Polaris world resorts/Do you always need a car?

HI, I am new to the forum but have been observing the comments made regarding Aifos for some time!

We have an apartment in the Estribo Block which obviously is yet to commence, if ever!

Has anyone had any sucess through Lawbirds in terms of freezing Aifos assets to secure deposits back?

Has anyone been offered alternative apartments in other completed Aifos developments?

Can anyone give me any feedback on the solicitors in general?

Hi, with regards to Lawbirds they will be very pleased to take your money and issue a writ against Aifos which will do you know good at all,might as well give me your money and i will go on holiday.My advice is to hold tight for about 4 weeks and see what happens,things have started to move and nothing happens overnight in Spain ,dont we know!!!!The best thing you can all do is bombard Maria with e-mails and also contavt Katja at the Town Hall yo keep on top of it all,
john

Interesting John.

Are you saying that in 4 weeks something may happen, because "something" is coming to a head ?

Or are you thinking that in 4 weeks time we can say, " nope, nothing has happened this month" ?.


From what I have read and discovered I think you are right about paying a lawyer 7000 euros to file a claim.

I think we should putt all the 7k's in a hat and lets ALL go on holiday and get smashed so we can forget the dreaded "A" word for a short time.

 I would rather that than pay for someone else to go on holiday and get smashed on my money.


John can you give me the email address for  anyone in the Aifos office who has half a brain please, I need to get a few written statments from them.

regards

Smiffie.

Hi Smiffie,
I call at Aifos offices when i am in spain,dead easy to find next to cathedral and museum and i call and see Maria nice girl who promises me she will contact me with details she never does,so i just keep on e-mailing, she will get another vistit in about 4 weeks so i believe answers will be coming out soon.

Would suggest that you e-mail Katja at Town Hall she gives you answers at least,

regarsd,

john

Hi Smiffie,
I call at Aifos offices when i am in spain,dead easy to find next to cathedral and museum and i call and see Maria nice girl who promises me she will contact me with details she never does,so i just keep on e-mailing, she will get another vistit in about 4 weeks so i believe answers will be coming out soon.

Would suggest that you e-mail Katja at Town Hall she gives you answers at least,

regarsd,

john

Hi John.

I don't expect a reply, or care if I get one, but I do need to have proof that I have emailed (someone) @ Aifos  with no reply.

Would Maria be high enough up the food chain to be able to ignore my email or should I send my emails to someone else.?

I wouldn't have thought that Maria@aifos would be the email for her, I am sure there must be a few "Maria's" working for Aifos.

Do you (or anyone else) have a email address for someone at Aifos please.




My wife is going on a 4 day plssup to Spain with 12 of her friends this Thursday,  but the chances of her being able to walk let alone talk will be pretty slim so there is no point in asking her to deal with anything while she is there.

I would be interested in going out on a fact finding mission is anyone is up for it.



Regards

Steve.

This is a fair comment from lawbirds.

However, I was asked to pay just over 7000 euros to have a lawyer send a few letters to Aifos on my behalf.

7000 euros, to send a few letters, and for what?, I have not read one post on this forum or anywhere else where the lawyer has succeeded in getting the clients money back for him from Aifos.

This is not to say that it has not happened, I am saying I have not read or heard of it happening.

Also, as John rightly said, you may as well spend it on yourself than give it to Spain.

I would pay today if I was assured that.

(A) I would get my money back.

(B) I would have a time line as to when I could expect each part of the claim against Aifos to be completed.

(C) I would have a definite date (at the latest) when Aifos would be taken to court on my behalf.

I would also like to know that once Aifos has been to court to deal with MY claim, could they just ignore the courts directions ?

Would the court "MAKE" Aifos pay me, or just ask them to pay me, and would Aifos comply or just do what it does best and that is ignore ?




You see that we are all just a little bit peeved about how corrupt Spain is, we are used to being able to take someone to court and it being dealt with, not as is the case in Spain where people like Aifos are not concerned with what the courts say.

