BANK GUARANTEES PETITION - LEY 57/68

BANK GUARANTEES IN SPAIN

PETITION

www.bankguaranteesinspain.com

Thousands of Off-Plan purchasers in Spain were not provided with the legally required Bank Guarantees and in many cases where Bank Guarantees were issued the Banks & Savings Banks are now refusing to honour them.

Off-Plan purchasers are the innocent victims in a trail of lies, deception, negligence, lack of due diligence and complete lack of control within the real estate sector.

Many purchasers have been forced to take expensive and lengthy litigation proceedings in an effort to have their inalienable rights which are granted by LEY 57/68 upheld.

In a direct response to these abuses, we have now launched a PETITION for purchasers of Spanish Off-Plan Property who are currently suffering or have suffered ANY type of Bank Guarantee abuse.

The main aims of the PETITION which is primarily addressed to Spanish President, Mr José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and the Governor of the Banco de España, Mr Miguel Ángel Fernández Ordoñez are:

• To expose the negligent actions of all those involved including the Banks & Savings Banks

• To highlight the unacceptable delays innocent purchasers are unnecessarily being subjected to in the courts

• To force accountability and demand justice

• To ensure change for the future

The ultimate responsibility lies with Mr Zapatero and the Banco de España for their failure to adequately and effectively supervise the Banks & Savings Banks who are the guardians of LEY 57/68 and who were the 'vehicle' through which the illegalities were allowed to operate.

This is a serious public order matter and our petition demands that the Banco de España and Spanish Government act immediately to ensure that:

• Any purchaser not provided with the legally required Bank Guarantee is   
refunded immediately in accordance with LEY 57/68

• Any purchaser in possession of a Bank Guarantee, where the developer has
clearly defaulted on the contract, is able to execute the Bank Guarantee, in accordance with LEY 57/68, without the need for litigation

• 'Fast Track' specialised courts be established

• The Spanish Government and Banco de España must immediately set up a fund to underwrite the refunds on all Bank Guarantee cases

• The Spanish Government and Banco de España must act now to ensure the abuse being suffered by innocent off-plan purchasers in Spain is ended immediately and that it is never allowed to happen again.

If the Banco de España and Spanish Government fail to act within defined timescales on the above issues then we ask the European Parliament and European Commission to take firm and effective action demanding that these very serious financial illegalities be addressed as a matter of extreme urgency.

This is the most extensive Bank Guarantee petition ever undertaken and it is essential that we gather as much information as possible to ensure we are able to present a comprehensive dossier of evidence and a complete account as to the scale of abuse suffered by innocent purchasers.

Please go to the Bank Guarantees in Spain website and add your voice to this very important PETITION:

www.bankguaranteesinspain.com

Good luck Keith. August seems to be a low traffic month. Ask Justin about this.

Best wishes,

Maria

Well said ads I totally agree with every word, fantastic work Keith and a big thank you

Hi Keith,

 What a well prepared document, covering every aspect of this intolerable scenario.

I have just completed and forwarded the questionnaire on behalf of my wife and myself.

We would like to thank you for for all your hard work, and we wish you the best of luck in the future.

Hi Keith

just like to add to the list of congratulations on this. A great effort, and one that should have an effect, if we can only get through to someone who has the integrity and the balls to do something about it?

Hi Maria, ads, pff, belucky and goodstitch

Thanks for your kind comments.  It was a lot of hard work compiling the website and petition.  I hope it will be worth it.

I must thank Maria for her assistance with the legal aspects and for her suggestions.

Also thanks to Ruth & Anne for their help over the past 3 weeks with proof reading, suggesting questions for the petition form, submitting test data and getting me through the low points when I thought it was never going to happen.

Goodstitch - I think there are plenty of people with integrity on the list, the problem is they don't often show their integrity and would rather pass the buck or hide from the truth.

But - we will get our voice heard and they will be forced to take action.  It is a shocking mess and cannot be allowed to continue.

