You are just enjoying the start of your life in the sun, in your new Spanish property when there is a knock at the door and a Spanish police officer hands you an envelope. It is a demolition order for your beloved Spanish home.
That is what happened to John and Muriel Burns, a retired couple living in Albox, a rural town in Almeria in south-east Spain. Two years earlier another retired couple, Len and Helen Prior, were the first British expats to witness their Spanish home demolished without warning and without having been invited to be part of the legal processes. The Spanish supreme court in Madrid has now ruled in their favour but they are yet to receive any compensation.
It’s easy to dismiss such stories with a cynical grunt and a cliché about expats just not doing their homework but in this case it’s simply not true. In the same area, another seven British families were served with similar demolition notices for properties bought in all good faith but which are now deemed by the Andalucía regional government to be illegal. How can this happen?
Let’s look at the facts. It is estimated that British expats own more than 600,000 properties in Spain, the highest number situated in Andalucía and in the Valencia region. During the Spanish property boom back in the nineties, thousands of Brits jumped at the chance to buy new dream homes in the coastal and rural areas.
Property agents would bend over themselves to offer them an all round service coordinating between developer, local lawyer and council planning official to secure the deal. In the case of the eight in Almeria, their illegal new builds on rural protected land had been approved by the local Albox council which had even issued the appropriate building licences. The Andalucía regional government then revoked the licences as illegal and ordered the properties to be demolished.
This is just the tip of the iceberg and it does not just affect British expats. Thousands of illegal homes have been built in the last twenty years, 15,000 for example in Chiclana, Andalucía, many of which are owned by Spanish residents.
It seems that British expats are in a lose, lose situation when buying property in Spain. If they purchase on the coast they are likely to find themselves in hot water with the arbitrary ley de costas, the retrospective coastal law inaugurated in 1988, and if they buy new properties in rural zones, they might find themselves caught up in a property scam such as that which has occurred in Albox in Almeria.
Historically buying property in Spain has never been straightforward. Some British buyers are still licking their wounds after the collapse of the Spanish construction industry when thousands lost early stage payments with companies such as Martinsa-Fadesa which went into administration leaving British investors’ dreams in tatters.
Others found their legitimate rural properties being requisitioned in what was known as “land grabs”, when they were suddenly re-classified as urban zones and handed over to big developers.
While the Spanish supreme court and the European Court of Human Rights decide what to do about the whole sorry mess, the Andalucía regional government has, with no trace of irony, backed a new real estate network hoping to lure British expats to buy in the region. It promises to offer “quality, legal assurances and innovation” to foreign buyers.
For those awaiting the imminent demolition of their homes, there is no immediate comfort. The only hope is that with the intervention of the European court the corrupt perpetrators of these scandals will soon find their chickens coming home to roost.
For more information on Spanish property developments and executing bank guarantees, visit:
www.spanishpropertyactiongroup.com
Sunday, 7 March 2010
Spanish Property - the law for buying on offplan developments
In some ways, Spanish law is delightfully simple. For instance, if you sign something, no matter what, then you are bound by it. No point exists in claiming at a later stage that it was unfair or you did not understand what it was you signed because you did sign it and in law this means you understood. If you did not understand it or did not know what it was that you were signing then you should not have signed it.
In Spain, for example, it is not possible to bring action against a tobacco company. It is reasonably predictable that you are going to damage your health if you smoke and consequently it is down to you to decide whether or not you will. Your health will never be the responsibility of the cigarette companies. When it comes to the Spanish legal system, there is no nanny state, no law to protect you from yourself - you are on your own and responsible for your actions. If you take advice from a professional, act on it and later find out that it was wrong you are still responsible for any action you may have taken and which was based on the advice you took and paid for!.
The Spanish legal system whilst getting better is nonetheless. Inefficient, slow, occasionally rocked by scandals with local courts, judges and lawyers accused of abusing the system to suit their own ends
Each week there are nearly 200 legal actions being brought in the Spanish courts for matters concerning property purchase. Some of these actions will take years to finalise and at the end of this time there can be no guarantees. The Spanish legal system is very slow. The courts are jammed with backlogs of thousands of cases some of which will take years before they get to court and many others will not even get to court! Even local courts can take five or six years to hear an action.
