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As promised I have been communicating with many people via PM's and I thank all those that have replied. I urge anyone who does not post to the forum but reads this and has interesting info - get in touch with me by PM.

There are a number of points that have come out of this exercise and I will try to summarise my findings so far. I will post further info regularly -  I urge everyone to share info now!

SLOWNESS OF SPANISH LEGAL SYSTEM

It appears that hopping from one solicitor to another is not necessarily speeding anything up. That is a decision you have to make. I think the difficulty that most people have - is that you can only speak to the receptionist and not the actual lawyer who is acting for you in many cases - I have suffered continually from this even after 3 solicitors.

I think a face to face appointment with the actual solicitor is absolutely necessary now - despite cost/time from UK based people. I feel many hide behind the reception. Receptionists are not legal people! I wonder how many solicotors will agree to a meeting?

Some of the purchasers who have visited solicitors have commented on the amount and complexity of work involving Huma. (something we do not wish to hear - but it looks it is going to be difficult and hard work and may need an amount of patience). Where solicitors have tried to advance legal action - Huma have done everything to hold things up or abort proceedings.

There has obviously been a Court strike - which is a great excuse - but I am told that both Notary positions in Mazarron are currently vacant, which is causing problems with court preliminaries. Anybody know more info?

I do not think anyone is suggesting that court action will be quick - at least 12 months - but I fear it could take longer - the next excuse will be summer holidays and Christmas is coming soon!

I am not aware that there has been any court appearances this year - but if you know different please tell me.

Be aware - Aldea have shown reluctance to some to co-operate with transfer. (I found no problem - but that was 18 months ago).

If you do transfer - insist on your fees back.

HUMA REFUNDS

There have been some refunds about 2-3 months ago - many with post dated cheques that appear to have bounced.  Has anyone received a refund from Huma by cheque that has been cleared?

Has all the post dated cheques bounced?

As far as I know - there have been no refunds in the last several weeks - I presume they are hoping people go for OCC or even MCC.

It would seem to be good advice now - not to accept a cheque from Huma - but insist your solictor gets a electronic transfer to your/solictors account or through a court payment.

It seems that you should not accept any offer to settle during/out of court - several people have accepted offers of refunds in late 2007 that have never materialised. Just another Huma delaying tactic.

It looks like there is no choice to go to court and go thru the whole process.

BANK GUARANTEES

It appears that BG's are proving to be useless currently - does anyone know any different. Many people have had BG's - some got their money back 2007 - but 2008 it now looks different and Banks appear not to even respond to solicitors.

For the people with BG's are your solicitors going after the Banks or have they got to go after Huma? Many people are concerned and confused about BGs. Has anybody got some really accurate info on BG's and how to get a refund using BG's?

COULD HUMA GO BUST

This is a real worry. However, one PM did say that as OCC Tabernas was being developed by Huma Indalo could Huma Mediterraneo (ACC developer) be closed down to avoid paying. The reply from their solicitor was " There are legal mechanisms to link both companies if the administrators and associated (I assume he means directors) are the same people."

However, if Huma Med go bust - then we all lose. Since ACC is dead - then I presume that when funds run out in Huma Med - they will go bust.  I am sure that they have misappropriated money from ACC to fund other things - so maybe they do not want to go into liquidation yet until they have time to get other sites up and running with deposits - as it would cause an investigation and put at risk - MCC & OCC and future scams. So I think they will probably not refund much in 2008 as quite a few have already transferred to MCC & OCC and they want to force more people down that route.

However OCC might yet have problems - see their forum. No one appears to have a physical  BG document and building is very limited to date.

WHERE ARE WE NOW?

I have asked many people where they are - Huma is not responding to requests from solicitors and Writs are being prepared - but seem to be taking ages to complete and no-one seems to be getting their case to court. So things are just not moving at the moment - if you think you are moving forward faster - please get in touch.

I think we are in for a hell of a battle!!!!

Best wishes to everyone - I hope this helps and I an happy to act  as a co-ordinator for useful information.

................................................................................................

I have asked people to offer a list of good solicitors (this is not a recommendation) - but if you are thinking of transferring - these solicitors have a number of ACC clients ..

Victor Martinez-Ararca Gibert (e-mail victor@mamsolicitors.com)

Martinez-Ararca & Munoz

c/Villar, Edifico Casino 16

Vera 0469 (Almeria)

Apartado 331

Gonzalo Recarte

PLAZAS ABOGADOS S.L.

