Whilst on holiday in Spain recently it was obvious that our apartment is not going to be ready at the end of September 2009 as per our contract. The apartments are almost built but nothing else has been done. All surrounding areas where the swimming pool and roads etc should be are still a building site and the golf course which should be ready for the first clients moving in hasn't even been started.
As a result we instructed our solicitors to notify the developers that we would not be continuing with the purchase as this does not resemble what we were sold. ( i.e. the pictures and information in the promotional material we have). Our solicitors have advised that our bank guarantee states the property should have been handed over to us by April 2009. The solicitors have presented this to the bank and are awaiting their reply but they have warned us that the bank will try everything in their power not to pay and as a result we will need to raise a court action. After reading other threads on this I guess are chances in being successful would be small.
The solicitors also advised that the developers will not accept cancelling the contract as the suspensive condition was carried out in time. It could be cancelled justifying delay in delivering the property, but the delay should be long enough (at least a year) as nowadays Judges do not accept to cancel contracts in which there is a short delay" Is this true?
So basically we have a bank guarantee that we probably cannot enforce and a contract that states completion due by September 2009 which we can't take action on until September 2010. Am I missing something here? I was under the impression the contract was there to protect both the buyer and the developer but it would appear it only protects the developer as it can be changed to suit them accordingly when things don't go their way.
We are at the stage now where we feel we would not like to throw any more money at Spain and just walk away from the whole fiasco. Does anyone know if that would be an option i.e withdraw from the contract and forego the deposit. Is anything that simple.
Any advice greatly appreciated
K