Serious Concerns About El Patio de Doña Julia
The development known as El Patio de Doña Julia, built by developer Evemarina is poised to become a real mess if our fears are confirmed. The chronology of events leading to Evemarina´s insolvency is known to those involved, except for the fact that the developer may have sold the whole development on the 21st of August 2009 to a company associated with Caja Rural, the savings bank financing the development.
We are naturally very worried, as we represent a large number of clients in El Patio de Doña Julia, most of whom already expressed their desire to pull out of the transaction due to a number of reasons, namely late delivery, faulty construction and presumably a lesser value than that reflected in the contract. So after we sent notice of cancellation (requesting full refund), and we received a letter back from the developer rejecting our demands and intimating that they would pursue our clients, it may soon transpire that the whole development has been handed back to the bank through a sale to a company called “Gestion de Inmuebles Virgen de los Peligros” (which in Spanish means nothing less than Virgin Danger Property Managers), without notifying legitimate purchasers with a valid contract.
Unfortunately Evemarina’s insurer ACC Zurich Insurance also rejected our attempts to cash the insurance policies on grounds that completion –with habitation license- had taken place in a timely manner, that is, before the final date to deliver the units agreed to in the contract. This date has attracted much controversy as it established an discretionary extension that has allowed Evemarina to finalize the works, in our opinion, without breaking the contract (thus preventing our clients to invoke this getaway clause so as to abandon a project for which they no longer had their hearts on).
If the above is confirmed, we can be faced with a scandal of significant proportions as not only Evemarina’s directors, but also the savings bank property management company, could be deemed to have engaged in a fraudulent scheme by selling the same properties twice without refunding the advance payments to the first buyers (in the case of Evemarina), and buying the units knowing that these had already been previously sold on a private purchase contract (in the case of Gestion de Inmuebles Virgen de los Peligros, AKA Caja Rural). This, may I add, will in most countries be construed as a criminal offense punishable with prison terms.
We will post regular updates on this blog post as we obtain fresh information.