las vistas santa maria

Hi Andrew,

The news is not good am afraid, the news from our lawyers in spain is No building work will be started until the new year.Once the new local goverment is in place next year, they will review the construction and advise accordingly as to what is aloud to be built and what not?. We have spoken to Macanthony regulary on a month by month basis and they have advised us the site may be completed Oct /Nov 07. So we have instructed our lawyers to get are monies back via the courts.

If you need any more help please do so, oh yes i am visiting the site in two weeks so i will be able to give you an update then.

Phil

Hi Andrew, Angela and Phil.

My wife and I have also invested in Las Vistas and are thinking of holding on until completion. We hope it will be sometime late next year based on MacAnthony guestimate of early '07 (always the pessimist when it comes to these agents).

Phil, I look forward to your update as this will be the first from a fellow investor's point of view.

If you can afford to, and depending on what your plans are for the property, I would like to encourage you all to hold on tight to your investment for the following reason:

1. The propety has appreciated a lot since your original purchase. If you were going to buy the same property, your initial outlay would probably be more than you've already put down.
2. If you were to ask for a refund, it will take you several months (up to 9 months based on discussions our lawyer)  as the case could go to adjudication before payment is finally approved. The property would probably be almost ready by then. Do not forget as well the lawyers fees for doing this could be as high as €6000.00, further eating into the interest accrued on your initial deposit.
3. The developer, through our lawyers' negotiation, has offered a 10% discount on the final purchase price, plus they will pay for the main mortgage loan (except interests) during the first three months after delivery/ completion. This is an improved offer from the initial one, which was 6%, per annum, of the deposit paid so far, as a discount of the purchase price. This would be discounted from the final purchase price. PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU HAVE A BETTER DEAL so I can challenge my lawyer :-)

I hope this helps.

Femi

Hi Femi, Andrew & Angela,

The offer you have been given is a generous one, and the same as the one being being discussed by us and are lawyers. After discussing it in more detail we have decided that waiting another 12 months is not a viable one for us , so we have decided to sue the developers for our deposit plusof 80k+ 4% interest per year and all incurred solicitors expences. The reason being we have found a few properties in the area that will be available sooner and have better rental potential in the long run. I will be over there on the 20th of this month so i will be able to get a more upto date understanding on Las Vistas, and will update you accordingly.

Phil

Phil,

Thanks for the quick reply. I will appreciate an update on the status of Las Vistas on your return. Do you know how long it will take you to reclaim your money back from the developer?

On another note, can you please share with us the information about other properties in the area with better rental potential and an earlier completion date. It might still be an option for us if we can reclaim our deposit quickly.

Femi

Thanks Femi for your comments.

I will be in spain on the 20th of October, so on my return i will give you an update. As for the court case we are expected to have are monies in full within 4 four weeks, which will allow us to buy a resale property straight away with some of the money and mortage on the rest.

This is a good web site to visit.

http://www.direct-auctions.com/

Shepps,

Could you let me know who your sols are to see if they match mine (I am at work and dont have mine to hand).

We are just about to instruct ours to take court action. The last contact with our solicitors indicated that the developers had returned some money to clients in the past but had been less responsive on the last two requests made by our solicitors .He has advised us that as they are being slow a court action might prompt a response. 

For all your info we visited site in May (just after the Council closed the development.) On the face of it appears unlikely they will complete the complex by end of 2007 especially if they cannot restart until new council is elected in March. Although on the face of it the offers from developers was reasonable (ie 10% off etc) they would not budge on any of my suggestions (ie just retaining a small deposit, giving more off, paying interest on deposit etc) hence we want money back etc.

Hi Andrew&Angela,

Please see details of our solicitor ... mention my name if only for reference purposes " Phil Sheppard"

jacobo.romera@legal-independence.com

Jacobo Romera del Corral
Martínez-Echevarría, Pérez y Ferrero Abogados
Centro de Negocios Puerta de Banús, Edf. D
29660 Marbella, Málaga

Tel.  +34 952 765 000
Fax. +34 952 764 476

shepps

thanks for that - same as ours. I will be emailing him this weekend to start proceedings. Has he already started your court action yet? (ie do you expect whole procedure to complete in 4 weeks because it has been running a while already or is that their estimate from start to finish?)

