All seems to have gone pear shaped

Yeah, not too worried at the thread drifting, I know it is still here if I need it :)

On a more positive note, I have had a long talk with someone a MRI head office today to explain the whys and wherefores (Just for a change, the person that was looking after our purchase has left, that must be the third now, or is it the fourth??). I also managed to have a dig at the fact two managers have read my emails and ignored me 9good things these read receipts!!), plus two telephone calls made were ignored. I have been promised faithfully (don't hold your breath) that this person will look into the problem and get back to me by Thursday evening (heard that one before). I have also had an email from our solicitor tonight saying that he will back us all the way if we do decide to withdraw, which lets face it, we don't want to do and if we can find a way to continue with the purchase, we will.

We won't let them stick it up us Mr Mainwaring :)

Mark

It seems that MRI's "negotiating with the builder skills" aren't up to much. Instead of negotiating, they have approached Capital Financial to provide us with a mortgage!!!! I don't think so!!! They were one of biggest bunch of incompetents we came across after our trip.

Mark

Absolutely agree Mark - CFP are totally hopeless. After having our paperwork for 4 months, it was only when we were given a completion date that they started querying stuff.

Only positive in their favour was that they refunded our fee - without us having to ask!!!

So they obviously know that they were in the wrong.

Noreen

Hi Mark,

I hope you find a successful conclusion, as long as you stick to your guns, you do sound like the kind of man that will.  I heard that the playa cantal bch of cajamar in mojacar has been giving quite high valuations recently because they are trying to increase their market share.  If you decide not to go down the Keymare route, I know of a great resale in Mojacar that represents much better value.  I'll send you a PM if you would like any more infor.

Even though you have bought from Keymare you have gone through MRI and you will be paying their lovely fee!!!! so they really should look to take less fee for the sake of such a small amount.  Their again have noticed they have downgraded the bm's recently to 1 seris, times must be hard for them!

Again, I hope you get everything resolved,

Good Luck

SJ

I'm staying hushed at the moment as I don't want to jeopardise anything. The promised call last night didn't materialise though, but we did get an email first thing this morning apologising profusely. What we didn't realise at the time of purchase was that the complex was finished in May '06 and has been standing empty since. That could have been more leeway to us if we had known!! The good news is that the LFO and all other necessary licenses are in place and copies have been sent to our mortgage company in preparation for completion. We have been promised a resolution of some sort by tomorrow (Wednesday). Watch this space!!

Mark

My Wife has just had the phone call from MRI. Despite the proof we have shown them of the decrease in valuation by way of our mortgage offer, the fact we have found 50% of the extra that we weren't expecting to have to pay and the fact the apartment has been on a finished development since May '06, neither are prepared to negotiate on the outstanding amount.

My Wife wants to try and carry on, whereas I want to pull out and stick it to them where it hurts, in their pockets. With property prices decreasing at the moment, it is going to cost them a lot more than the 1500 euros each we were asking tem to find.

Wil let you know more if and wehn we make a decision.

Mark

Hi Mark,

I hope you do have some success with getting all the issues resolved.  The problems with the big guys are that they don't want to appear to be a soft touch, even if it means losing a sale which I my mind is crazy considering the current new development market.

Good luck

S.J

I don't want them to be a soft touch, just realistic. But I suppose everything is peachy through their rose tinted glasses. Just emailing our solicitor now to cancel.

Mark

Good for you standing up Mark - prices will probably fall back even further although I understand its the principle with you

If you play hardball, you never know, they may just capitulate

But dont hold your breath for too long!

I have had it confirmed. P**ll B*wers from Key Mare and L*e Co**ins from MRI deliberately lied to us over the purchase price of the property. Having followed Noreen's advice and contacted people renting properties on the Viva Almeria website, I found a couple who have purchased an identical property to the one we were going to buy. Whilst looking at the property, we were assured time and again that we were getting the property at the off plan price due to a purchaser pulling out of the deal. I have since found out that this "off plan" price offered to us by Phill and Lee is 10,000 Euros more than the original selling price.

So, the moral of the story is. If you think about giving MRI the benefit of the doubt as we did when you purchase, I would advise very strongly about believing a word that comes out of any of the sales persons mouths! This is my personal opinion and is factual, therefore cannot be deemed to be libellous in any way. When I look back at my earlier postings stating how well they treated us, I can't believe I was so gullible..... And I did my research first!!!

Mark

Mark

We dealt with the same MRI rep & I am going to make a formal complaint about him. I know it probably won't do any good but I know exactly where you are coming from.

The only thing I can say from my own experience is that this "project", undertaking or whatever you want to call it, has proved to be the most stressful of my life. But, today, after I feel like a weight has been lifted, knowing that the worst of it is over - I am not naive enough to think that there won't be battles to be fought over snagging & whatever other issues crop up but we now own the property. (& a nice new shiny mortgage to go with it)

It has been a 27 week nightmare but we could have many years of enjoyment to come with our new apartment. So, I would say don't give up, persevere & if you can help others to understand how they should do things (like I did with a certain lady who went to a property exhibition in Glasgow the other week) & help them avoid the same pitfalls then you will feel some sense of satisfaction.

I really hope that you find some way of working around this.

Noreen

If we anyone has learnt anything from this it is that MRI are as good as there reputation suggest!!!!

All the best with the refund Mark.

Georgia

Ps i need some fish advice Mark,i have 2 fish that are breeding like rabbits and i do not know what species they are and can't find them in any websites or books,what do you suggest?