Las Torrentas: Another Example of a Typical Award Winning Property Fiasco
It is not unusual for the build up of a property fiasco to start like this:
… at a glittering awards ceremony held at the London Marriot in Grosvenor Square on Friday 4th of November, The Harrial Group representing the Las Torrentas Development won the best architecture (Whole Development) in the Bentley International Property Awards- the world’s biggest and most important property event”
It then gathers momentum with abundant advertorial news articles where the development receives the highest praises for being the best of its kind…on the drawing board.
The proponents of Las Torrentas, a 150 home development in the Spanish countryside town of Calasparra, The Harrial Group S.L. were directors Linda and Andrew Jones, a couple from Abergavenny, South Wales. And so excited they were that they convinced the mayor of this small agricultural town, if persuasion was at all required, to meet Abergavenny Town Council with a view to establishing a new twinning relationship between the Spanish and Welsh towns.

And then the Jones’, in a fit of hysterical excitement probably fuelled by the sums of unsecured deposits that were being transferred to their accounts by trusting purchasers, and the underserved and silly Bentley award, got confident and wrote a letter stating, among other things, that “about 15 years ago, when my husband Andrew and I started investing in property, we were shocked by the low standards of some developers”
Well, 15 years on, shocked-turned-shocking Andrew and Linda Jones have done a runner with other people’s money and are keeping a low profile, hiding presumably in Abergavenny.
Due diligence carried out on the development reveals the following:
- The Harrial Group Spain S.L. never had planning permission on the plot(s), and yet they confirmed that completion would take place on the first six months of 2008. On the 6th of May 2006 a public announcement on the official local gazette declared a period of 30 days for submission of allegations in respect of the proposed Las Torrentas project, indicating that once this stage is over, a report on ecological impact assessment will be drawn up with a view to determine the convenience of approving the project and if positive, the conditions under which it is to be carried out. The project has now been indefinitely shelved.
- The Harrial Group Spain S.L. never provided bank guarantees to their customers. Clearly, when the funds were taken by the developer, he knew or should or could have known that the probability of the project stalling was very high, and yet chose to exchange contracts, request payment and fail to provide a bank guarantee.
- The Harrial Group Spain S.L. has never filed company accounts with the Companies House (Alicante), since it was first created (!), which is indicative of business malpractice and lack of activity.
- The Harrial Group Spain S.L. entry with the Companies House has been cancelled due to not having submitted tax returns, with date 19/07/201, which is indicative of business malpractice and lack of activity.
- Press and media: What dealings did the Jones’ have with the Calasparra Town Hall are unknown, but a payment of €160,000 was made so that they would reclassify enough land to build 150 villas in an area considered of high ecological value given the presence of river rats, partridges and other animals as well as local agricultural land.
- And what about the development plot? All we have found is half acre of arable land suitable for…rice-growing.
Conclusions to be drawn from this:
- The Jones’, infamously advised by local lawyers, have misappropriated others peoples monies and could face prison terms in application of current jurisprudence where a property developer has not guaranteed the down payment nor has offered a refund.
- Stay well away from Bentley International Property Awards awardees, just in case.
- Always have a disclaimer opportunistically stating that “we do not hold responsibility for any errors and we cannot be held reliable directly or indirectly for any loss whatsoever”. You can then add, for full protection, something along the lines of “we are entitled to take your monies and run, and shall not be held responsible for not looking back”.

Try to guess what is it that the following have in common: an electrical company from Alicante, a cement subcontractor from Valencia, a real estate company from the Balearics, the Spanish Inland Revenue, the Spanish Social Security, 6 banks and 65 employees (2 of which guard an empty plot), on the one side, and 150 consumers that were hoping to acquire Spanish off-plan property on the other.
Since getting involved in legal action pertaining to unfinished-or-never-started-developments (e.g. by Ochando S.A., Promociones Eurohouse S.L. and Grupo San José Construcciones e Inversiones S.A.), one thing that I have found rather incomprehensible, from the perspective of a law firm actively pursuing the return of off-plan deposits, which should have been placed “in escrow” or backed by a bank guarantee, is the inconsistent and conflicting information on points of law that is being circulated by all manner of participants (lawyers, developers, group actions, banks, internet forums etc.).
The Provincial Audience in Cordoba recently passed an interesting sentence in a dispute between an off-plan property purchaser and a developer, on account of the inability of the former to complete the purchase due to lack of financing and the unwillingness of the latter to refund the deposit, on those grounds.
It sometimes happens that, when you start off a new business venture where reputation is considered to be crucial, you need to start off with a slate cleaner than clean. Of course, it is quite possible that one has left a few debts unpaid, particularly with lending entities (who cares, really!) and perhaps a bit of social security or taxes, as they are the last to the get paid, generally.
Today I’m going to talk about a case that, without a hint of doubt, will trigger someone into spewing the type of nonsense “that Spanish judges will favour Spanish nationals at the expense of the poor Brits, major investors in Spain and yet victims of a judicial system clearly biased, racist, etc.”
The title is very unsettling and surely, libel action material by anyone’s standards. But sadly, it is exactly what is being done by Inmobiliaria Peñarroya, developer for La Reserva de Marbella, to uphold the legality of these properties in courts.
Mr. Macanthony is waiving the banner of victory and some calculated dose of persecution mania since knowing that the “Audiencia Nacional” has chosen to defer the criminal complaint filed for swindle and misappropriation to the Courts in Marbella. Alas, he has conveniently omitted the fact that the Courts have not made any comment on the claim itself other that stating that this likely criminal activity is to be heard elsewhere.

My client has had a narrow escape: having been notified in early March by the courts that his property was to be auctioned by Danske Bank, at 11:00h of the 8th of June 2011, we managed to obtain from the same court a ruling suspending the auction exactly…24 hours before (just like that one last call from the Alabama Governor…)