I am sure that if we all had some sort of "Guarantee" that..............

(A) the lawyers will do what they say they will do. (within a reasonable time frame)

(B) The courts will find in favour of the client.   ( And MAKE Aifos pay us back)

(C) Aifos will abide with the courts decision. 

Until then you have to accept that "we" have no faith in anything Spanish at all, this included the builders, the banks, the lawyers and the courts.

If you want to gain the confidence of the people of this forum then you will need to start giving out some guarantees and doing what you say you will do.

When that happens, I might be more inclined to hire a lawyer to act for me against Aifos.

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

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

Actually, I didn't say it was "lawbirds" who asked me for the 7000 Euros, I said it was " a lawyer ".

I also said,..... " This is not to say that it has not happened, I am saying I have not read or heard of it happening."

I agree and apologise about inferring that "ALL SPAIN" is corrupt, I have no evidence to support this, I should have said.  " It would appear" again I apologise.

 

Your post is the most informative information that I have both received and read since I found this forum, so at least one good thing has come of it, thank you for that information.

 

I appreciate that guaranteeing the outcome of a court case would be impossible, especially the way (it would appear) the Spanish courts are run.

 

But I think I can safely say that if Aifos did in the UK what they have done in Spain everyone here would know that the courts would find in favour of the plaintiff, how could they NOT find Aifos guilty of

Taking my money for a building they have so far not even dug the footing for and this is after 6 years ?

 

You wrote this,

 

“Further to your last post, we do not charge and have never charged 7.000€ “just to send a few letters” to any developer as you seem to imply in your posts. This is totally inaccurate.”

 

I think the term “writing a few letters” could have been a little clearer, It was unfair of me to suggest that all you would do is write a few letters, but as you cannot guarantee to get my money back, then all you would have effectively done  would be to  “write a few letters” and maybe go to court to listen to the Judge tell you no.

 

As I said before I did NOT say the request for 7000 Euros came from Lawbirds, but as you have stated that you “do not, and have never” I feel I should post this section of a email I got from.

 

From: Jose Ramón Gutierrez [mailto:jose@lawbird.com]
Sent: 20 May 2008 09:02
To: Steve Smith

 

“quote”.

 

We will need the following amount:

 

1. - Legal fees: 4.000€ plus VAT (16%) = 4.640€.

 

2. - Provision of funds Procurator: 1.750€

 

3. - Provision of funds to pay a certificate from a valuer to establish the compensation we are going to ask the judge: 500€

 

4. - Provision of funds for other expenses: 150€.

 

TOTAL: 7.040€.

 

Please know that I have NO PROBLEM with your charges at all, and I have never said that I have, I simply said that I dont want to sink another 7k into Spain without some assurances.

 

Again I apologise for any inconveniences caused by my posting.

 

Regards

 

Smiffie.

 

.

 

 

 

Dear Mr Smith,

The quoted breakdown is for a full litigation process known as First Ruling (Primera Instancia). Our legal fees are only the 4.000€ plus 16% VAT. We additionally charge a percentage on all the recovered amounts at the end of the whole legal proceeding from which this initial retainer fee must be deducted. These requested fees are until the First Ruling by the judge. They in fact cover studying your case, cancelling your contract (which includes notifying the developer), preparing and filing a law suit, first hearing and final First court hearing.  If we win the First hearing it also covers the developer's appeal to a second hearing regardless if we win or lose the said appeal, as per our FAQ on litigation. 

So the aforementioned fees cover more than just sending a "few letters to a developer". 

The procurador, akin to a UK's Barrister, is not a member of this or any law firm and it's compulsory to hire them on litigation.

The 500€ or 800€ requested is for compensation which is not available to all clients and it's voluntary. That is you are not forced to pay it on litigating. We clearly highlight this in all our emails, phone conversations and it's also in our FAQ on litigation. This amount is paid to an arquitect to do a report and appraisal which will be used before the law court. So these fees are not for us either.

