Can I legally be forced to complete?

Hi there

My apartment is complete although my company has gone into administration. I am not a creditor - I suppose I am debtor really , I saw no bank guarantee but the company did not meet its agreed obligations. In effect I have lost 60k euros in deposits. I still want a place - because of price reduction I can afford a resale. Can the company chase after me and ask me to complete? At wordt can I just walk away and forget about my deposits? Reason I don't want to complete is that the apartment and community is very poor quality - not completed as agreed - they were getting into trouble by the time they got round to my place.

I would advise you to ask for the cancellation of the contrcat due to those lacks and breaches you refer and to intervene in the creditor´s meeting for the protection of your credit. 60k is  a lot of money. Is not?

Dear CS,

According to your email, at the moment you are a creditor of the developer for 60k.

If the developer asks you to complete, then they could enforce completion... in theory. But in practice, this becomes dificult if you don't have other assets in Spain.

If you have not been asked yet to complete (I mean if they have not formally notified you that the house is ready and you have to complete), then you may have a way out, but for this I would need to see the contract. There are many clauses in a contract that may be abusive or may draw a "way out" of having to complete a purchase that today, for whatever reason, is not of your interest.

Many contracts do not have a specific completion date, or do not include a description of the property, or do not include the consequences of not completing, or include a clause saying the sale is subject to the approval of a mortgage, etc. All these can be used to find a way out and ask for your money back, plus compensation and interest, if applicable..

Please feel free to contact us if you request more information.

Kind regards

Thanks Maria and Abolex.

I have asked my solicitor to cancel the contract two weeks ago but he has not responded to my email. Speed does not seem to be his best point. I have no idea how long the cancellation of the contract would take. I have stuck with the same solicitor now for more than three years and it has been an uneasy relationship at best but it is hard to know what to do and even more difficult to bring about changing things when you lack faith in the system.

He says we are debtors not creditors. We have not had any formal request to complete - perhaps this is because the company is under administration. My Spanish isn't brilliant but I know enough to know that some of the detail you refer to is not there.

For example completion date is definitely missing - there is actually a space in the contract. Formal description of the apartment is not in the contract - i.e. in terms of quality and facilities but the companies provided models and promotional materials that showed what would be provided. There is no reference to a bank guarantee.

I am wanting to go ahead and buy something else but without any risk this time - and safe in the knowledge that I won't get forced to complete on this property. I am looking in Portugal as well as Spain now - at least I would not have property in Spain that is at risk.

CS