At last hopefully some good news for owners of Tecnologia properties on unfinished urbanisations and developments in the Orihuela Costa. It appears that all the negative publicity in the local press - both English and Spanish - has spurred Orihuela Costa Council into taking action. Allegedly the boss of Tecnologia was summonsed to The Town Hall last week and told to start clearing up their mess. Our 'Presidente' was invited to OH Town Hall 2 days ago for a meeting with the council. He was told that millions of euros are deposited by Tecnologia in Orihuela Town Hall as a bond. If Tecnologia dont start finishing off what they have started on the many urbanisations they have left unfinished, then in 4 months (yes I know yet another deadline) Orihuela Council will hire subcontractors to do the work and use the bond money to pay for it. No actual figure of how many millions are involved or how it will be shared out between the urbanisations but it seems like a step in the right direction. Let's see what happens in 4 months.

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I noticed the other day whilst driving around with clients that on one of the developments owned by Technologica Urbanistica were having all the properties painted externally and swimming pools pools put in.

I was curious to know  if either technologica had got there act together slightly and so i have done some digging(asked one of my spanish friends,who seems to know everything including what time it will rain to the lottery numbers!)

He told me that the bank had taken the properties from TU and given them to another builder to sell hence the painting and fitting of pools!

Maybe there is some action being taken against TU after all................

Regards

Georgia

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From this week's Coastrider Newspaper.

TECNOLOGIA antics hit new low
Almost every week we hear from residents who are affected by the developer Tecnologia Urbanistica in some way. Last week, the developer hit an all time low when it failed to pay a water bill on time, leaving around 18 households in Torrevieja without running water for more than 36 hours.
The residents of Macarena III are regular visitors to the Tecnologia headquarters in Torrevieja. They arrived in force several weeks ago to ask for their electricity to be turned on, and were removed by the police. On this occasion, the group of residents split into two, with one small contingent again heading for the developer’s headquarters, and another larger group descending on Atlas International, the company which sold them the homes in the first place.
Neighbours Doreen Hogan and Linda Flower, who have lived on their urbanisation for almost three years, told me: “This is the first time our water has been cut off. We lose our electricity every two months. All we want to be able to do is to pay our own bills and live in peace, and not live in constant fear of being without basic utilities. This is not a third world country. We’ve come to Atlas International today because we feel it’s also their responsibility. They sold us the houses. We came here to live, not just to exist.”
Water company Aguamed did not even have the decency to tell the residents they were to be cut off. Instead, they demanded 3,000 euros from workmen who were on a building site behind the urbanisation. It was only when residents asked the workmen whether or not their building work had caused the lack of water that they learned it had happened through the failure of Tecnologia to pay its bill.
Doreen Hogan, an exnurse from the UK added: “This is a health hazard. Stagnant water lying in the toilet u-bend can cause Hepatitis B because the bacteria can form in the pipes. There must be a law against this.”
In fact, the EU constitution states a legal requirement for member states to provide potable water to all its citizens.
Atlas International did try to sort out the problem by calling Aguamed on behalf of the residents, however, they did not get very far owing to the fact that the bill is paid by Tecnologia. The other group who had gone straight to Tecnologia had a little more success, with assurances that water would return within a couple of hours.
It took longer than expected, with residents crossing their fingers that Aguamed would receive the money in time to send their technicians to the urbanisation before the weekend. The water did return when night fell, but according to one resident who telephoned me from her home, it was not Aguamed, but instead a Tecnologia vehicle seen in the vicinity. She saw the technician, under cover of darkness, attaching pipes to a water source. She said: “It all looked a little suspicious, but I don’t care where the water is coming from – it’s back and that’s all that matters for now.”
What really angers the residents of Macarena III more than anything is that they have each paid to have a water meter installed, thanks to urgent demands by Tecnologia.
Back in April this year, the urbanisation president received an ultimatum from the developer, telling residents to pay for a meter now, or get cut off. Now residents are asking, where has the money gone, and where are our meters? For now, the buckets can be put away, although residents suspect they’ll be out again before too long.
In Britain, there are strict laws governing access to water, and even persistent failure to pay a bill rarely results in a water company being allowed to withdraw the facility altogether. In Spain, it would appear that without warning, and through no fault of the residents affected, a fundamental human right can be taken away without a second thought. It would also appear that this developer is being allowed to continue to do exactly what it likes, regardless of the damage it is causing to ordinary, decent people.
R Griffin

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I know under the spanish rental laws, owners of the property MUST pay the utilities and not allow if to be cut off even if the tenant doesnt pay - so you would think a denouncia would work!