For the info of our other readers I will post some other interesting info later from news reports etc (Reasons building work suspended etc)

Andrew&Angela,

Glad to be of some service, in regards to the court case the papers are being filed next week and on the basis of various conversations with him ...  it should only take between 3 - 4 weeks in total.

Phil

Hi All.

I thank you all for the useful information posted. Looks like we're all using the same solicitor, which is a good thing.

I was made to believe that it would take quite a long time to reclaim our deposit + interest. If it can be reclaimed within 4 weeks, then it is worth opting out especially if the completion date will spill over into 2008 as suggested by Andre&Angela.

Phil, once you gave MARTÍNEZ-ECHEVARRÍA (ME) the go ahead, how long did it take to file the papers? Are the developers going to pay for all the costs borne by you so far?

We all await your postings on the reasons behind the suspension.

Femi

I will post reasons for suspension given by Spanish papers as soon as I find the file!!!!!!!!!!!

Just heard from solcitors who state it may take 8 MONTHS to complete legal proceedings. Yes we claim for costs and interest but have to pay some court costs up front (About Euro 4000).

Cheers

Andrew

This is an edited version of one newspaper article translated into English (not very well) by Google

The other denounced breach talks about an urbanization of 181 houses in Elviria, that promotes the Sur company Sema Investments. The work license was granted by the City council of Marbella in protected November of 2002 in a partial plan of arrangement that until in two occasions counted on unfavorable report of the Provincial Commission of Arrangement of the Territory and Urbanism of the Meeting.

In any case, this one plan of urbanization anticipated the construction of houses of the type Mediterranean town, with a maximum of 158 houses, 23 less of those than they are constructed in fact in Elviria, a zone to the east of the marbellí municipal term. In addition in this urbanization the houses are grouped in blocks and not in the tipología contemplated in this planning.

For that reason, the Public Work Council also opposed the work license and the 29 of April of 2004 the TSJA dictated suspension car to prevent of the works. Almost a year later, in March of 2004, the room authorized to the constructors who execute the project, Conmar and Promotora Moleón, to that made works of “consolidation and securing of slopes, laying of foundations and towers of electrical laying” in order to avoid possible damages to people and goods.

Nevertheless, the City-planning Police of the Coast detected since then in seven inspection made between May of 2005 and April of 2006 that the works continued and they exceeded the authorized thing by the court clearly, so that the structure of the houses practically is concluded and some block already even has painted the outside. In another one of the blocks already one works in the waterproofing of the cover, according to the inspection report.

The own TSJA already has warned in more than an occasion in diverse providencias, as much to the construction companies as to the own City council of Marbella, that the judicial failure to carry out an order of work paralyzation can suppose to incur a presumed crime of disobedience to the judicial authority.

Until the moment, the Environment office of the public prosecutor has opened diligences by breach of orders of paralyzation to a total of five work promotional companies of Marbella. These companies are the Community of Goods Christ of the Mills, the promoters Yambali 2,000, Haviland Proyect, European of Commercial Complexes, and to the Group Hotels Beach.

Another article

The manager of Marbella has paralyzed in four days works of 582 houses
The Moleón promoter disregarded an order of the Superior Court of dictated Justice in 2004
JAVIER MARTÍN-ARROYO - Marbella
The COUNTRY - Spain - 06-05-2006


The promotion of South Elviria, after being sealed by the Local Police. (PEPE SANCHEZ)

The managing commission of Marbella (Malaga), constituted after the dissolution of the City council presided over by Marisol Yagüe, immersed in an ample plot of corruption, sealed yesterday a new work of real estate promotions; fourth in four days. With her they are already the 582 illegal houses in construction paralyzed from the past Tuesday. This time has been the turn of a promotion of 181 houses and garages in the zone of South Elviria, executed by the Moleón promoter, who the Superior Court of Justice of Andalusia had ordered to paralyze in 2004.

The decrees signed by the president of the managing commission, Diego Martin Reyes, will stop being the news in the next days, when the team of foremen and agents of the Local Police is become accustomed the seals like a routine in the unusual marbellí city-planning panorama.

