Dear Sir,
Further to your post we feel it is neccessary to clarify the following points regarding buyers who purchased off-plan in Spain through OVP:
1. Regarding development Gardens of Manilva whose developer is Manilva Costa, S.A. and was marketed and sold exclusively through Ocean View Properties (OVP) our lawfirm has recently won a Group Action against this Spanish developer at Estepona's law courts.
This ruling is very important because it has now opened the door to other off-plan buyers who previoulsy were unable to litigate successfully for technical reasons which details I won't get into.
Suffice is to say that this new ruling has now opened the door to all those buyers who paid OVP to buy an off-plan property in Manilva Gardens.
All those interested should contact us for more details on the case.
Details on the Group Action can be found in the link below with a scanned copy of the ruling available, both in Spanish and in English, in PDF format:
Successful Group Action vs. Manilva Costa, S.A.
4th March 2010
Development: Jardines de Manilva/ Gardens of Manilva
Lawbird lawyers have won a Group Action Law suit in a First ruling against developer Manilva Costa, S.A. on the 25th February 2010 acting on behalf of a group of British clients, who had purchased off-plan property from Manilva Costa, S.A. in well-known development Jardines de Manilva (Manilva Gardens), located in the municipality of Manilva. They all purchased off-plan units through British Real Estate Agency Ocean View Properties (OVP) which has now been legally wounded up in the UK. The judge dismissed claims from Manilva Costa alleging it was only OVP which had received the funds and that they had at no time received any funds from our clients nor were they a party to the Private Purchase Contract (PPC) (!) as they had at no time signed any of the purchase contracts.
The developer’s claims were overturned one by one in view of the substantial evidence collated by our legal team whereby the commercial relationship and the roles assigned to each were irrefutably established as well as Manilva Costa’s acknowledgement of having received our client’s stage payments. The judge concluded all the PPC were valid and binding despite not being signed or even acknowledged by the Spanish developer.
The judge went on to rule the Spanish developer had breached the Private Purchase Contract on four different accounts:
1. Late delivery in handing over the property.
2. Lack in attaining the mandatory Licence of First Occupation (LFO) which is required to occupy and live in a dwelling.
3. Lack of promised communal facilities which enhanced the resort’s value (i.e. Social Club) as promised in the developer’s glossy brochures.
4. Non-performance of promised features included within the Private Purchase Contract which resulted in a significant decrease of value of the new build properties (i.e. the built size of units was considerably less, reduced number of bathrooms etc).
Estepona’s lower court has now sentenced the developer Manilva Costa, S.A. to:
1. Refund our clients their deposits in full amounting to over 400,000€
2. Pay the legal interests accrued on the said amounts.
3. Award the legal fees to our clients, meaning the developer will pay for them.
Documents
•Original Manilva Costa Ruling in Spanish (PDF 1,500 kb)
•Partial Translation of the Manilva Costa Ruling (PDF 166 Kb)
2. Regarding Estepona Beach and Country Club (EBCC) we are considering taking Criminal action against the developer. After all these years nothing has been built as the Building Licence was never attained. No stage payments have been refunded.
All those interested in pursuing legal action against Sungolf Desarollo Inmobiliario, S.A. and the man behind it, Mr Ricardo Miranda Miret, please contact us.
E-mail: info@lawbird.com
Phone number: +34 952 86 18 90
Yours faithfully,
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