29 Nov 2009 8:49 PM:

it's good to see that i'm not alone... i'm just not sure where to start.

I too have been ripped off and lied too by the developers, the estate agents, and the solicitors.

I signed my contract for appartment 63 in phase 4 back in June 2005. I did as much research as possible, and was taken in by the whole thing. I was introduced to the complex by Jim Reeves of UK estate agent - Phoenix Overseas (who washed his hands of any responsibility as soon as he could). Jim took me to site where we met a local esate agent Robert Cwyl... and betweem them, they span me the biggest web of lies imaginable.

They introduced me to a legal firm called AG2 in Torrevieja who pretended act on my behalf. In reality the whole thing was a set up from start to finish.. and AG2 should be struck off.  I was assured that my deposit would be held in escrow with a bank gaurantee.. so should the worse happen, then i'd get my deposit back. The contract also has a section which states i would be able to get my money back if the property wasn't completed within 2 years, and i had given "official' notice of cancellation. To add to this, the estate agents paperwork mentioend that you could sell the property on before completion (which isn't legal in Spain) and that there was a gauranteed rental scheme... which also doesn't exist.

So... 2 years came, the property wasn't completed, so i tried to instruct AG2 to go through the process of cancelling the contact. They were oddly reluctant to do this, so i jumped onto a plane and turned up at their offices. They simply would not listen to me, and kept telling me that it was a complete waste of time to complete a notorial demand for cancelling the contract. However as i was adament, and had already booked a meeting for us at the Notary, i insisted.. and had to point out that Ag2 were employed by me and not the developers.

Just as we were about to head over the road to the public notary, the solicitors produced a portfolio of official looking papers which had apparently just arrived by courier with all of the licenses for the development... and as such, it would be pointless trying to cancel the contracts, so i might as well just complete the contract and send them the rest of the money!

Needless to say, i smelt a rat (a BIG one), so i insisted and almost had to drag Eva (the solicitor) over the road to notary. An couple of hours later we were sat in front of a Notary, who asked me what the problem was, and what did i want. I explained the situation, and after a brief inspection, he pointed out that the "officla" papers for my development, were actually for a different complex, and that i should sack my solicitors immediatly.

Which, i promptly did.

I have since found a decent chap (or at least he appears to be) called Gonzalo Chao info@spanish-lawyer.org who has been working on my behalf for 14 months. I've had to pay around 3000 Euros to get to the point where the developers should now have received official notice of my intent to sue them a few weeks ago (Oct 09).

I was told it would only take 3 -4  weeks back in Jan 09, however it's taken an entire year for the case to be appointed to a judge, and the papers to be sent.

AG2 are crooks, Phoenix Overseas properties are not to be trusted and Robert Cwyl should be in prison -  i hope that someone at the developers ends up in prison.

I will try to update this blog once i've had my 15 minutes in court. If anyone wants to contact me - jess.thompson-hughes @ hotmail. com should work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thread: Rio Park Bank Guarantee Promised But Not Issued

--------------------------------------