There have been numerous cases of plaintiffs going to court with actions, which because of the overwhelming weight of evidence were unbeatable but which they lost because of the incompetence of their lawyer or unfairness of the court system.
Let's say it once and for all so there is no misunderstanding. In Spain it is possible to buy land, build property, buy and sell property and do virtually anything you want in regard to property without getting into trouble. You or those representing you need to know what they are doing and understand that there are no short cuts. Everything seems to take an age in Spain, which when considering that its bureaucracy is probably the most pernicious in the world is not too surprising.
A very real problem with legal matters in Spain is the time it takes to realise something has gone wrong. A further eternity is then required for lawyers to bring the matter before the court and terribly infuriating is the practice they have in Spain of ignoring correspondence, and not returning telephone calls. If you find yourself in a situation where things are not looking too good don't wait to see how things turn out but seek competent, legal help immediately.
Delay in starting an action can be construed as having a weak case. Another matter which will be alien to most reading this is not getting involved in lengthy correspondence. The Spanish do not argue their case in writing with letters, emails and telephones calls exchanged on a regular basis and bombarding someone with correspondence may cause the belief that your action is weak or malicious. As correspondence from you is is unlikely to achieve anything it is better simply to instruct a lawyer at the first sign of trouble. The court expects this type of behaviour and it will help your case.
For more information on Spanish property developments and executing bank guarantees, visit:
www.spanishpropertyactiongroup.com
In Spain, for example, it is not possible to bring action against a tobacco company. It is reasonably predictable that you are going to damage your health if you smoke and consequently it is down to you to decide whether or not you will. Your health will never be the responsibility of the cigarette companies. When it comes to the Spanish legal system, there is no nanny state, no law to protect you from yourself - you are on your own and responsible for your actions. If you take advice from a professional, act on it and later find out that it was wrong you are still responsible for any action you may have taken and which was based on the advice you took and paid for!.
The Spanish legal system whilst getting better is nonetheless. Inefficient, slow, occasionally rocked by scandals with local courts, judges and lawyers accused of abusing the system to suit their own ends
Each week there are nearly 200 legal actions being brought in the Spanish courts for matters concerning property purchase. Some of these actions will take years to finalise and at the end of this time there can be no guarantees. The Spanish legal system is very slow. The courts are jammed with backlogs of thousands of cases some of which will take years before they get to court and many others will not even get to court! Even local courts can take five or six years to hear an action.
There have been numerous cases of plaintiffs going to court with actions, which because of the overwhelming weight of evidence were unbeatable but which they lost because of the incompetence of their lawyer or unfairness of the court system.
Let's say it once and for all so there is no misunderstanding. In Spain it is possible to buy land, build property, buy and sell property and do virtually anything you want in regard to property without getting into trouble. You or those representing you need to know what they are doing and understand that there are no short cuts. Everything seems to take an age in Spain, which when considering that its bureaucracy is probably the most pernicious in the world is not too surprising.
A very real problem with legal matters in Spain is the time it takes to realise something has gone wrong. A further eternity is then required for lawyers to bring the matter before the court and terribly infuriating is the practice they have in Spain of ignoring correspondence, and not returning telephone calls. If you find yourself in a situation where things are not looking too good don't wait to see how things turn out but seek competent, legal help immediately.
Delay in starting an action can be construed as having a weak case. Another matter which will be alien to most reading this is not getting involved in lengthy correspondence. The Spanish do not argue their case in writing with letters, emails and telephones calls exchanged on a regular basis and bombarding someone with correspondence may cause the belief that your action is weak or malicious. As correspondence from you is is unlikely to achieve anything it is better simply to instruct a lawyer at the first sign of trouble. The court expects this type of behaviour and it will help your case.
For more information on Spanish property developments and executing bank guarantees, visit:
www.spanishpropertyactiongroup.com
Costa del Sol - Aifos directors to appear in court
Criminal action is now being taken against Aifos real estate company
The problems for the Aifos real estate company continue the week after they finally filed for bankruptcy protection facing an accumulated debt of €1.1 billion.