“In the work we were workers retiring material, but nothing reseñable, because the seals will be a norm to newspaper from now on”, declared Rafael Mora, superintendent in functions of the Local Police.

The promotion of the Moleón promoter, sealed by two agents, was opposite to the effective General Plan of Ordenación Urbana (PGOU), and was being constructed within a sector of the zone of South Elviria, to a kilometer of the purifying station of the Viper, near a golf course, according to informed the managing commission.

The vowel of Urbanism, Rafael Duarte, clarified that against this promotion, which counted on a municipal work license from 2002 which it was opposed before the Superior Court of Justice, the corporation presided over by Marisol Yagüe had issued two orders of seal, dated the 1 of June of 2004 and, very recently, the 16 of March of 2006. In spite of it, the company that executes works did not take care of any of the paralyzation orders, reason why the president of the managing commission, Diego Martin Reyes, ordered yesterday in the morning of by means of decree the seal, into which he informed to the companies into water and electricity so that they came to the cut of the provision.

This one is the fourth decree of work paralyzation that in the last dictates to the City council of Marbella days, after the seal of works from the hotel Senator, the promotion Gardens of the Prince and the requirement to the Promopinar organization so that it finalizes works of consolidation ordered by the court in a term of two months.

In addition to the city-planning front, the vowel of Economy and Property and Citizen Security of manager, Blond Carlos, warned yesterday on the “irregular procedures” used by the previous marbellí corporation in the “acquired obligations”. In its criterion, this procedure is one of the main ties with which has been the manager. Blonde explained that there will be “to unravel” which is the reality of the services contracted by the City council, “if something were contracted really or not”, to reorient of a legal form everything what it is necessary. The delegate censured of severe way the inheritance in the received economic management of the dissolved corporation.

In this way, vowel and ex- delegate of Government in Malaga indicated that she will have “to eliminate what is superfluous, since things have been contracted that are not asumibles, prices here that are not it either absolutely”. In addition, she requested prudence to manage with another rate and ways the area of Property, and maintained that all this is necessary to go little by little “seeing it, because it is not task of one week nor of two”.

Hello All

The last two posts relate to newspaper articles from Spain. They basically say the site has been forcibly closed by the Town Hall to prevent works continuing. The closure order with security was enforced as the builders were continuing to build despite being warned not to. It is clear that one of the reasons is a breach of planning by building more apts in a different style to that initially approved. In addition some deforstation has taken place. I have queried any prior knowledge of this with Solicitors ie they should have known that there was a problem as long ago as 2004 and also with MacAnthony. They have responded and if you want their answer/advice I can send it to you to save asking the solicitor the same thing again.(Original Spanish version of article also avail) Let me know and I'll send them to you

Andrew&Angela,

Please send the answer/ advice of the solicitors to me.

Why are the solicitors confusing matters by stating it can take 8 months for court proceedings, when they already told Phil it will take about 4 weeks. This doesn't add up at all.

Regards

Femi

Femi,

I have sent Email with brief details of Solicitors response.

I dont know why I am getting a different time scale from Phil but this reply from Solicitors was just last week.

Perhaps Phil can update when he returns from Spain.

Obviously an 8 month time scale takes us to May/June 2007 by which time the new town Council will have been elected and planning consent granted/or stopped completely. Despite the Court action if it is granted then a new timescale for completion will be announced and if it suits individual cases the court action can be stopped. (Even if building restarts a timescale into 2008 seems likely)

As a general message and as a result of an answer from Solicitors - Has anyone out there received any monies back without resorting to legal action as claimed by MacAnthony and Sols???

Shepps,

Are you back from your trip to Spain? If so, can you give us an update on your findings. Can you also confirm that your deposit + interest will be refunded within 4 weeks as earlier stated.

Thanks

Femi

Hello

I'm a new member to this website.

I'm also buying in Las Vistas. Has anyone received any money back yet? if so how long did it take?

I'm still undecided on wheather to keep the apartment for investment, any comments?

I visited the site three weeks ago and it's a long way of completion.

Gary

Hi

I decided to take the "immediate termination" option back at the beginning of june.

I was told I would finally receive payment in September. This did not happen.

Then I was told I would receive payment by the end of October. This has not happened.

The latest news is that I should expect payment this month (November).

I have my concerns !

Regards