How appalling for the owners.

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Received a letter from the Trading Standards office in Dorking re the Atlas involvement in all this.  Apparently a meeting was set up but Atlas bowed out saying they wanted more time to investigate the complaints.  Another meeting has been called for just before Christmas.

I see Fly380 has received a similar letter.  I've written back to Trading Standards to point out that this has been going on for 5 years or more so why does Atlas need another month?  Anyhoo, hope things are progressing.

Edited to say it's all going to be too late for me.  Will have to sell up in UK and will end up with 2 properties in Spain , one of which I don't want but will have to continue paying taxes and community fees on.  Thank you the unholy Trinity.  Aroca solicitors haven't even had the decency to reply to my letters so I will be giving them a broadside when I visit next month.


This message was last edited by bobaol on 11/21/2007.

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Copy of reply from Surrey Trading Standards. 

ATLAS INTERNATIONAL PROPERTY SERVICES LIMITED

 

Thank you for reporting problems associated with your purchase of a property in Spain via Atlas International.

 

I have been forwarded your details and have collated the matters bought to our attention in order to obtain a response from Atlas International on the nature of your complaint.

This being with a number of other enquiries we have recently received.

 

Earlier this month an appointment was arranged to meet with Atlas International, at their Dorking office, on Thursday 15^th November 2007. Details of your matters were passed over with a number of other correspondence from other individuals prior to this proposed meeting.

 

Atlas International has appointed legal representatives to look into the nature of all complaints received.

Unfortunately they were unable to progress a formulated response by Thursday 15^th November 2007.

Thus the meeting with Atlas International had to be cancelled and has been rescheduled for Tuesday 18^th December 2007.

 

The purpose of the meeting will be to establish what position Atlas International hold on matters, as well as what they are prepared to and can do to resolve issues.

 

Please be assured that once the meeting is completed I will be responding back to all persons who have recently contacted our Service. Should you need to discuss anything further, my contact details are shown above.

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

 

K Mangat, Mr

Trading Standards Officer – Business Standards Team

 

 

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Again from this week's Costa Blanca News.

Have to type this out.

[b]Tecnologia expelled from builders' club.

Troubled construction company Tecnologia Urbanistica has been thrown out of the influential Procosta association which represents promoters and builders in the Veja Baja area.
Procosta president Antonio Navarro said the decision had been taken at a board meeting earlier this month.
Sr Navarro said that 'all the construction irregularities' which had come to light affecting clients of the company had led to the decision.
The Procosta president also said that in his opinion if Tecnologia Urbanistica wants to put right the problems affecting buyers all over the south Costa Blanca they should be able to do so because they have a large pool of land in reserve to sell.
Sr Navarro also conceded that he did not know the full extent of the problems which are facing buyers of Tecnologia Urbanistica homes.

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Technologia Urbanistica in 1st place. An extract from an article in this week's Coastrider.

 

It was also the year when many expat residents grew tired of waiting for their urbanisations to be finished, and went public for the first time. Tecnologia Urbanistica was the year’s number one abuser, when it was discovered that many people living on this developer’s unfinished urbanisations also had builder’s mortgages on their properties.
Tecnologia was recently booted out of Procosta, an organisation representing Spanish constructors, but despite all the bad publicity, this company continues to leave people with no electricity, water, and huge debts on their properties

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From today's Coastrider Newspaper