Kind regards

Keith

Keith

Exactly!!  

I don't believe any of us would have gone in to this had we not thought we could rely on those in the positions of legal trust and integrity.  In the name of everything that's right, we must follow this through until all those so clearly cheated have at the very least their original investment returned with the lost interest.

Hi Keith,

After reading several papers on this matter it is my humble opinion that the persons responsible for the mess we all find ourselves in, are the three main players i.e. The Lawyers, The Banks and The Builder/Developers........and that would appear to be the problem.

Each party puts the blame on the other parties, for not doing the basic requirements of ensuring the protection of our monies.

In my opinion, in the future, it could easily be resolved if only one party was allocated the task of ensuring the buyer was awarded his Bank Guarantee.     

Then, and only then everyone would be in no doubt of who is responsible if things go wrong.

P.S.  Keep up the good work.

Hi

I agree.  They are all very good at 'passing the buck'.

But then Mr Zapatero and the Governor of the Banco de Espana are also very good at passing the buck.

Our job in the current situation is to make someone accountable who will right the wrongs and then look to bring in change for the future.

It is a two stage process.

STAGE ONE and the most vital for those of us with money at risk - the return of all deposits with the addition of interest and legal costs as soon as possible.

It was never the deal that we should all be unsecured backers of the Spanish Construction Industry.

Kind regards

Keith

Keith’s quote -"It was never the deal that we should all be unsecured backers of the Spanish Construction Industry. "

Belucky- “it is my humble opinion that the persons responsible for the mess we all find ourselves in, are the three main players i.e. The Lawyers, The Banks and The Builder/Developers........and that would appear to be the problem. “

As far as I'm concerned it's not up to us to be the political pawns in their debate, we want recompensing now. We shouldn’t be made the scapegoats as to who is responsible in the interim. Let them sort out this self- inflicted mess between themselves after we have been recompensed.

It's a complete obscenity that lawyers/developers/banks have got themselves into this mess when laws were already established to cater for this scenario. As the law stands, the banks are effectively the guardians for any deposited monies placed into their safe keeping, relating to off plan purchase, until such time as the contract has been honoured. SIMPLE!  And where contracts have not been honoured the purchaser should be entitled to immediate return of monies.

As for the APPLICATION OF LAW as things exist now, significant Spanish court delays have, and are continuing to compromise purchasers even further. At this point purchasers win their case proving breach of contract, only to find that they cannot achieve cancellation of contract (the point at which monies should be returned) due to developer appeals and yet more judgement delays which further compromise the application of law. And so it goes on as preliminary enforcement procedures that were established to ensure those in breach of contract can meet their obligations as per successful judgement ruling, are also compromised by more court delays. This now places the innocent party at even greater risk of developer abuse, allowing developers time to asset strip in the interim, and/or declare themselves insolvent. And where does this leave the innocent purchaser? At the end of a very long list of creditors. And who are the first in line to be compensated? Yes you’ve guessed it. THE  BANKS!!

I rest my case!!!!!

WHAT NONSENSE. This isn’t application of law, moreover it has sadly become a form of underhanded bias towards those who flout the law.

The evidence from your petition Keith should identify this clearly, and everyone caught up in this scenario should complete the petition ASAP. Likewise, everyone who is concerned by these injustices should also sign.

Now is the time to demonstrate your support. No more rhetoric but action.

Hi Justin and Team

I've just been told that the links I posted below are not working.  Please, is there a reason for this?  Do I need your permission to add links?  Have I presumed too much?  My apologies if I have.

I'm particularly keen to let readers see the page from the European Parliament's Petitions Committee as it shows the range of petitions they receive and how the Committee reacts to them.  I know that a number of people have petitioned citing their own personal case.  It would be useful to know the results if they have had them yet.  I actually stumbled on this link by accident and found what happened in my case.  I was expecting a formal letter.  Silly me!

