forced complete

[Lawbird Lawyer]

Dear Sir,

Of course. Developers can force you to complete on a property which has attained a Licence of First Occupation (aka LFO) (fully legal) as per Art. 1504 of the Spanish Civil Code. This is known as "Forced Completion". They will compell you to complete before a Spanish Notary Public on a certain day and time by means of recorded delivery (i.e. "burofax") to the address you provided in the Private Purchase Contract (PPC), normally your appointed conveyance lawyer's office.

Forced completion is also covered in my article on avoiding off-the-plan pitfalls (specifically read point five):

Buying Property In Spain Tips Part II. Off-Plan Property - 18th April 2010

Failure to do so will result in them not only withholding the deposits as laid out in the PPC but more importantly also they will now be free to take legal action against you for breach of contract as you failed to complete.

It's up to them to decide on whether it's worthwhile or not to pursue legal action against you even in your home country as its a fairly protracted and drawn-out process. Some do, some don't. But they certainly can if they want to. My recommendation is you seek legalk advice from a UK solicitor on the details of sucha procedure and -legal- ways to counter it.

It is something that quite definitely does happen.

Please read real life's example of developer's threat to complete:

http://www.eyeonspain.com/forums/posts-long-7277.aspx

http://www.eyeonspain.com/forums/posts-long-8175.aspx

http://www.eyeonspain.com/community-...ompletion.aspx

http://www.eyeonspain.com/community-...-to-court.aspx

http://www.eyeonspain.com/forums/posts-long-10797.aspx

Even developer's under Judicial Admnistration can force you to complete once the LFO is attained. The fact they are under an Insolvency procedure does not stop them legally from being able to compel you to complete ex Art's 1124 and 1504 of the SCC.

Developers on attaining a Spanish ruling which is final (meaning it cannot be appealed in Spain) can execute it against your UK assets following EU Directive 44/2001 which is applicable to all EU members, and that includes of course the UK and the ROI. In fact as it's a two-way street our law firm has set-up a legal service whereby we act on behalf of UK creditors wishing to seize debtor's assets located in Spain:

Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Court Rulings



Examples of legal queries we've received over the years on the matter of forced completion:

Can our builder sue us and force us to complete after keeping our deposit?
Andrew

chased to complete
abo07

Can a Spanish Developer force us to sell our house in the UK?
Lynne

What remedies does a developer have to enforce completion
Unregistered

Will i lose my uk home
Unregistered

If we fail to pay our stage payments, can a developer sue us in England?
Simom


Yours faithfully,
Raymundo LarraÃ*n Nesbitt