Puerto Sotogrande, C-2-1.12

11310 San Roque (Cádiz)

Tel. + 34 956 790 280

DAVIES Solicitors

davies1@telefonica.net

 

Anderson & Asociados Abogados Almería
Avda. Reino de España, 186-B, Edif. Palazzo Vivaldi
04740 Roquetas de Mar (ALMERÍA) - SPAIN
Tel.: (+34) 950 32 17 87
Fax: (+34) 950 31 94 40

mgonzalez@andersonabogados.com

I am currently using Andersons (but I have reservations about being able to talk direct with actual solicitor). They have a number of ACC clients and did have some early success with refunds - but that has now ended.

I have used Gonzalo Recarte - it appears from postings they find out good information - but I was put off them last year when the solictor refused to talk to over the phone and Barbara the receptionist told me they were too busy to reply to my emails!

Davies have an english guy there and my neighbours used them for a Vera purchase that took 4.5 years to complete without licencing issues.

There is a company also to consider - good solicitors with limited knowledge of ACC -

www.rosslegalservices.com

A couple of replies said they had used small solicitors that were fine ..

BUFETE BANO LEON, Calle Pintor Lorenzo Casanova No 66 - 1A 03003 - Alicante.     The Lawyer is Carlos Bano.

Beatriz García.    English/German Dep.

Urb. Las Buganvillas, local 24, 04621 Vera (Almería), Spain.

Telf: + 34  950.617.017                   Fax: + 34  950.133.342

If you want any more details - I will see if I can help.

I also had a suprisingly PM from someone that was using Fusters - and was happy to stay with them despite acknowledging bad comments on the forum. Remember solicitor hopping will not necessarily move your case forward any more.

.........................................................................................

 

Just to say thanks for taking the time to produce a summary of information. It looks as if we are in for a tough time ahead.

 I am puzzled about how Huma can use our money to fund further developments. I was under the impression that our money is held by the bank in a separate account and is not available to Huma until our property is handed over. This is what our original solicitor told us. If anyone knows otherwise please post information.

You are right in what you say about changing solicitors, it doesn't appear to make things happen any quicker. It just increases your costs !!

How is it that the solicitors are getting away with not communicating directly with their clients. I have asked the secretary many times to let me speak personally to him but this never happens. They are happy to communcate with us when they are encouraging us to give them our business.  

It is strangely a comfort to know that other people are having no luck in getting our money back. When we here of some refunds in 6 weeks you begin to ask - is it that your solicitor is incompetent ,or lazy, or is it the bank who are being difficult or is it just a stroke of luck for some people to get a quick result ?

Anyway, it will be good to hear what happens to everyone and best of luck to you all.

 

 

My estimate is that Huma could have up to £34m of our money - so if it was in a bank account for clients only - then why are cheques bouncing now? They cannot have reached this total by now after only a relatively small percentage of part refunds!

There is only 3 conclusions - the account is empty, never setup or Huma are deliberately writing cheques on another account with no money in.

Has anyone who has received a cheque refund noted on which account name/number the cheque is drawn on.

Could you ask your solicitor to find this out - it might help to put together a pattern.

In the UK it is easy to find the creditworthiness of listed companies. Could someone please ask their solicitors if they could do a financial search on Huma Mediterraneo and other Huma companies.  It will cost money - but I would happily reimburse anyone with the costs.

I am afraid I am with Andersons and it has become difficult to communicate with them recently - so I do not think I can do this at my end - but someone else might have some success. We need to know if they are in major financial dificulties or not!

If not - I may try to get the information from other sources.

John

 

Try     https://www.equifax.es/equifaxnet/index.jsp

Many postings on this site suggest ACC is now dead and buried i.e. is not going to happen. Admittedly the situation has been dragging on for ever and a day but has anyone seen anything to formally to say it will not be happening?

John F - in your post below you state Huma have £34M of our money. Do you mean HAVE RECEIVED £34M? Don't forget the marketing, land development, construction of units, planning and legal costs etc they have funded on ACC so far. To me that is a big chunk of cash (unless your £34M calculation has taken this into account.)  What I am getting at is that anyone considering pursuing a refund should may be take this into consideration? I my self opted for a transfer to OTCC has the safest bet as I was not prepared to throw any more money into this venture.

Tony R

This message was last edited by Truff on 5/6/2008.

Thanks for your reply.

I and many others were led to believe that our full deposits (approx £34m) were paid into a separate bank client account and was therefore totally safe Therefore Huma would not be able to use that money until the key is handed over and therefore the preliminary costs and building costs for work in progress would naturally have to be met by Huma - using their own funding arrangements.

Whether that has happened - is the question? or have we been totally conned? Has our money been misappropriated?

Whether OTCC is a safe bet - it is too early to tell - no one I understand has a pyshical BG in hand (only a promise),but BG are now worthless anyway no Banks are honouring them - and the same 18 months build promise that I had when I signed  for ACC - but no major building progress to date. I feel a lot of people will feel that until Huma actually finish OTCC and hand over properties - many people simply do not trust them - there is a lot that could go wrong between now and then. Huma are not exactly truthful about their operations when things go wrong! They lied about MCC golf course!

