With Ref to ADH

Hi my name is Mark Costelloe,

Myself and my wife bought 3 no. of apartments in Jardine del Mar in Duquesa from Promaga trough ADH in August 05 by their salesman  Darren Mc Dermott and were promised that two of them would be sold on well before completion with an Approx profit of 30%, We paid over €12,000 there as a booking deposit on three apartments. We were introduced to Rocio Perez of Lawyers of Spain at this time and were brought thru the contracts with Rocio with the full intenision of selling two apartments and keeping one apartment which was stated clearly and agreed on. We came home and got the deposit togeather of approx €170,000 and wired it to Lawyers of Spain Account. I was back in Spain about 6 mounths later and went into ADH'S offices to meet Darren and he assured me that everything was allright and everything was on track, I came home in good sprits at that time and about 6 mounths later I rang ADH to be told that Darren no longer works there and they have changed their policey on selling on uncompleted units and this is where the fun starts we tried to contact Rocio Perez at Lawyers of Spain to be told she doses not work their anymore and I was put onto a other Lawyer who informed me that the Spanish Goverment had changed the rules on buying property I flew over to Spain to try and sort the mess out only to be told I must close on all three apartments or lose all my despoits as I can not close on the three apartments can anyone please tell me where I stand on this as We are very worried about this and can anyone tell us when this law was brought in by the Spanish Goverment and when was it knowen about coming in. Yours Hopefully Mark Costelloe

Hi Mark,

Sorry to hear your sad tale, it seems only too common. The agents get paid from the deposit you paid, so they have no interest, and moany could not sell on a resale at an increased price even in the boom times as the developer paid so much more commission than for a resale! Nowadays its virtually impossible as the prices of offplans have dropped dramatically leaving most in negative equity before they have even completed.

Im unclear as to what part of Spanish purchase law has changed? I can only assume where the proeprty changes hands from you to the next purchaser. In the old days, people did what you have done, placed deposits and then sold on the units, pocketing the difference and usually in cash. The law was tightened up so that the origianl buyer (you) had to declare the full amount and pay a 7% transfer tax to the new buyer, thereby ensuring the governement made its money and you would also have paid capital gains tax on the profit.

Many developers used to allow the transfer to go through, but as it is an admin nightmare, many now dont allow it, but it really depends on what your contract states. If its in the contract, the the developer cannot refuse this, if it was an oral agreement then forget it.

Coming back to completion, you may have a case of pulling out as I know of several buyers who have had anything from 50% to all of their deposits returned on the basis they cannot gain a mortgage due to the finacial crisis.

Best person to get hold of is Maria de Castro, she is a lawyer on this forum and has helped many. Without the full story anjd just as importantly the paperwork you have, it would not be possible to see what grounds you have.

You can as last resort try to negotiate with the developer - I know someone trying to do that now where he is being forced to complete or forfeit the deposit, yet the develoepr prices themselves have dropped so much that he cannot get the valuation needed in order to secure the mortgage promised!!!

Good luck and dont give up - keep shouting at your lawyers, the agency and the developer - they may try to do something at some stage!

Hi Costalot,  ADH no good for bussiness. We had a bad experience with them however managed to get our deposit back. You may know this but just in case, now they have changed their name to property-revolution (www.property-revolution.com). Alos we had lawyers of spain throught them. The firm splited up and  (you say Rocio Perez but could it be Raquel Perez?) one of the partners, Raquel Perez, has her own firm (ingo@perezlegalgroup.com    +34952833169. I know they have tried to "poach" clients from each other as they tried with us so perhaps you may contact them and as they are the oposition now, might help you!

Good luck, it is a very bumpy road. They are crafty salesmen pushing you to split your deposit into a number of properties    with the offer of a very easy and quick profit even if they know it is not so. Thanks god we did not fall for it.

Mark,

Hi there I sent you a PM (private message)! months ago, but I suspect your private message has not yet been activated?  Get Justin of EOS to activate ASAP!

We met when you were with the Lawyers of Spain (LOS) Lawyer in the office at ADH, we then met again in the port of Duquesa just before you went home.  We had bought a 2 bed and we were all laughing about how much of a good investment these would be?  How wrong were we all...

I hope you can see my reply by PM once activated and look forward to hearing from you soon.

Mark & Denise Barton