Carnival in Aguilas, Murcia

Hello to everyone, Have just found this site, and hope it may be able to shed some light on things for me.

We commited to a 2 bed appartment at Duquesa in October 2003, paid all our monies as things progressed

And moved to spain in December 2005 at our current home in Alhaurin El Grande.

Our idea was early retirement,and to rent out our property in Duquesa to sepplement our retirement funds

Like you all, we have become very unhappy with the slow progress at the developement, and have had to change our working situation here because of it.

I·m not sure if our major beef is with our solicitors Lex marbella (Raul Suarez) or the developer/banks or whatever.

Anyway as i said we have had to change our life hear and have taken jobs in Murcia we contacted estate agents in the duquesa area back in July, in order to sell the property only to be told they would not touch it due to the problems with the developers.  It was then that I found out about the bank involement with the developer etc whicjh had occured the previous December. I had heard not ONE WORD of this from my solicitor or the developer or the bank.

After eventually managing to get hold of my solicitor for an answer to this he informed me that yes it was true, and that they had notified me by E mail back in June Needless to say this E mail was never recieved, and they no longer had a draft of it to send me. No problem they said as the bank guaranteed to return to me any monies that had been payed to date,  I had to give them a new power of attorney, and they would sort things for me,but it would take a couple of months for things to go through. RELIEF at last. Not So!!!. after chasing them up last week I have an E mail from Lina to say that the developer now has a completion date of January. and the bank have no knowledge of my wishing to cancel and exercise my option of a refund.

What I would like to know is, when and how did other people find out about the developer problems, and when were people offered a refund of monies paid.

My belief, is that my solicitors has been neglegent in this, in order to hang things out to completion, which is financially better for them  

A 

Mick, you can cancel up until the time the License of First Occupation is granted. Your bank guarantee should ensure your investment is safely returned with legal interest. I have to say that most information we receive is via this web site. It usually starts out as rumor then when we press solicitors/developers/agents we get it confirmed!?

it appears blocks 4,5,6,7,11 & 12 have been granted LFO and will be the first to complete in Jan next year.
Alan

I sympathise Unhappy Mick. We bought in Phase 2 only 2 years ago and have never heard anything. The only evidence we have of our purchase is a bit of paper from the estate agent with a receipt for the deposit and receipts for transfers via HiFX. Sometimes we wonder if we have any claim to one of these apartments at all !! Our solicitor is very nice but doesn't know any more than we do about what is going on. Our solicitor was recommended by a friend's family so we don't want to harrass her when it is clear she doesn't know anyway. The only way we know anything is from all the good people on this website who are more savvy than us! As Alan says though you should be able to get your money back if you're not in one of the blocks he listed. I wouldn't be hopeful about getting any compensation or interest though - people seem to have had mixed experiences as far as this goes and you will probably have some extra legal costs to get your money back. There is no doubt that the majority of people feel that the build quality is good and that it will all be finished eventually to a good standard. Elsewhere on this site are statistics about finishing dates in Spain and it seems that the majority of projects are at least a year late in finishing, some many years late. I still believe that the bank who own this project will want the money, and so will ensure all the apartments get completed. I also think that with the stockmarket struggling a bit now, and interest rates easing just a little that overseas property investment is a good way to go, but not in the UK as prices are so high. Who knows? Good luck with whatever you decide.

 

 

Mick,

If you bought in October 2003, as I did, then you were presumably told a completion date of June 2006.  I don't understand why you then waited another year before finding anything out.  Seems a bit strange.