No one has the answer - we all have to make our own decisions. I hope everything works out  for everyone- but Huma are not reputable that is obvious and they have found a great way to con people and so why should they stop now. I certainly for one - would not want to make any stage payments to Huma for OTCC over and above what I have paid to date.

I think the fact that Huma are not making any optimistic comments now to our solicitors or any one -  it is probably dead for many years at least - so waiting for a something to happen @ ACC is now not an option.

Anybody that has transferred - you have changed your bet from one horse to another - but the dishonest rider is still the same. We could easily all end up losers!  I do not disagree with transferring - if it goes thru in 18 months and you are happy with the price - then you will be content with your decision.  But if not, we will be filling EOS forum full of more discontented members.  Best of luck to all - I think we would have all preferred that we bought something else with hindsight now.

John

 

 

As no one has a Bank Guarantee for OTCC I fail to see how this is suddenly a safe bet.

If you did have a Bank Guarantee with HUMA it still would not be safe as the ACC situation shows.

Changing to OTCC is high risk and you may well be just putting off Court action that you could take now.

If all permits are in place and it is all legal........where are the Bank Guarantees ?

Hi John,

In 2004 I handed over €73k to Huma, well approx €15k to the CAM Bank and the rest to our "buddies" in Huma. I did'nt go through a selling agent, I delt direct with "Antonio who told me he was a big Celtic fan." I was told like many others that the house in ACC would be finished in april 2006, however I was planning to allow another 12 months for snagging etc. In april of 2007 I went out to their office looking for explinations and I was told there were planning problems! so being Irish I decided to play along with their waffle... but behind the scenes I did some investigations.
I do believe that OCC will go ahead and if people are going to transfer over be prepared to wait at least 3 more years for any completion dates. Huma is a family owned Company operating their way in an old communist part of Spain, things are changing in the region, heck their even locking up the Mayors!!!
As far as these guys (Huma) are concerned, sadly we all bought in and we'll get our properties when it suits them.
Last week I visited their office in MCC and discussed moving to OCC I was very polite and let on that I was'nt concerned about the delays... I also chanced my arm for some discount but was'nt successful.
I was offered a BG for the payments I made to Huma, copies of the Planning Permits and the the BG's would be with me in 30 days after I signed up... So after my meeting I went back to my local solicitor in Mojacar and discussed their proposals. Luis, my solicitor is in the process of going to the relevent  Planning people to make sure the stamps are genuine and if thy are in order I will run with OCC.
I do believe they will develop OCC, why would'nt they? each one of those little Aromas would cost no more than €15k to build!!!
Personally I am going to ride this one out!! play along with them... give them a 15 month get out of jail card.. and if they are still in business and there are no sign of our houses by then, we could all get together, form a co-operative, force them into liquidation and finish the project ourselves!!!.... As the old saying goes..."Better looking at it than looking for it!!!...

  In my view, and I'm sure many many other people’s opinion, this company is -  and has - acted in a terrible way. Causing people very complex costly, unnecessary problems to get refunds.

They should be refunding people immediately, without delays or question and that’s the bottom line. It's a disgraceful way to carry on.

What reputable company does not refund you when they have clearly not delivered to the agreed purchase ...........period.........yes the UK also has unscrupulous companies, but at least they are targeted and stopped from trading. Why are the Spanish authorities not intervening here?

What company would try and hang on to YOUR money even after knowingly stating you will not get a property on ACC for x time......

Companies like this should not be allowed to conduct business .........and Spanish authorities should clamp down heavy on them. It's in their long term interests surely!

I don't think many people will disagree with you about the way HUMA are acting in not returning our monies.  Unfortunately there does not seam to be a great deal we can do about it.  Taking legal action against them is going to be a long term process (at least a year if not 2).  I was wondereing if any one has contacted their local MEP and asked for help.  Maybe if every one did this then pressure could be put on the Spanish goverment to make something happen.  It probably won't help but it is better than doing nothing.  I have written to my MEP at the weekend (no reply yet).

 

Hi All,

You may remember that I complained to Budget Travel Irl. regarding their current relationship with Parador properties and i was contacted by one of their people.   Name escapes me, however having indicated that they were unaware of my particulars ( despite all the reg post and letters too and from their UK offices) I was to be referred to the top man Mr. Martingdale to deal with my issues.   Instead I was passed on to a Mr. Roach who contacted me from the Spanish offices.   Asking me of course what my problems were, he seemed unaware of any problems with ACC.   I was astounded with this bearing in mind the countless phone calls, e mails, and letters ( including regestered post, which he claims were never received by his office) to this Mr. Roach.   in quickly outlining the problems and asking for my money back he asked me what my lawyers had to say on the matters?      I indicated to him that he was wasting my time and humg up on him.