Thanks for your help.

Ruth

Hello Ruth

I copied and pasted the link, it goes to the EP website but says the page no longer exists.

To everyone working so hard on this you are doing a fantastic job. I have signed the petition and wish you every success.

Good luck.

Yes, I don't know what has happened.  I'll try again here:

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/meetdocs/2009_2014/organes/peti/peti_20100223_0900.htm

This should open an 'index' page where a number of petitions can be seen.  Suzanne and I are at No 12.  On the right hand side of the page is a column headed 'Languages'.  Click on 'en' - for english - at No 12 and it should bring up the page showing the resolution to our petitions.  Do the same for Suzanne.

I hope this helps.

Thanks for your kind comments, Poppyseed.

Ruth

Here are two direct links if it helps!

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/meetdocs/2009_2014/documents/peti/cm/777/777511/777511en.pdf

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/meetdocs/2009_2014/documents/peti/cm/802/802732/802732en.pdf

It's so frustrating to see the way the Commission pass the buck, and to suggest that individual petitioners should go through official complaints procedures makes one wonder if they have any intention to make those responsible accountable for their actions. After all we ARE complaining to them through the petitions process.

As for the conclusion "The petitioner should continue to seek redress through the competent judicial authorities in Spain " well we have all witnessed how incompetent they have become at APPLYING the law.......for instance, how many case wins without recompense as per the successful judgements does it take before the Spanish Judicial Authorities recognise just how incompetent the system has become? And that is not to mention how their incompetence has financially compromised (and crippled) so many innocent folk in the process.

All the more reason to complete the questionniare within Keith's petition which will provide substantial evidence for us ALL to move forward.

We must not let them pass the buck again.

This message was last edited by ads on 14/08/2010.

 Well done Keith and all who helped you to put the petition together, it must have been a lot of very hard work.

The new approach of addressing directly  Snr Zapateros' response  to Marta Andreasons'  EU speech is inspired. It's unfortunate  the petition was not available to be handed to him   at the time he replied, thus crushing his perceived notion that would have us all believe  Spain has a perfectly adequate  Legal System which is    working just fine.

As Maria noted, August is a low traffic month for the site owing to it being the main holiday month for most of Europe.I sincerely hope that more than the current 140 people will sign the petition once the holiday season is over.  It deserves to be well supported but is mainly a way in which we who have been cheated can help ourselves.

Hi All

Thanks for your supporting comments.

It was a lot of hard work putting the petition and website together.

But it is even more hardwork promoting it and getting people to join / submit their information!!

We have had some press coverage:

http://www.bankguaranteesinspain.com/news.htm

http://www.fincaparcsactiongroup.com/press.htm

http://www.laverdad.es/albacete/v/20100902/provincia/afectados-higuericas-reclaman-dinero-20100902.html

and Ruth is doing a great job in spreading the word.

We are doing some more press interviews over the next few weeks/months.  I think it will take time for the word to spread and for people to become aware of the website and petition.

Kind regards

Keith

Good news from Maria and Costaluz

First Instance Court decissions are coming now.

Received copies during the last five days from two different colleagues of mine who have won cases in First Instance Courts:  in Malaga and Madrid.

The Madrid one specifies that even when there was no Bank Guarantee and the Bank allegates that the amounts were not deposited in a special account, the Bank clearly  knew ( as being the financer of this initial deposits) that the amounts were for an off plan purchase.

By a good interpretation and application of provision 1.2 of Law 57/68, and Law 57/68 objective as per Supreme Court considerations,  the Madrid Court makes the Bank liable of the refund, plus legal interests, plus legal costs.

We are advancing! Balance is coming! Good for my colleagues and for Judges too!

Agreed, this is indeed good precedence, but sadly we need to see return of monies as per these first instance judgements before we can afford to  celebrate. Have the Banks appealed these case judgements?

Please keep us posted and advise when monies are actually returned.