Tecnologia home owners run out of water, and ideas
Two Tecnologia urbanisations in Orihuela Costa suffered cuts to their water supply last week as the builder once more failed to pay its bills on time.
Last year, CoastRider reported on an elderly lady in Torrevieja whose urbanisation was the first to report the loss of its water supply. Now, others are suffering the same fate. For many Tecnologia urbanisations non-payment of electricity bills by this developer became a common occurrence during 2007, however, for many, last week was the first time their water supply dried up.
Dorinda James of El Galan, who recently delivered a speech to the Spanish press in Orihuela, describing the conditions under which she and others on the coast were forced to live, was affected by the recent water cuts.
Mrs James currently has to live with a reduced electricity supply, which if overloaded, causes her own supply to trip and her neighbours’ as well.
Mrs James, with a neighbour, tried to arrange a meeting with Councillor Jose Aniorte at Playa Flamenca Town Hall, but were told that their water problems were nothing to do with the town hall, and that she should instead take up the issue with the builder and the courts. Mrs James said: “I have run out of ideas.”
A call from a resident of Bosque Lomas III also told a similar story of people reaching the limits of their patience.
PSOE Councillor Rosa Martinez, who arranged a press conference last week in Orihuela, brought the water cuts to the attention of the Spanish media, together with Mrs James and her neighbour. Ms Martinez has long campaigned on the Tecnologia issue, and also for the many people living on unfinished urbanisations built by other developers in Orihuela Costa. The opposition councillor also paid visits to the Macarena II urbanisation and Bosque Lomas VIII in the same week.
Councillor Rosa Martinez also told the British press and PSOE representatives that Councillor Jose Aniorte had arranged a meeting for all presidents on urbanisations which do not possess certificates of habitation. No official notice has been issued by the Town Hall, however, Councillor Aniorte confirmed the meeting would be taking place with Mrs James. The meeting is to take place this Friday, 25 January at 11.30 at Playa Flamenca Town Hall.
While it would appear that the meeting is open to urbanisation presidents only, Mrs James has been told by Councillor Aniorte that she is ‘allowed’ to attend. No official protest has been organised but it is expected that several people will want to reinforce their views on the Tecnologia crisis and bring other unfinished urbanisations to the attention of the town hall.
Around 200 people took to the streets in Orihuela in November 2007 for an unofficial demonstration.
It is not clear what Councillor Aniorte will be announcing at the meeting, however, pressure is mounting for something to be done. With 2008 expected to be a tough year for the housing market, the town hall needs to act now to prevent further damage to the area’s already shaky reputation, and to protect its citizens from the abuses of developers.
Rebecca Griffin

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Hi Fly:

is it true what you said on your november post about the town hall finishing the sites within 4 months if nothing happens from TU? where did u get this info from? A friend of mine lives in Bosque 28 and as you may know they all live there with no poo and it is a right messl!!!!

let's see if there is any light and the end of the tunnel!!

blanca

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This is what our President was told but now the Townhall are saying they will only pay for external works outside the urbanisation such as pavements. You really can't trust them.

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This from today's Coastrider Newspaper.

Tecnologia homeowners seek alternative legal advice
International law firm, Irwin Mitchell, which specialises in class actions against property developers, has been approached by several Tecnologia home owners for advice in light of the recent meeting at Orihuela Costa town, which left many residents disappointed that the authorities could do nothing more to alleviate the problems caused by this developer.
Confusing messages from all parties, and recent correspondence from Atlas International, who have been instructed by UK Trading Standards to respond to individual complaints, have now led some to explore the possibility of using an alternative law firm, one that has had successes against big developers elsewhere in Spain.
Lawyer Jose Maria de Lorenzo told me: “I have been able to make some preliminary enquiries but we await being formally instructed before being able to go any further with legal action. However from what we have seen in one case I can confirm there is a builders/ developers mortgage on the property which will, by now, have substantially increased from the initial amount. According to the documentation already available I suspect there is also no bank guarantee.”
“This means that if Tecnologia Urbanistica fails to pay their mortgage repayments or goes into liquidation the bank will have the option of enforcing the debt by repossessing the properties unless of course it is paid off by the homeowner.

We now need to legitimately demand such information from the implicated parties, and that means that we need to be formally instructed by at least one affected person.” “If the situation worsens then emergency actions will be required and these are always more expensive remedies rather than prevention.
As they have done in the cases of Albox, and Almanzora, Irwin Mitchell are happy to accept the invitation made by many affected people but clearly it must be productive.”
The PSOE opposition party has also been in touch with Jose Maria de Lorenzo, and confirmed that the lawyer will soon be visiting the area, although Sr Lorenzo confirmed that afree surgery would only take place if he received an instruction to represent a client.
However, the PSOE has organised a public meeting to take place at Asturias Restaurant at 5.30pm on Tuesday 26 February. The purpose of the meeting is to gather feedback from affected urbanisations about what action they are now taking, and party members also hope to be able to impart further information from Sr Lorenzo.
For those interested in seeking advice from Sr Lorenzo at Irwin Mitchell, you can email spainenquiries@irwinmitchell.com.
Rebecca Griffin

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Hi Fly  Any chance of you updating your location on your profile. Thanks.

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COSTA BLANCA NEWS

Habitation licences granted after three year wait by Nuria Pérez and Alex Watkins

ONE hundred and nine homes in Macarena 2 urbanisation in Orihuela Costa have had their compulsory habitation certificates (cédulas de habitabilidad) issued by the town hall after a three-year wait.

Councillor for the coast José Antonio Aniorte said builder Tecnología Urbanística had finally finished the urbanisation.

Sr Aniorte said: “We had a meeting with the company three months ago because they were not doing anything. We threatened them with using the financial guarantee which they put down to finish the works.”

