Spanish property pessimist gets a surprise

Dear All Owners of Lar Sol in Estepona,

We have just visited the building site viewing it from valle Romano. The construction of Phase 1 has stopped since several months as per 1st hand information we have recieved and this info believe it is genuine.
This is due to that Lar Sol has not paid the builders wages and the builders have taken the construction site under "siege" till they get their money. Also "EL Corte Ingles", the kitchen fitters, demands payments in turn from the builders.
Also this might have been allready said previously it is confirmed that Phase 2 and 3 will not go ahead.

The advise is, pull out asap and if you have a bank garantee you will get your money back. We have looked at other properties, completed and due the market there is a great potential of completed properties at lower purchase price then 3 years agoo.

We recomennd Andalucien Dream Homes. Contact Julio Romero as we have been given from him the best profesional advise and help.

Sorry to give you this news but better now then to late

Boe
First of all, thank you for all the information Carlos.
I rang the office in Estepona today (04.06.08) , and was told 
the office will be closed for a while.
I was not aware that the developer Lar Sol had this serious problems.
I am under shock.
Bought off plan October 2005 and had headache since.
Does anybody have ideas how to proceed with the matter?
Please let me know..........

Not so sure recommending Andulcian Dream Homes is a good idea we bought off plan Lar Sol through ADH and have only just discovered that Lar Sol not going ahead and that the contract set up to sell the property through ADH isnt going ahead and no one at ADH bothered to tell us! Yes they have some good people but our experience post sale has been poor I am chasing them to help sort out this mess We had asked to engage Bank Guarantee back at Easter last year but kept being told as we had sold subject to completion could not get money back Are now trying to get lawyers to get back funds ASAP


This message was last edited by ajcopley on 10/6/2008.

Lar Sol will never be completed. The developer Grupo Lar are backed by Morgan Stanley. The reason you are having problems with the bank guarantee being executed is that the developers keep asking for more time to pay and under Spanish law they are in effect not refusing to pay, so the guarantee will not be executed. I have been using Lawyers of Spain, and they have now written to the insurance company asking for the guarantee to be executed on the grounds that they have had enough time and are in effect refusing to pay. I should here more within the next two weeks.

Thats really helpful thanks

Hi everyone,

                         Can anyone tell me if there have been any settlements with Lar Sol, Estepona?  I have been waiting patiently but am starting to reach the end of my tether. Does anyone have any advice, as I am starting to get really stressed about the whole matter. Cheers !!!

Hi everyone,

this is Boe. I have changed my Lawyer from LOS to another one in Marbella.

Was recommended by my Lawyer in Ireland.

My new Lawyer has been working with me for a while on the issue of Lar Sol.

We have had no answer from Lar Sol or the Insurance Company so far.

I even have been in person in Madrid, trying to talk directly with them.

No prositive respond. We are going to court now in Madrid.

If anybody wants to hang on, talk to my Lawyer, you can get the contact

details at my private number 0034 638 482 441.

Together we might be stronger.

Boe, from Ireland.

 

We are still with LOS as we have only just spent more money getting documents in place via a notary etc to allow them to act on our behalf

They say they are now asking all their clients

with Lar Sol to join together to take the a matter to court as a group cutting costs for everyone. We have agreed with this and hope as

many others join in as is possible!

Hello,

LOS has managed to obtain 35 deposits back from Grupo Lar since we started cancelling the transactions, after chasing them for months. Our senior lawyer travelled for the last time on mid December after which date the developer informed us they would not returning any deposits until further notice, being also informed that the insurance company would not be honouring the calls on the guarantees.

On the basis of this information and after endless letters, legal notices, telephone calls and trips the only option available we had was to put the matter through the Courts to obtain the deposit, legal interest and also the compensation that was agreed to in the contract.

The disadvantages of going to Court are obvious: time and expenses. The advantages may however make up for those: many contracts included a 50% damage clause on the deposit paid in case of non fulfilmentby the developer (only they know why it was included but we happily agreed to sign them), and this is what we are going for (previously Grupo Lar was only returning the deposit, without damage penalty).

 

 

Lawyers of Spain will try to encourage as many people to go to court as possible - they make more fees that way! No doubt they are trying to charge you anywhere between €500 and €2000 each to build the court case. Pretty lucrative, when you consider they probably have 20-30 clients who want to cancel their contracts with Grupo Lar at Lar Sol or El Capricho.

I lost faith in LOS months ago and went to Spain myself to collect my cheque from Grupo Lar in person. LOS gave up trying to negotiate the cancellation of my contract and so I took matters into my own hands. If you form a pressure group, the people you need to email are the CEO of Grupo Lar (Luis Pereda) and their shareholders (Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investments - MSREI). I have copied their details below:

Luis Pereda - CEO of Grupo Lar - lpereda@grupolar.com

John Carrafiell, Global Co-Head of MSREI and Board Director of Grupo Lar - john.carrafiell@morganstanley.com

Jay Mantz, Global Co-Head of MSREI - jay.mantz@morganstanley.com

As soon as I engaged directly with Grupo Lar, things started to happen. I would email the people above to make a nuisance of yourselves, but I would also contact the following person, who has day-to-day responsibility for some of the developments:

Alberto Salamanca
Tel: +34 952 22 15 07 (not his direct line, but his office reception)
Mob: +34 607 802 417
Email: asalamancaa@grupolar.com

Good luck!

