Deposit Refund - All Those Still Chasing Don't Give In!

[janey]

A week or so ago, Maria de Castro and her firm Costa Luz Lawyers,
successfully won our case to get our deposit back from Spanish
developer Peinsa and Banco Popular after executing our "expired" bank
guarantee through the courts. Please read the testimonial we provided
for Maria and her firm and let it serve as a fillip particularly to
everyone who is still going through trauma and stress trying to get
back what is rightfully theirs. Don't give in and again thanks
Maria! NB - We've no connection to Maria and her firm other than the
good honest service they provided us throughout.

Brian & Janey (aka Louise)


"Can I say a tremendous thanks to Maria and all of her team
(especially Steven) at Costa Luz Lawyers for their services in getting
our money back from a developer\bank after a failed Spanish property
purchase. After putting a deposit down for an off-plan villa in 2006,
the development initially ran beyond its expected completion date of
Sept 2007 and then in Oct 2008, the pulling out of bank funding meant
that the developer decided to stop developing all together leaving our
money trapped. They never actually informed us of this...we only
found out through our agent!

Looking to secure our money in case the developer went into
administration (as was feared at the time), we were advised by our
agent to transfer our deposit into a key-ready property as we had an
"expired" bank guarantee. This ultimately fell-through as the
developer couldn't complete citing it was unable to lift the mortgage
already on the property (did they not know this when we started the
process for the new property?!). Now at our wits end, we sought
litigation advice. Our initial lawyer informed us that our original
purchasing contract was now null and void as our purchasing lawyer had
signed papers for the new property which had fallen through (without
our clear consent). She also stated that this had also in-validated
our bank guarantee so that wasn't worth the paper it was written on
either! Our only option, that lawyer stated, was to sue the developer
who we knew had no money anyway...so what point would that be?!
Bearing in mind that was just before Christmas 2008, that was probably
the most stressful festive period we've ever had.

Not content with this, further researching our options, we came across
comments from Maria at Costa Luz Lawyers advising people on website
Eye On Spain. Straightaway, I liked the way she came across online,
going out of her way to advise people on their situations and about
Spain in general. We passed our details to her, no holes barred, and
were absolutely delighted when she came back stating that our bank
guarantee was valid, the expiration date on it didn't matter and
ultimately that she was very confident she could get us all of our
deposit back! As I didn't trust our previous lawyer to get the
originals of our legal documents to Maria, we took the opportunity to
collect and deliver these ourselves to Maria in the Costa Luz Lawyers
offices in Algeciras. Meeting Maria and her team in person was a very
uplifting experience that really put us at ease. It left us with a
feeling full of trust that we were putting the chasing of our savings
into the hands of someone who knew her stuff, yet was charming with it
and a team who you could tell really cared about what they were
doing. The confidence that had been destroyed by our previous lawyer
had now been rebuilt.

On returning to England, we were (as promised) e-mailed comprehensive
documents outlining the processes that were possibly going to unfold
to retrieve our money. Any extra questions\concerns we did have were
always answered in a timely fashion and a friendly manner by either
Maria or Steven, helping us to further understand the process as well
as keep our spirits up when things seemed to go quiet. 9 months on
from our first meeting with Costa Luz Lawyers, our deposit has been
fully refunded and an additional claim for interest\costs is in the
process of being sorted out.

We are delighted with the service provided by Costa Luz Lawyers, in
particular from Maria and Steven (who we mostly dealt with) due to
their timely and personable answers to any queries we have had during
the whole thing. I would not hesitate to recommend Costa Luz Lawyers
to anyone who finds themselves with a legal issue in Spain...indeed I
have already done so on a couple of Spanish internet forums. Many
thanks Maria and all of the team!"

[Jackie & Kenny Hearn]

Hi Brian & Janey,

fab news about the refund being sorted out for you.

Please do you mind me asking have they paid you back the first 3,000
euro deposit back with the bank guaranteed money?

We are just waiting for an embargo to go on the land for the court
case with peinsa/banc of popular for 3,000 euro deposit, 9,000
interest as per Peinsa contract
5% per two years and four months they had the Hearn & the Hunter
monies, and we too are looking to recover legal costs as this all no
fault of our
own. As like many other peolpe on the forum we have spent thousands
upon thousands in sterling, on rental properties, storage, web page
for business, the list
is endless, if we do end up in court I am going to bring all these
expenses to Their attention. Bearing in mind if any of us had
defaulted in any way they
had the contract stitched up tight to take our money if things had
gone belly up.

Has anybody on the forum had any luck with the group embargo with
their solictor, still had no reply regarding that matter.

The Hunter family will be in Spain from 14/11/2009 for two weeks and
will see the solicitor in person.

Any update will make a posting.

kind regards

Mrs Jackie Hearn

[Jackie & Kenny Hearn]

Hi all,

just found a fab legal page on the web, will answer all them " we need
to know" questions espeically about bank guarantees etc?
belegal.com

It seems the person who issued the bank guarantee's IE banc of popular
were supposed to give us 6% interest when we received our payments
back, look at this web page and see what you think. Can you confirm
how many have received this 1st depost payment back, a bank guarantee
is suppossed to cover ALL payments between client and builder, if that
is the case this also lies with Banc of popular, which is probably the
real reason, for peinsa being so unhelpful?? just seeing how far
everybody we go to have funds returned, and how much they can hold on
to.
Have asked our solicitor which guarantee we have? Any update and I
will make a posting,

There are also 2 types of banc guarantee's check with your legal team
which you have, one needs no legal intervention from courts it seems!!

Hope this helps,

kind regards

Jackie Hearn

On 13 Nov, 23:11, "Jackie & Kenny Hearn" <jackie-a...@live.co.uk>
wrote:

> > thanks Maria and all of the team!"- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[Boldy]

Hi Jackie,
Could you post the web page address for us please??
Thanks
Ian

On 15 Nov, 16:49, "Jackie & Kenny Hearn" <jackie-a...@live.co.uk>

> > - Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -

[Jackie & Kenny Hearn]

Hi Ian

belegal.com
You will see I made a posting there last night, answered by a spanish
lawyer in Marbella, the banc is the people who pay the legal interest,
ours was 6% as we signed 2006/2007,
I think it is now 5.5%.

read the full document on go on google and put in spanish bank
guarantee act 1968 it will bring up belegal.com and a full section
"all the things you were afraid to ask about bank guarantee's"
well what an eye opener. You stand the legal costs for litigation and
your lawyer then claims it back on your behalf??

Two types of bank guarantee's I think we have the better one as our
lawyer was able via litiagation to get the Hearn & the Hunter families
77,000 euros back, not via court/judge ruling as states on the web
page, but the bank at the same time should
have paid the 6% interest at the same time?? It does not matter if the
amount is stated on the bank guarantee? so that should also cover
our3,000 first payment, all monies and legal fees lies with the bank!!
A bank guarantee covers ALL payments between the client and builder!!

Please have a good read and see what you think, the 57/68 act seems
cut and dried to me, see what you think.

Kind regards

Jackie Hearn