Macarena 2 is the first urbanisation to be finished because work was more advanced than in other urbanisations, he added.

However the councillor admitted 25 to 30 urbanisations have still not been finished.

He explained that builders have been given two weeks to finish the works or they will lose their seven per cent guarantee which is supposed to protect homeowners from these situations.

However, residents on other urbanisations built by Tecnología Urbanística will have to wait much longer.

Sr Aniorte explained: “The town hall has offered more time to Tecnología because most of the unfinished urbanisations were built by them.

“We will wait and see Tecnología’s intentions. If they do not keep on finishing the urbanisations, we will have another meeting with the company.”

The habitation certificate opens the door to most services. Residents in Macarena 2 are now allowed to sign on the municipal census (padrón) and to contract mains water and electricity instead of having to rely on the builder’s faulty supply.

The endless demonstrations and pressure put on the town hall by residents had been decisive, councillor Jose Antonio Aniorte admitted.

“We told the company this situation had to change,” he said.

“Residents were knocking on the town hall’s door nearly every day.”

President of Macarena 2 Angela Chambers told CB News she was ‘really quite chuffed’ and they were going to celebrate with an urbanisation barbecue.

“I just wish they could sort out getting people their deeds as this is the biggest thing hanging over their heads,” she said.

Socialist party (PSOE) councillor Rosa Martínez – who has been supporting the residents affected by Tecnología’s unfinished urbanisations – estimated nearly 2,000 families are suffering.

She said the PSOE would keep on working on the matter.

“This is good news for Orihuela Costa residents,” she said.

“Builders have had four years to finish the urbanisations.

“We will watch it does not take them another four years.

“We will ask the town hall to use the financial guarantee to finish the work if builders fail with the proposed schedule.

“A lot of work must be carried out still to provide Orihuela Costa residents with a normal life.”

nperez@cbnews.es

This message was last edited by morerosado on 3/7/2008.

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Well the problems of Tecnologia Urbanistica go on. How are they allowed to stay in business. I would have thought it was the responsibity of The Townhall to sort out the problems of La Zenia Elite and use some of the funds deposited by the developer with them. In the meantime many other urbanisations remain unfinished and without Habitation Certificates and after years many of us still have no deeds so no signing on The Padron making everyday life more difficult. Below an article in today's Leader Newspaper. A Summer Without Power By Gemma Quinn (gemma@theleader.info) (Published: 06/07/2008 Edition No.: 219) The state of the unfinished urbanisa More troubles for residents in La Zenia Elite as generator is now running empty. As temperatures rise, so do the tempers of residents of one La Zenia urbanisation currently facing a summer with any electricity supply. The Residential Colinas de la Zenia Elite urbanisation was cut off several weeks ago after news broke that builder Tecnologia Urbanistica owed Iberdrola around 160,000€. A generator was installed for residents, but now, they are not even putting in any diesel and, when the ‘Leader’ visited last Thursday, the residents had been days without power. We met with Wally Tynan, president of phase 2, who explained that since the builders owe so much money, Iberdrola have cut off the supply, leaving them, literally, in the dark. Despite being on builder’s supply, he says residents are more than happy to be connected to the mains and pay their own way so they are in charge of their own destiny but says he is getting nowhere. “I went to see Iberdrola to see if we paid this bill privately, they would put us on the supply but they said no. Iberdrola have cut the main underground cable so Tecnologia can’t re-connect it so we have nothing.” He continued, “We have 67 dwellings on phase 2, 18 are unsold. We have tried to have an electrician come and sort out the electrics and he wanted 6000€ and he wanted to see the architects plans, but he has not been paid by Tecnologia either and wanted 6000€ before he would release the plans!” As an urbanisation, they have recently paid for an independent surveyor to come and look at the whole development and the state it has been left in by the builders and the quote returned, to complete the works and to get the urbanisation to a standard it should be, has come in at 170,000€ - a figure totally unreachable for these unfortunate residents. Mr Tynan and his wife will be ‘celebrating’ their second anniversary of living in their home this August, not that there will be much to celebrate apart from 2 years without a TV, 2 years without a phone line and 2 years of sporadic water and electricity supply. As they gratefully carry a lead from a neighbouring urbanisation in to their house they can at least maintain running their fridge for a few more days. This is not the case for one neighbour. The family is on holiday here until the middle of August from Ireland. The husband and wife are struggling with their two young children and the grandparents are due to arrive to join the family. Originally from Madrid, the wife is shocked and disgusted at the events and that they have been left literally stranded without basic human supplies saying it is like a third world country and she has never heard of anything like this elsewhere in Spain. She has lost a fridge full of food and is struggling to heat up bottles to feed her children. She is constantly camping outside the doors of Tecnologia’s offices along with the President to demand action is taken. Mr Tynan says he has been making daily visits to the Town Hall and has even had a meeting with the deputy Mayor in Orihuela but no conclusion has yet been found. “I spent two and a half hours there but they are doing nothing. Each day produces another bill the builder has not paid and now Tecnologia can’t even pay to keep the generator doing…I don’t know where we are supposed to find all this money from or how residents can continue living here. Someone has to be responsible for this and help us out.”
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So Fly, did you find out if TU has definitely filed for bankruptcy ? I see Tornado who used to post on EOS told you yesterday in another forum that she had evidence they had. 

