DO NOT BUY ON THIS DEVELOPMENT!!!
I too was going to buy here but luckily my solicitor kept my deposit and uncovered the following things you might be interested in. All of this information is in the public domain it´s just knowing where to find it and obviously nearly all in Spanish so those of us with limited language skills would struggle with it.
Nothing here has been embellished it´s just the nuts and bolts so you can avoid loosing your hard earned money! I´m buying elsewhere i suggest strongly you do the same!
1. Bank Guarantee: There is not one in place and legally a guarantee cannot be given because
A)
The promoter/Developer does not own the land he is buying the land for 3 million euros and has made one payment of 150,000 euros. He has defaulted on the next payment which was due at the end of February and the landowner is now pursuing them for the outstanding money.
B)
The project has no planning permission and even if it gets approval it will take up to 2 years for this and only then can they begin work on the properties. It has not even been passed at local level yet and no plans are available for public inspection at the town hall.The public have the right to view the plans etc and object .Only once it has been approved locally can it go to the regional government in Murcia for their approval and finally back to the developer.
Banks ie: CAM can only issue guarantees if the promoter/developer owns the land and has full approval for the project and at this point the bank then have to be satisfied that the company are able to complete the project both financially and operationally...at the end of the day the bank are taking the risk.
So the increased price with the offer of a guarantee is i think a ploy for you to accept the laughable alternative guarantee.
2. Royal Hugies guarantee:
This company is not recognised by the Bank of Spain basically it´s like me or you setting up a company and promising to pay you your money back if everything goes wrong.No one would have checked up on us to see if we were financially viable to offer this service nor would we have to abide with the strict control criteria laid down by the Bank of Spain.Visit the government website in English www.dgsfp.meh.es/sector/entidadesnoautorizadas_in.asp or just google Royal Hugies Finance and the link is the second from the top. They are also not allowed to offer this service from any other European city to clients buying in Spain.
My solicitor asked for this companies audited accounts and information regarding it´s assets etc and was told they were not prepared to give that information. The first time he rang the Sevilla office the person who answered without a company name said he did not know what he was talking about.He rang again later and the same person said oh yes that´s us!
He did receive a certificate that i would have had to reassure me my money was safe. He found the following just from this certificate.
The companies website was in fact a free blogger site that anyone can set up.
Surprisingly it has had a massive revamp yesterday!!! to make it look better.
But even so visit this website www.royalhugiesfinance.com and ask yourself does this look like a company that can guarantee 30-40 million euros for clients on this development and others?
The company used to be Swiss Financial Corporation (Again not recognised by the Bank of Spain see same webite mentioned above) until about two months ago operating from the same website and address but for some reason they changed the name could it be that they were offering guarantees of the same ilk to clients on Trampolin Hills developments???
The London office stated on the website does not exist or if it does they are not prepared to give an address or contact name and number so i could visit and ask my questions in English this despite asking on a number of occasions.
The certificate given had a directors name and DNI number (Basically his Spanish ID number) This number did not belong to the named person. And finally the website was bought on 12 November 2007 and is available to buy on the same date this year so basically they bought the name for a year! and is registered to a hosting company. Visit www.whois.com and go from there it will tell you all the information you need.
So ask yourself again can my money be safe???
3. The new deal!!! Here´s how it works you pay your 6,000 euros deposit and then within 30 days your next 15% payment so in my case that was about 35,000 euros. You don´t get your shinny bright certificate from Royal Hugies until
TWO WEEKS AFTER YOU HANDED THE MONEY OVER! Now let´s say everything is great about this insurance company what happens if something went wrong within those two weeks. My solicitor asked the question and was told they could print a certificate off in the sales hut if i wanted but did that mean it was valid or not?
The Promoter/Developer´s company has only been registered for 1 year so has no trading history or accounts that could be checked.
So why am i telling you all this?? Well i nearly got burnt and could have lost all my money which i would not be able to raise again...it may have cost me a few quid in solicitors fees but thank god i did´nt hand any money over. It gets me mad to think that a lot of people could potentially have lost a lot of hard earned cash...maybe they would´nt but i was not prepared to take the risk.
This company is also starting a new project at Alhama de Murcia near Mazarron and guess what the same deal applies there and no before you ask they don´t own the land there or have palnning permission either!
It was interesting to see the English guys who were doing the pools etc getting out as fast as they could once they saw what was going on maybe they thought they would´nt get paid for the work at the end of the development?
As to my agents involvement with all of this he had ´sold´a good number in his words on the site and now won´t get any money as all of his clients have pulled out. He says he checked as far as he could and to give him his due he did say don´t give anyone but your solicitor the deposit money!
Anyway off to find a fully legal and bank guaranteed development any ideas anyone???