The provision of funds for other expenses (or sundries) is for: photocopies, outgoing phone calls, courier etc. the balance of which unused is also refunded to the client as is specifically stated in our Letter of Engagement, emails and FAQ.

So basically both you and another poster have misquoted us repeatedly on a public forum when we had kindly explained to both of you what those fees & expenses stood for. 

Again we reiterate that you or anyone else querying on what a litigation procedure entails is welcome to contact us and find out for themselves rather than relying on hearsay and misunderstandments. Once more we highlight that this criticism doesn't come from clients of us albeit rather two different people who made a legal query on a litigation procedure.

May we kindly remind you Mr Smith that all our outgoing emails & correspondance are private and confidential and attached to all of them there is a legal notice that states:

LEGAL NOTICE
This e-mail and any attachment are confidential and is intended for the named addresses' use only. The contents of the e-mail contain private, confidential and legally privileged information subject to professional secrecy. The sender does not authorise to disclose or distribute the contents of the present e-mail to anyone. If you have received this e-mail in error, please delete it from your system, do not retain or print a copy of it, and notify the sender by e-mail immediately.

AVISO LEGAL
Este correo electrónico, y en su caso,  cualquier archivo adjunto al mismo, es confidencial y está exclusivamente dirigido a la persona a quien ha sido enviado. Los contenidos de este mensaje de correo electrónico, contienen información privada, confidencial, sujeta a secreto profesional y legalmente protegida. No se autoriza revelar o distribuir los contenidos del mismo a nadie. Si usted ha recibido este correo electrónico por error, por favor bórrelo sin dejar copia o imprimir el contenido del mismo, y comuníqueselo al remitente inmediatamente por e mail. 
 

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

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

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

Again more useful information that I was not aware of.

Sorry for not reading the legal clause in your email, if I read  legal clauses I wouldn't be here now. :)

I have tried to delete the part where I copied parts of your email to me, but I cannot do so.

Thank you for taking the time to explain.

can you confirm the amount of the percentage of "the recovered amounts" that you charge?

I would like to know if this amount was reasonably low (single figures area ) or in the extortionately high 40 / 50 / 70% area.

I would be disappointed to discover that I have won the legal battle with Aifos and that I am going to be refunded only to be told that I signed away a huge proportion of the refund to the lawyers without realising it.

 

Oh, and by the way...

I only quoted you twice, one was a direct copy from your email to me, and one was a "copy - paste" from this forum,  I don't see how these can be considered a miss quotes ?????



regards

Smiffie.

 

The percentage varies from case to case but on average ranges between 10-15%. Exceptionally slightly more but never reaching the 40% or above that you inquire.

This as well as many other issues are covered in detail in our FAQ on litigation. We would please have anyone interested on litigation to request it from us or else visit our websites which have useful articles on many legal topics including litigation and what it entails. 



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

This message was last edited by Lawbird on 6/6/2008.

I take it that this 'Lawbird' is the same one who told me that Aifos would be insolvent the first week in January? Haha!

Surely not , that would mean they would be asking me for money to take Aifos to court when they knew Aifos would be insolvent.

No mate you must be mistaken, this couldn't happen, especially not in Spain. and definitely not with Lawbirbs who vehemently refute anything that even slightly questions their integrity.

Are you talking about LAST January or next ?

My my ,everybody calm down ,calm down,(im a scouser),  i think the postings are self explanitory,keep your money in your pockets!!!!!!!!! and lets try to stay positive.
i am trying to get up to date info and will post it as soon as is available ,i would suggest we all do the same.

john

Yippee! "Go Knuckles Go"

Sorry folks,  just a private joke between me and an "Old Mucka"

Looks like Knuckles is on the Warpath Nick!!!!!

Is he here T?

T is there right now, (well at the airport waiting to fly back) She wanted to go see Nick to tell him "something".
But we all know that would have been a waste of time, and only wound us up so more.

Staying positive Mr Newton is sorta hard when Aifos hasn't even dug the footings on my block yet and that's in 6 years :-)