For our members this was her post .............. 

"it is from a reliable source. Just had this news from our administrator and wanted to pass it on , TU has definitely filed for bankruptcy. I know its not good news but at least this is solid news and not rumor".

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No. I have found out nothing. I have heard the rumour so many times in the past 3 years.

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Taken fromTHE COASTRIDER 

COSTLY DEEDS

In another twist to the tale in the Tecnologia Urbanistica saga, the residents of Macarena II have been given demands letters.
Before Tecnologia will release the title deeds to the owners they are demanding between €5000 and €9000 per property.
The letters were sent by Aroca, the firm of solicitors employed by the residents of Macarena II to deal with Tecnologia, and try to get the title deeds released from Tecnologia, for without the deeds none of the property owners can sell their properties. All of which have been fully paid for.
The content of the letter from Aroca sets out the demands from Tecnologia that the following bills be paid before Tecnologia will sign over the deeds:
Tecnologia want each property owner to pay the bill of €1950.00, for builders’ water and electricity from three years ago. All the properties have habitation certificates and are connected to mains water and electricity.
Owners are required to pay off a mortgage cancellation fee of €1150.00. This is not from a mortgage taken out by the property owners but by Tecnologia themselves, to finance the building of the properties.
Demands are also being made for payment of the Suma on the properties for the last four years. The owners refute this because for the past four years the properties have remained in Tecnologica’s name and not the name of the property owner. “Had they released the title deeds then we would have had no issues with paying the Suma,” said one resident. A meeting with a representative of the bank that held the mortgages on the property said that they had levied no mortgage cancellation charges on Tecnologia.
But Tecnologia are not the only ones trying to get more money from the owners, Atlas is also trying to charge people several hundred Euros extra for late payment charges. This has infuriated those concerned, as one told us, “Everybody paid Atlas the monies that were due when Atlas asked for them and they have receipts showing this.”
Altogether between Tecnologia and Atlas, people are being asked to pay between €5000 - €9000 extra to receive their deeds. When people bought their properties five years ago everybody paid between €3200.00 and €4500.00 to pay for all of the cost. Those that did receive their deeds were given a refund of approximately €900 to €1200. It would seem that money has now been swallowed up in costs. Now five years further down the line the remaining owners still do not have title deeds, and are now being forced to pay a considerable additional sum to have those deeds.
The resident who originally contacted the CoastRider said, “We are all extremely angry on Macarena II and we will not pay these extra costs which are the builders not ours. If these costs were indeed true then surely they should be shared amongst the other residents of Macarena II as well. But as they clearly have no hold over those that already have their title deeds they are putting unfair pressure on us. It is time that they gave us what it rightfully ours and hand over the title deeds. It is not as if they have not got a bad enough name at the moment. If they have any chance of resurrecting themselves from this mess, then they need to be seen to be acting fairly.” The same resident added, “When Aroca our appointed solicitors, were asked what they intended to do about this being our legal representatives they just shrugged their shoulders and recommended that we pay the charges.”
Surely there should be a controlling body that has the power to hand out hefty fines and even bring cases to court against developers. They wonder why there is a slump in the property market?
It is time to clean up the act.
Sean McSeveney

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Scandalous! It's Aroca's fault that we never got our deeds in the first place. If they had done their job properly this situation wouldn't have arisen.

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Totally agree.  This farce has gone on long enough and the unholy trinity of Atlas/Aroca/TU should face legal proceedings over this.  If Aroca had passed me a bill when I finally got my deeds (after over 5 years) I would have threatened to sue them for malpractice.  As it was, I had to pay the tax on the "black" money difference between the true value and what was on the final deeds (about 1400 euros).  If there were any justice, Atlas would have had to pay that amount.

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