The developer behind the Trampolin Hills Golf Resort in the Spanish province of Murcia has been forced into bankruptcy proceedings unable to pays its debts, according to reports in the local press.
Administrators have been appointed to run the company, and creditors now have a month to register their claims.
Trampolin Hills, in Campos del Río, had been struggling to survive since the market downturn and was dealt a fatal blow when the town hall refused to approve its plans to build 2,500 homes and a golf course. Investors who bought off-plan without a bank guarantee will now at the back of the creditor queue and face potentially huge losses.
The bankruptcy will add further weight to the argument that developers should offer escrow facilities or bank guarantees as standard to protect consumers and help reverse the damage that cases like this do for the image of the industry.
If you are a creditor of Trampolin Hills and wish to recover any money you paid, you must file a claim before December 3rd 2009
The Ministry of Health and Consumers has issued a fine of €365,000 to the owners of Trampolin Hills Resort for not being able to guarantee the deposits paid by buyers for properties on the urbanization. The official bulletin for the region of Murcia stated on Tuesday 17th November that €350,000 of the fine had been issued for failing to guarantee the deposits and a further fine of €15,000 had been imposed for issuing what they call abusive contracts. The urbanization in Campos del Rio, which Trampolin Hills was hoping to build, included 2,573 homes of which 1,855 have already been sold and for which the company has received €57.988.762 as part payment. These homes have not yet been built and are lacking any planning permission.
Trampolin Hills Resort has been given 30 days in which to appeal the fine, meanwhile the obligation to deposit €30 million into an account to guarantee the civil actions that are expected to follow has still not yet been received by the courts and the company has been given a further two weeks to comply.
Many of those who bought on Trampolin Hills are either British or Irish nationals and they are facing the possibility of losing their initial investment unless they register their claim before 2nd December. The Consumers Department in Murcia has advised anybody that has purchased or placed a down payment on any property on the Campus del Rio Resort by Trampolin Hills should seek legal advice otherwise they could be in real danger of losing their money.
Many of the purchasers were issued bank guarantees by Trampolin Hills. In theory this should mean that their initial investment is covered. However, the courts in Murcia have discovered that the bank guarantees given are not valid in Spain, as they were issued by foreign banks, mainly a financial organisation in Switzerland, which is not under any legal obligation to meet the bank guarantees issued by the company.
The owners of the Trampolin Hills Resort, Antonio Martinez Gonzalez and Raffael Aguilera Serna, will soon see their own personal assets frozen if the €30 million is not paid into the court within the specified timeframe.
For more information on legal action in Spain, contact www.spanishpropertyactiongroup.com
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