Antonio Flores’ Blog

What Mr. Keith Rule and Castro Abogados have achieved is one great result for the 47-strong Finca Parcs (Hellín) group of claimants who, having paid upfront deposits on a failed off-plan development, found to their horror that through the incompetence of their legal representation, no bank guarantees were available.

An undeniable great exposure has meant that numerous claimants who are on the same boat are starting to enquire what is it with this case that is different from many others, in process or already finalized with equal result. Our firm has received a handful of such enquiries, and presumably, many other are already receiving similar emails.

In writing this, I am aware that I do risk being dismissed as some miserly person void of happiness and filled with envy at the successes of others, but far from it: I do wish to congratulate the Castro family and Keith’s group for this success that, by “juridical contagion”, should help everyone involved in this conundrum.

But still, factuality deserves respect and so, once again, let us allow the truth get in the way of a good story:

• The CAM bank and Cleyton Ges S.L. had given out the 1968/57 bank guarantees to a very large number of customers at Finca Parcs, some of which in fact happened to be represented by us. When the developer kicked the bucket, those with bank guarantees were duly refunded by the CAM whereas those who did not, were told to sod off. No surprise there considering that the predatory CAM bank was governed by a gang of pirates who saw no issues with lending themselves astronomical amounts to invest in the Caribbean, a robbery now subject to criminal investigation.
• To contend that this is a landmark ruling is to be dismissive of the work of many other lawyers who have already obtained success in identical cases. The reality is that there are plenty of rulings that contradict Mr. Rule’s claim that this is legal precedent, no matter how hard, perhaps at the insistence of the media, they were conveniently omitted. Strangely enough, the original article published in El Pais does not say it’s a groundbreaking case, and it does not for the simple reason that it was a serious journalist who did his homework and got the facts right (he did call us and we pointed him to  the most reliable source of information: online law libraries!). Conversely, we could admit that, where no bank guarantees of any description or special accounts were available, a ruling ordering a bank to pay would be deemed worthy of being classified as legal precedent. In the ruling of this post, both bank guarantees and a special account were actually available.Keith’s Rule: Don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story!
• To say that Mr. Rule had “…taken on bank bosses after discovering a 45-year-old property law making them jointly responsible with promoters for returning guaranteed deposits on failed developments” is just risible; Mr. Rule has not discovered the 57/1968, just as Roberto Sanchez Saavedra did not discover the Spanish Civil Code (it was already there when his great-grandfather was born). The reality is that the “dug out” 1968 Act was helping many when Franco still went wild-boar hunting, and thousands have already benefited since then…including many of the Finca Parcs victims.

In summary, what has really happened is that Keith Rule and his group hired competent legal representation to help them out, and were lucky that funds were channeled through the developer’s accounts with the CAM, and not pocketed by the rogue developers via overseas accounts (even in this case protection may still be available). And not the least, that many buyers had bank guarantees whereas others didn’t (implying the existence of a blanket bank guarantee), an unfair situation caused by the inaction of property conveyance lawyers, the developer and the CAM bank and, as far as Spanish consistent case law is concerned, totally unacceptable.

But to announce that this is a groundbreaking ruling -when the bank had already given out dozens of individual bank guarantees (a few examples below) to as many customers, and there are plenty of identical rulings on the matter-  is just false.

Proof that Bank Guarantees for Finca Parks do Exist

Downloads

• Bank Guarantees for Finca Parks (PDF)

Antonio Flores Litigation, Property bank guarantees, CAM Bank, Cleyton Ges S.L., Finca Parcs, Keith Rule

It is once again the opportunistic intuition of few: with the increasing number of property scandals in Spain, particularly those relating to failed off-plan investments, we are seeing how the legal profession is being invaded by so-called property action groups, which have started orchestrating aggressive and unethical campaigns of client poaching throughout the web and other platforms.

Among others, I can cite Spanish Property Action Group, Finca Parcs, Bulgaria-Property-Action-Group, Ramirez and Ramirez, organized and managed by non-legal professionals who cross pretty much every line when it comes to legal solicitation. The following prohibitions are flouted with ease by the below groups:

1. Payment of referral fees: The first “irregularity” is blatant: these groups are selling legal services when they are not lawyers. This means, in practical terms, that the lawyers working for or with them are incurring in the illegal practice of setting up referral fee  agreements, more ordinarily called “kick-backs”. The Spanish Legal Professional Rules and Regulations specifically ban referral fees, allowing only fee-splitting agreements either between lawyers or between professionals within the same area of work (economists, financial advisors etc.). Article 19 of the Disciplinary Legal Code stipulates that lawyers will not be able to pay, demand or accept commissions or retribution from other lawyers, or any other person, for referring clients. If these groups are run by non-legal professionals, clearly they are taking a neat kickback from whoever they designate to file their cases, or vice versa.
2. Utilization of third parties by lawyers to circumvent the provisions of the Disciplinary Legal Code. This is clearly the case with Finca Parcs: the latter is displaying a fierce and embarrassing campaign of client solicitation through various websites, where it is claimed that the group is legally represented by MC, director of CLL, and DCG Juridico, which consist of legal professionals including the father and two bothers of the former, who is also assisted by a Catedrático (translated here as a Civil Law Professor) from the University of Seville, as if this was going to make any difference.
3. Utilization of illegal publicity to gather clients: particularly objectionable is the August 2010 “Press Release” by Finca Parcs, in clear breach of article 7e) of the aforementioned code: “It is deemed as illegal client solicitation to approach, either directly or via third parties, victims of accidents or misfortunes that lack full and calm freedom to choose a lawyer as a result of a personal or collective misfortune. Yes, clients need to be advised of their rights and yes, clients need legal advice when dealing with tragedies affecting their lives. But, clients do not need to be solicited directly by attorneys/lawyers/solicitors when they are grieving or dealing with the results of a tragic event. Clients should reach out to these professionals when they are ready to do so and they should not be besieged and bombarded by those seeking to profit from their misfortune.
4. To generically or specifically encourage litigation: This is clear of all the above legal action groups, because it is their business! One example can be seen with Finca Parcs, for they have introduced an element of deceit and untruthfulness in their tormenting sales pitch: according to them, and the legal representation they have retained, abundant case law supports the unheard situation of banks being liable for clients’ deposit, regardless and irrespective of whether a bank guarantee line was ever approved by them or special accounts where used. According to the pitch, banks are always liable for refunding down payments made in respect of a failed off-plan project, for the simple (and simplistic) reason that the developer opened a bank account for them to operate: this is the essence of their strategy and their soon-to-achieve huge court windfall success, on the basis of some case law that as of yet, in spite of numerous requests, no lawyer has had sight of, unless they were referring to an isolated ruling of the Court of First Instance in Madrid (not deemed case law) where a bank is forced to indemnify a property buyer, on a failed development, since such funds were borrowed by the buyer from the developer’s bank (and hence, should have ensured that such funds were paid into a special account, protected by a guarantee, and not a normal account, in breach of the 57/1968 Act).  This ruling, which has already been analysed on a previous post, cannot be relied upon as applicable case law or jurisprudence unless it is ratified by a superior Court. Should this happen, not even then it could be of general application due to the very particular set of circumstances that surround the case.
5. Promising the achievement of results that are not exclusively dependent upon the activity of the lawyer that is publicising himself, and using means and expressions, audio-visual or in writing, that are discrediting, denigrating and scornful of the Legal Profession, the Justice and its symbols. The Spanish Property Action Group knows a bit about this, when advertising (or those of their undisclosed lawyers, for that matter) their “Get Your Money Back” seminars. They then go on to claim that people have lost their life savings or retirement funds and are all victims of the illegal activities or unscrupulous developers and the lawyers representing them, and promise, in return for a fee, a miraculous formula to recover this money (without even establishing, as one has to do, the legal position of these people they are pitching to!). The Action Group then state that those involved know how to recover funds because they have already done successfully and know the pitfalls to avoid: realistically, can anyone possibly envisage a more disgraceful and indecent way to make money?
6. All of the above in one. Finally, a special bullet point has to be dedicated to fraudulent companies known as ‘recovery rooms’, a particular type of boiler roooms specialised in fraud recovery fraud, which use registered lawyers to add appearance of legitimacy. The most prominent one is currently Ramirez and Ramirez Asesores (www.specialist-lawyers.com). Its owner, Fabian Ramirez Marcelo, an ex-timeshare reseller, in spite of the domain name he uses for his activities and his total detachment from the legal profession (as an astronaut orbiting the earth can possibly be), considers his Fuengirola recovery room, of all places, to be a specialist leading firm. But not any firm: one that cold calls thousands of victims of all sorts of scams, their names and numbers on illegal lists (sucker lists) bought in the black market, purporting to be leading lawyers in the matter and promising a quick result through the courts. Needless to say, never do these clients get anywhere because never the cases are followed up: all they do is fill out a form, take it to the courts or the police, ensure they get a stamp on it and then on to rip off the next one. The lawyer they allegedly use, Damian Vazquez, seems to not remember who Fabian Marcelo is, and when asked about his connections with Ramirez and Ramirez, claims that only occasionally has he collaborated with them. Two other lawyers I contacted also appeared to be losing memory fast when our conversation went into detail. Needless to say, again, Ramirez and Ramirez falls foul of all the above bullet points, their activities being dismissive of the most elementary rules of decency and honesty.

Antonio Flores Litigation, Property, Scams ambulance chasers, Bank Guarantees in Spain, Bulgaria-Property-Action-Group, Finca Parcs, litigation against spanish developers, property action groups, Ramirez and Ramirez, Ramirez and Ramirez Abogados, Ramirez and Ramirez Asesores, Spanish Property Action Group