Now the courts are looking at several actions against their directors, and the Penal Court in Málaga has reopened the case against the Company Chairman, Jesús Ruiz Casado and his wife, María Teresa Maldonado, who are accused of fraud for selling property which was never built.
The prosecutor has asked for a seven year prison sentence for both husband and wife and a fine of 16,200 € for an alleged crime against consumers. The key thing now is that the penal instead of the civil court is being used, as it is considered that the owners of the company tricked their clients in a pre-meditated way.
Ruiz Casado and the manager of the company, Jenero Briales, and another two Aifos directors are also accused of bribery as part of the Malaya corruption case in Marbella, where Aifos is again accused of collecting monies from clients for houses which were not built, despite allegedly paying a €5 million bribe to the man at the centre of the Malaya case, the Marbella real estate assessor, Juan Antonio Roca.
Aifos also signed three agreements with Marisol Yagüe when she was Mayor, which increased the buildable area and allowed the two Guadalpin Hotels.
The public ministry is also demanding that payments made by 14 potential purchasers be refunded in full, with an additional 3,000 € in each case for damage and inconvenience caused. These amounts range from €25,906 to €117,613.
These off plan sales were made in 2001 and 2002 and the contracts claimed that construction had already got underway, a completely false claim. The contract gave an undertaking to make the properties available in 20 months from the start of construction and relates to developments in Rincón de la Victoria and Torrox.
El País reports that Aifos currently has 3,115 signed contracts for property it has to hand over, of which only 1,206 properties have been completed.
Aifos was at one time the third largest company in Málaga, with a turnover of more than €300 million in 2005, but by 2008 they were showing a loss of €106 million and the workforce had reduced from 2,210 to 610.
Over the past 11 years the company has built more than 17,000 homes in Andalucia, Murcia, the Valencia region and Cataluña.
For more information on Spanish property developments and executing bank guarantees, visit:
www.spanishpropertyactiongroup.com
The problems for the Aifos real estate company continue the week after they finally filed for bankruptcy protection facing an accumulated debt of €1.1 billion.
Now the courts are looking at several actions against their directors, and the Penal Court in Málaga has reopened the case against the Company Chairman, Jesús Ruiz Casado and his wife, María Teresa Maldonado, who are accused of fraud for selling property which was never built.
The prosecutor has asked for a seven year prison sentence for both husband and wife and a fine of 16,200 € for an alleged crime against consumers. The key thing now is that the penal instead of the civil court is being used, as it is considered that the owners of the company tricked their clients in a pre-meditated way.
Ruiz Casado and the manager of the company, Jenero Briales, and another two Aifos directors are also accused of bribery as part of the Malaya corruption case in Marbella, where Aifos is again accused of collecting monies from clients for houses which were not built, despite allegedly paying a €5 million bribe to the man at the centre of the Malaya case, the Marbella real estate assessor, Juan Antonio Roca.
Aifos also signed three agreements with Marisol Yagüe when she was Mayor, which increased the buildable area and allowed the two Guadalpin Hotels.
The public ministry is also demanding that payments made by 14 potential purchasers be refunded in full, with an additional 3,000 € in each case for damage and inconvenience caused. These amounts range from €25,906 to €117,613.
These off plan sales were made in 2001 and 2002 and the contracts claimed that construction had already got underway, a completely false claim. The contract gave an undertaking to make the properties available in 20 months from the start of construction and relates to developments in Rincón de la Victoria and Torrox.
El País reports that Aifos currently has 3,115 signed contracts for property it has to hand over, of which only 1,206 properties have been completed.
Aifos was at one time the third largest company in Málaga, with a turnover of more than €300 million in 2005, but by 2008 they were showing a loss of €106 million and the workforce had reduced from 2,210 to 610.
Over the past 11 years the company has built more than 17,000 homes in Andalucia, Murcia, the Valencia region and Cataluña.
For more information on Spanish property developments and executing bank guarantees, visit:
www.spanishpropertyactiongroup.com
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