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The Spanish Lawyer Online

Antonio Flores’ Blog

Thoughts about laws and regulations which affect foreigners in Spain

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Posts Tagged ‘Don Juan Phase III’

Buy-To-Let Investors Backing Out of Spanish Off-Plan Deals Face Court Action

October 9th, 2009

Promaga/Vista Hermosa, Hercesa Dona Julia, Altos de Alcaucin and Arrohabitatge/Don Juan are some of the developers/developments which, having read a recent article published on the Daily Telegraph titled Buy-to-let investors backing out of off-plan deals face court action, are now avidly typing their lawsuits. The article goes on to say:

UK Buy-to-let investors reneging on off-plan property purchase contracts need to be aware that they risk losing more than just their deposits, warns City law firm Wedlake Bell. It said “hundreds of buy-to-let investors have already been pursued through the courts for trying to wriggle out of off-plan contracts'”.

Developers have 2 options if they want to cause concern to their (still) clients:

  1. Option 1: they can file a suit in their countries of origin through the local Courts as the address on the contract is normally their home address.
  2. Option 2: they can file a suit in Spain in accordance to the jurisdiction clause (which invariably says Spanish Courts are competent) and request that the suit in notified in the Uk, or if the address for notification is their lawyers’ address, have defendants summoned through the former. A favourable Court sentence can then be enforced in the UK.

It may sound as if I wanted to take sides and encourage these horrible developers, as some want to put them, to take away the sleep from Spanish off-plan property buyers, but far from this it is a warning that these things happen here as they are already happening in Britain and presumably an various other countries. It is therefore not something exclusive to Spain as in fact Council Regulation (EC) No 44/2001 of 22 December 2000 on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters is applicable to all the UE and is now being used with success by claimants all over Europe.

On my next post I will explain how we are using this EU regulation in an interesting (and reverse) case against OceanView Properties and Manilva Costa S.A.. Our client sued these 2 companies for contractual default in the purchase of a property in a development known as Gardens of Manilva and won the case. We are now enforcing the sentence in Seville, where the developer is based, and are not expecting any disruptions in the process of having it accepted and upheld as, after all, Europe is now a one big country!

Litigation, Property , , , , , , , ,

Don Juan the Offender

August 13th, 2009

Originally conceived by Tirso de Molina in the 17th century and made internationally famous by Lord Byron, Don Juan Tenorio is today considered a master or charm and the archetype of the heartless and remorseless Spanish seducer.

Developers at Don Juan Phases II and III, Arrohabitatge S.A., have, conversely, managed to master no charm but all the wrong arts of client relationship management and enraged, only in our office, 20 or so of our clients, 3 lawyers, 4 paralegals and 1 secretary, all the while showing no heart nor remorse.

The latest episode, or I would say three, can be succinctly explained:

  1. British client visits the offices of Arrohabitatge and the developer convinces him to sign a letter, in Spanish, where he undertakes to close on their sale before the 1st of September 2009. As the second purchaser on the contract (wife of the signatory) is not present, the developer introduces the name of a lawyer of our firm and confirms his representation on behalf of her, of course without him even knowing his name is being used. No mention is made to licenses and to the fact that these clients already cancelled their contract and attempted to enforce their bank guarantee to recover their deposit.
  2. Roberto, a Spanish lawyer originally from Argentina representing approximately ten clients at Don Juan, sends a strong letter to the developer in respect of a legal issue. Ana, a female Doberman employed by the developer, picks the phone up and asks Roberto if he is at all familiar with the laws of Spain and questions his qualifications while reminding him that “we’re not in Argentine you know, so change the tone and content of your faxes”.
  3. Javier, another lawyer working with us attends completion of a sale at the Notary Office. The development director turns up and finds the branch manager of Caixa Galicia, the savings bank in charge of guaranteeing the buyers’ down payments and who incidentally had accepted the execution of a few of them. She confronts him and censures his decision to pay back deposits, and without prior notice starts screaming at him.

The above is an example of what we have gone through in the last four years although this is, by far, not over. It has now been discovered that there is a criminal court case going on against a Town Hall official for allegedly granting a construction license in exchange for a favour, and yet the license of habitation has now been granted (4 August 2009) although one year after when it should have been issued.

Our clients hearts’, understandably, are no longer with the development and want to pull out of what they once considered a dream. A dream shattered by delays, court cases with the Town Hall and the Railway Company and, not the least, by an appalling treatment by Arrohabitatge.

Litigation, Property , , , ,