront activity and it is when you get to Court that the fees really start mounting up, so people would have known what the costs would be

This is  no defence but people like this however are in business to make money, they will discount for a group action but charge all individual claims at the same rate as they will file them all individually and the only person that wins in these situations are the lawyers

I agree, DO NOT USE HER if you want your best interests looked after.... everyone is in business to make money but some industries have certain codes/ethics to follow.... worst advice ever!

Andy Anon

Bills are in accordance to Budget documents we send at the beginning of our work with clients.

You 'Pays your money and Makes your choice'.

I do however know that yet another case has been lost against Corvera with Mr Flores representing. The 'purchasers' lawyer was another lady from San Javier, not Maria.

It looks like only the 'open and shut' cases (phase3/4 etc) have any likelyhood of winning against the developer and these are still costly as Corvera are looked upon favourably by the courts after having been seen to offer alternative solutions.

This message was last edited by SteveandJane on 19/06/2012.

Those who cancelled basing the cancellation on delay in respect of deadlines established by publicity has also good chances due to Murcia Appeal Court decission dated 8th of December 2011 as we explained in this post:

http://www.eyeonspain.com/blogs/costaluz/6846/legal-tip-732-refunds-in-corvera-phases-i-and-ii.aspx

Christine

You could probably negotiate reduced legal fees if a number of you got together and formed an action group similar to what we did with the Finca Parcs Action Group.

There is strength in numbers and it does make a difference.

If you take individual cases then each person has to pay individually for the preparation of the Lawsuit, the Procurator, the Litigators time in court for the Preliminary Hearing and Full Trial.  The Lawsuits may be similar, but the preliminary hearings will be on different days and the trials will be on different days.  Therefore the Procurator and Litigator have to be paid in full for their time in court by each individual.

Form a group and you can share the costs - One Lawsuit, One Procurator fee, One Preliminary Hearing, One Trial etc.....

Steve and Jane

Yes, its true - 'you pay your money and make your choice' - but as a group you will pay a lot less in legal fees.

With the latest judgment in mind (see below) it appears that Corvera and the Banks are not looked upon so favourably anymore.........

http://www.eyeonspain.com/blogs/costaluz/7316/legal-tip-797-victory-with-bank-action-in-corvera-by-costaluz-de-castro.aspx

Purchasers rights according to LEY 57/1968 have been upheld with Corvera and the Bank being convicted 'jointly and severally' to repay the full deposit paid by the purchaser even though the Bank Guarantee that was issued in this case only covered half of the deposit.  They must also pay interest from the date the deposit was paid until the date of settlement.  And....full legal costs imposed on the developer.

Kind regards

Keith

Phase 3 ............ shouldn't really be an argument!

So, Maria says it is “Great news to finish the week on!”

People paid out £40,000 to maybe £80,000 or more about 5 years ago and have received nothing for it, and can’t even see that they are going to receive something for it very soon. This may well have been all the money that these people had.

After these people had a long legal battle, and had to pay for lawyers fees and incidental expenses and had all the hassle and worry and its “Great news to finish the week on!”

You must be joking!!!

In order for Spain to get up off its ass and stand on its own feet again, it should first of all take a good look at itself in the mirror and then hang its head in shame. Then it should make sure that the “dodgy system” (banks, developers, estate agents, lawyers and builders all in together) is made good to ensure that these things never happen again.

Whole heartedly agree. The solicitor in question is sending out email newsletters about buying property in Spain yet we're all entrenched in trying to get our money back for the original debacle. How does she think we're going to pay for another property and why would you do it anyway? To quote one of the dragons den - "I'd rather stick pins in my eyes!"

So they are still all in together. I was not aware that this kind of thing was still going on, but my previous post summarises why this mess is so bad.

I rest my case.

Good luck to all those affected.

 I heard Maria is now open to small discounts on her fees because she has issues with her budget --- I guess there are a lot of people who are not paying so she wants to be paid something for the minimal work it seems she has done, still without explanation. Does anyone know waht happens to those who decline to pay - what can she do to force people to pay (especially if they dont agree with the fees charged?)

Christine

Christine Hi

Maria or any other solicitor will do nothing until you pay them in advance for services they are about to undertake (or not as the case may be). The rest of what fees are due comes out of what they get back for you. Generally payments to solicitors are staged and they are rarely if ever out of pocket (though they would disagree of course).

Maria somewhat indignantly carps on about her payments being according to the Bar association as is she is tied in some way to charge you what they dictate - which is of course utter rubbish. She also omitted the fact that costs in the Cadiz region are much more expensive than in the Malaga region, and quite apart from that she changed the goalposts anyway which has upset alot of people (myself included). Some would say you pays your money and takes your chance which isn't a very nice way of putting it however in most cases overseas investors are at the mercy of various middle men when it comes to trusting them with money and documentation.

A solicitor can't force you to pay anything and will be in the same boat as anyone else when the client is in another country, but the fact remains they would have covered themselves from the outset. If you or anyone else has managed to get a solicitor to do something for you without having paid them in advance I say well done - gve yourself a gold star!!

In this case however I assume you are trying to have money returned and her cut will come out of what she gets back and she'll deduct her share before you see any of yours! If she doesn't get anything back then you lose as well presumably??

To get back to your point if you don't want to pay, nothing will get done! If you don't want to pay so much find someone else or negotiate as best you can. By the way she's on this forum so if you want more detailed discussion you'll have to do it in private! These opinions are of course my own in case I've ruffled any feathers by generalising though I can assure you I speak from experience and have had many dealings with solicitors.