Advice for newbie re. suing bank

Hi

A friend recommended this site as a way for me to try to get my money back following my disasterous venture into buying a property in Spain.  I purchased one of the 2 bed apartments on Santa Ana.  Could anyone advise a) a decent lawyer and b) what sort of costs would be involved with trying to get my money back?  I don't want to end up spending £20k on legal fees and get myself in a worse position than I am already!

Thanks

Skeetbird,

We are using a Spanish solicitor who works for a Manchester firm, he has been very good and I know many others are using him.

Antonio Guillen of DWF .

I know others are using various firms who are also performing well in the courts. I don't know the cost of the others but Antonio has been very reasonable, give him a call or email Him

Hi skeetbird

We were with a lawyer from day one (2006) and got nowhere. Late last year we decided to find someone else to fight for us and got in touch with Guadelupe from GM Legal, lawyers near alicante.  They have been successful fighting for other clients.

It has cost us so far 657 euros and i think that is all we will pay. She takes on groups of people so reduces the cost. The case should be going to court shortly.

We also bought an apartment in r10 in the hope of retiring there in 2008. Proper let down!

Good luck

Joyjo

Hi,

We have gone with CostaLuz Lawyers who are much more expensive than the last person has stated.

We are hoping they are as good as they claim to be because we have placed faith in them, however we are finding it very difficult to get any updates from them and although a promised court date for them to present our case has come and gone in March, the only answer we have to show for this at present is 'we are working very hard'.

Make your own mind up on that one!!

As I said on a previous thread - we used Martin from Abolex Abogados - he was more expensive than Guadalope.  However, we have our money back and he kept us informed throughout this lengthy process.  I couldn't speak more highly of him - he got our money back, and it is in our account.  We put our deposit down in 2006 and the money was back in our account Xmas 2014.

Hi 

we went with guadalupe , who has got some of us our money back. However we have just found out the the judge has rejected part of our claims girl interest and costs, for rather inconsistent reasons. Which means due to Spanish law craziness , we now have to go to the high court. Which will take upto 2 years. But the sooner u start to take on the banks, the sooner u will get your cash back.  I Have met guadalupe in Spain twice and recommend her to anyone as she accepts that the system is flawed in Spain but knows how to work it, hence we've got our initial deposits back.

good luck

Hi , We were very lucky to get our deposits back, and as Trowel said we thought that we were going to the high courts regarding getting our costs back, however we just got an email saying that we cannot go any further with this, we. are unable to go to the high courts to reclaim costs 😟 . Wishing all the best to those who are going to the high courts for their deposits back

keith and Diane Cairns

Hi , We were very lucky to get our deposits back, and as Trowel said we thought that we were going to the high courts regarding getting our costs back, however we just got an email saying that we cannot go any further with this, we. are unable to go to the high courts to reclaim costs 😟 . Wishing all the best to those who are going to the high courts for their deposits back

keith and Diane Cairns

Roastbeef, please can you clarify your post. Have you actually received your full deposit back into your bank account ? Do you now have to pay your solicitor for this as your post suggests the banks are not now paying for legal cost ?

we have started our claim against the bank using GM legal team ,but we are in the queue like other people with no date for hearing yet.

regards

Yes we received deposit but they refused to pay costs. Out of the deposit returned to us GMLegal took their costs and appealed the decision against legal costs,  which had we of won our case we would have received the legal costs but we didn't win.

still so happy and grateful to have received our deposits back in our banks in October/ November last year

hi,

could you Roastbeef, Trowell1 et al please let us know in which court your cases where heard?  My case is in Alicante next Thursday.

many thanks,

regards,

John

Hi John,

            We are Alicanti later in year with Antonio fom DWF, will be interested to how you get on.

Fingers crossed for you and good luck!

Mark

That's great news that you guys have not only won your case but more importantly , have also had your money returned. 

Heres hoping that we also get the same result when our case is heard.

I really can't believe that the banks have hitherto continued to deny they broke the law. You would think that with all the cases that have been so far found in favour of the buyers, the banks would stop wasting court time and their money defending the indefensible. 

if there is anybody out there in a similar position then you must go take on the bank using law 57/68.

Regards

Hi John good luck for next Thursday hope all goes well, would be nice if you could update when all over for you.

Gives hope to the rest of us!

yes, good luck john.

Your right Broph, after all the cases that have gone to court, the ruling should be -  just give everyone their money back!!

Joyjo

Yep Good Luck,

Our case went into court this week, not sure at what time I should be chasing up any information though.  It looks like the defendants have 20 days in which to respond, is this right anyone know?

Just wondering what timescale people have had from the court date to the sentence and the return of funds?

Any information right now from on here would be really good.  Brian

We were in court this week, looks like just  got wrong day and wrong judge by looks of it (must have been in bad mood)now waiting for second hearing April 2016. Even though they have confirmed our payment was made and received.

Hi Andy & Lynne,

If this is the first court hearing then this is normal, it is to give the chance to the bank to pay 'out of court' so to speak, which of course they don't do and they deliberately send it to court on the hope that a percentage will drop out, but adds another year to the process.  You will likely win the 2nd hearing but they won't pay out at this stage and your solicitor will use an embargo to force them to pay, which they reluctantly will, but then they will appeal, so although you will have the money in your bank you have to wait another year for the appeal.  After winning the appeal they will likely send it to the Supreme court in Madrid, however the good news is the Supreme courts so far have backed the customer, but there is a link between Banks, Goverment and Judges but thats for others to work out, don't ask me what I know.

I think those who got their money back in the early stages are the lucky ones as the procedure I describe is the path the banks are taking.  Why on earth it's not like English law where one case set's a precident, e.g. PPI.  But this is how they all make their money.

Advice:  stick with it, you willl only regret not trying.

Best regards,

Redman.