Ed.

 

This message was last edited by Ed007 on 1/16/2009.

Hello Ed007,

We collected from Doña Lucia Resort S.L. exactly 36 checks since we were instructed to. If we had wanted to profit from this we could have decided to stop chasing the company for more checks (as we did for months) and I can assure you that not one check would have been returned.

If you knew how pure litigation lawyers operate you would be surprised to know that what they do is the following:

1- Send a burofax (registered letter with ackowledgement of content) cancelling the contract, with a request to refund the monies plus interest and compensation, as the case may be, within a number of days.

2- If in 10 days the check is not paid they will sue. Forget about chasing every available director, weekly calls, emails, burofaxes, meetings, pleadings and very heated telephone conversations when the above failed.

Large law firms in Madrid, Barcelona or in any other city have strict operational procedures which follow the steps I mentioned, which I find normal as that is the service they offer and they are corporate entities trying to maximise the return on a client who contracts them.

I can assure that these large firm would have not lost one opportunity to go to Court. LOS, by operating differently from these larger firms has avoided 36 Court cases.

We have become a real nuisance for this developer and hence we have obtained, without having to go Court, the 36 checks but we have been told by the people you mention in your email that they will no longer return monies as they have to apply for a loan, since they do not wish to detract funds from other investments, while ACC Insurance Company says that they they will not pay as it is the developer who has to do it.

The information relating to Morgan Stanley may now be somewhat outdated as they pulled out a while ago, are not the ones who paid out the checks and quite simply do not want to have anything more to do with this situation, especially after going through the credit crunch last year.

In respect to your question about how much is charged please note that these are pretty clear cases, which means that we will not compromise for anything less that the deposit, plus the interest plus 50% compensation, as written in the contract (unless otherwise instructed to by our clients), and of course, we expect costs to be awarded which means that the court case should not cost the client anything.

 

 

Hi All

I have also had a similar email from Grupo Lar (but no confirmation or commitment to date of refund) .I have also told Grupo Lar , Morgan Stanley (Which "Do" have a stake in Grupo Lar) , and ACC (Insurance/Bank Guarantee) that I want a date and confirmation of refunds or I shall also go To various media outlets, Property Shows (To halt any possible sales for Grupo Lar) or its developments, along with spreading the word on various websites such as this one.

Note: Anyone with an interest in any of the Grupo Lar spanish properties should email the following people telling them unless they pay the said refunds (now/very near future) you will have no alternative but to ingage in the following:

(a) Full legal Action

(b) Contact Media Groups, T.V , Papers, Magazines etc..

(c) Visit any property shows or foreign property shows and make your feelings/concerns known to any potential clients of Grupo Lar, Morgan Stanley, ADH, or ACC

(d) Contact all related websites with regard to the matters/issues arising with The above mentioned companies.

This must be done by all concerned by Grupo Lar (And not just left to a few) remember groups or bigger numbers get things done.

Regards,

Dave07 

Hi everyone,

          Have faxed Luis Pereda, M.D. of Grupo Lar expressing my disgust with his company and demanding my money back. Also e-mailed BBC Watchdog and have had an automated reply. Suggest everyone bombard Grupo Lar with e-mails and faxes and contact Watchdog. If you are like me and cannot afford 5000 euros for litigation this is our only hope so get mailing. 

                                                                    Roy

               

Hi everyone

We have just found this forum and are finding it VERY informative!  My husband and I are in the same situation and we are looking for advice as to what everyone plans to do.  LOS are asking us to get POA to start legal action against Lar Sol and also to pay approx 5000 Euros towards legal costs, we have never yet been in direct contact with Lar Sol as yet and we have only communicated through LOS.  Would you suggest we do this rather than paying further money to LOS?

Any help/guidance is greatly appreciated

Lyn

 

 

Yes contact Grupo direct see previous postings for e mail addresses dont forget Morgan Stanley check out the several threads and like you we cant afford more payments to LOS

Hi everyone,

             E-mailing and faxing doesn't seem to work, they just ignore us. They know people can't afford litigation costs so they think they are safe. Grupo Lar along with Morgan Stanley are investing 90million dollars this year in Mexico, that is alongside Bulgaria and Romania investments. My only suggestion is to keep mailing and faxing them until we get a response. I am waiting to hear from BBC Watchdog, but I will be contacting media and any other outlet I can think of. I suggest you all do the same. It only costs time and may pay dividends. Cotact details have already been posted by Ed007 but I have them if anyone needs them. Get cracking then.

                                                           Roy.

 

Hi All

Can people give an indication (not full details) on where they reside/live I.e U.k, Ireland (North or south) as then we can build up a list of people in such place that can group and direct emails , letters etc.. to their respective media outlets and possibly visit holiday home and property exibitions being held in the coming months (in the various regions)??

 

This may help

Cheers!! Dave

Good idea we are in the north of england and happy to band together have already sent something to Watchdog but no reply yet

Hi everyone,

            Have just been browsing general Spanish forum section about bank guarantees etc. I think this is going to be a long process. I have posted a reply on there asking for any help, suggest you all do the same. By the way I live in Droitwich Spa, Worcester.

                                                                  Roy.

Just been e mailing friends living in Spain who suggest take out a denuncia a compalnit to the police sounds like a small claim type proceedure will look it up! Locals use it to get refunds from utility companies etc companies dont like it cos it effects their reputation