I have to hand it to parador that this man is brilliant.   He could sell Dr. Shipman over and over again to an old peoples home.  The word 'Tossers' come to mind.   Anybody yet had any luck with the BBC or UK Fraud office?

les

Hi again...

If you look at this situation from a Spanish perspective.....

 Of course the builder is going to drage it out.... after all Huma feel its not their problem for the delays, don't be fooled, the Spanish Banks still have a big lump of our money and Huma can't get at the rest of the money until they throw us into something!!!... personally my view is that Huma are saying to us all... "either switch to OCC now or else you can all f***  off  and we will not give you your money back"..... lets face it folks unless your ready to move into the desert, your humped!!!  I do believe the Spanish think we will go anywhere just for the Sun....
I am convinced that the best way forward is to go with OCC, who knows... This time they just might build enough houses for us to have something out of this...
The choice is now very stark.... Stay with these clowns and you might get some kind of a hut!!!! pull from them and you'll never see your money again...

Sadly we all got sucked into this one... but the secret is to keep cool, in 2005 I opened a printing business in Mojacar and my business partner (a good decent English bloke) is keeping his ear to the ground.... I am being told that almost all of the Madrid customers from ACC have now moved to OCC which is promising.... I am a firm beliver that the Spanish will not rip off their own!!!!!

Good luck Campers!!!!

Does anyone know of any Spanish developer that has given money back voluntarily?  It's the norm in Spain to have to take them to court.  It's also the norm for them not to pay out even if the court orders them to (after the umpteenth appeal), you will have to take them back to court to place an embargo on their bank account/s (and pray that you've picked the account that has money in it).

 

Those going down the court route (I wasn't brave or wealthy enough to do so) should check out this thread on SPI  http://www.spanishpropertyinsight.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3049

The forum you refer to is about illegal builds.

Some of us are prepared to go to court , even if it is 2 years down the line. I would rather do this than fork out monthly on a property in the desert, miles form the beach that you will not be able to re-sell easily. 

No one has  BG from Oasis.

Therefore until you do you are no better off. And then it has to be built.

Seems like HUMA have already ripped off Madris buyers as they are not geting refunds either !!

Hi Andy....

I am going to chance my arm with OCC, I have instructed my solicitor to prepare all the papers Huma require, I will keep you posted on my progress, any updates I will gladly pass them on....
As regards OCC if it does get built and I do get my "Hut" I will probably pass it on to my kids!!!....
But one thing for sure...if it is finished....we should banish all taces of "Spanishness" from the place... no crapy Tapas bars.. just a good old fashioned Transit Fish n Chip van parked at the gates!!!... and a sign saying "Only Brits, Tams, Jocks and Paddys welcomed here...all dodgy Spaniards f*** Off"!!!!!!!!

Good luck....

Madris ???

 

I think that you'll be very lucky to get before a Judge within 2 years.   It'll take that long just to get into the system.  I see that the latest posters on SPI have, after (from what I can make out) 3 years of action, been given a court date of April 2009 - and they have to appear in person.

This message was last edited by reidpj on 5/8/2008.

Nigela

A number of people have written to their MEP's. You may find that you will get a reply from a 'desk assistant ' who will tell you that this is a legal matter and the MEP will not interfere in foreign law. They don't even bother to reply in person let alone offer any help. There are many , many British people in a similar situation to ourselves. Just a brief look at other forums gives a good idea as to what our elected representatives are doing for us --- nothing.

Les

Would this be someone called Paul Roach ? this name sounds familiar. Don't let him tell you that he is unaware of the problems at ACC. I am sure that he has been around since the early buyers paid their deposits in 2004.  There were some posts on the Almanzora owners forum that he was involved in when the building was initially stopped in November. It might be worth taking a look back.

Again Martingdale is a familiar name in all of this, there is some reference to him on the Viva Almeria site, again around 2004-5.

Both of these characters were involved , please don't let them get away with avoiding their responsibility for this mess.

This message was last edited by Antojo on 5/8/2008.

Embargo !!! this nightmare just gets worse. I have been reading about this today, what is this about picking the ' account that has money in ? '  Only the Spanish could dream up something like this  !!!! it sounds to me like russian roulette !!!

Somebody please tell me   ---- am I going mad,  is this a bad dream, is there anyone out there who can help? 

Paddy2  -  You've convinced me now I've done the right thing in choosing the OCC option, if only for the prospect of joining you for a poolside beer surrounded by cranes circa 2011 - If it gets too windy we can always nip down to the Tapas bar in Tabernas for a bit of shelter.

Seriously , good luck and hope we meet up there, I'm sure Brian R will get the first round in !!

TR