New CLS threatening letter to complete on property

Hi everyone.

Just had another letter from CLS which is now very threatening and provocative, which implies we need to complete on property or face 60,000 euros legal costs plus final fee for property of 147,000 euros to stop court case.

Has anyone else had a second letter from CLS? Anyone know how credible this company is and implications to us in the UK about Spanish law, should the worst case scenario happen (if indeed it is possible) that we are forced to purchase the property and pay additional legal costs?

Our Spanish solicitors, informed us it would go to court, and ourselves and Polaris believe each other has breached contract, but the CLS letter implies we will be forced to purchase property and pay additional legal fees, which is not laid out in our contract.  So not sure what to believe.

My previous posts explain the situation around the purchase of property off plan in 2007.

Any help or words of wisdom appreciated, whilst we try and contact our Spanish solicitors and interpret each other on the way forward.

Lee

Hi, I have also recieved a second letter from CLS stating the same as yours that they will be taking me to court to sue for the entire amout of the original purchase price plus damages, it seems pretty outrageous considering it took them 5 years to complete my place by which time it was not worth half the contract price.  I have spoken to various legal people who have advised me to counter sue on the basis of late completion. If you ignore the letters the chances are that a Spanish Judge will rule you are in breach of contract and order you to pay, the question is what can CLS who are basicaly debt collectors do about it. Opinions vary on this but in order to recover such large amounts of money from individuals they would almost certainly have to go to court in this country and get a court order against you which given their poor reputation I would say most UK judges would be reluctant to enforce .

The best thing is to speak with a Spanish lawyer who is acredited in this country and perhaps start a counter suit.

An off plan contract should have had a completion date stated within it. If they missed this date by more than 3 months (I think) then they are in breach of contract.  So they have no case.

Also, if you didn't have a bank guarantee then they have broken the law.

Just make sure your lawyer does their job here, I'm sure together you'll find a legal reason why you shouldn't complete.

Best of luck with it.

Justin

Is everyone they offered in publicity now built?

The game of starting and completion dates need also to be revised by a good independent lawyer in order to see if delay can also be allegued as a breach.

Hi all,

I have been in contact with a Spanish lawyer in the UK who tells me he has had dealings with CLS and they are basicly debt collectors, the prices he has quoted me for fighting Polaris and (a just walking away and loosing my deposit were £1500 and b) fighting for a return of deposit £2500 plus 10% of any recovered funds.

Does anyone know if this is a reasonable charge or not.

I have also been told by other people that any court decision against me in Spain would need to be enforced by a UK county court charging order against my UK house or assets but they doubt a UK judge would grant this in light of the less than ethical way Polaris has behaved and the fact that they already have both my deposit and the Spanish apartment. Also been told that due to the literaly hundreds of property actions lodged with Spanish courts every week! they are in a mess with a two year backlog does anyone have experience of this?

Not sure about the fees, maybe Maria can comment on that.

I think what the lawyer is talking about is the European Enforcement Order.  You can read a discussion about that here and a blog post that Maria did about it here.

Actually, you may want to read this too.

Best of luck.

Justin