Purchasing an off-plan or under construction property on the Costa del Sol is becoming a very popular investment option nowadays, with new build villas and apartments popping up everywhere. Why is this such an attractive investment? Because not only do you get a shiny new, never-used home, but you also get to customize aspects of it and purchase the property for a fraction of the price it will be worth in a few years, even if you will have to wait a while before you can actually set foot inside.
Whilst new build homes are extremely sought-after lately, this wasn’t always the case and it has taken a long time for people to trust that they will actually end up with their dream home. After hearing horror stories of the amount of money people lost last decade due to the financial crisis Spain suffered, no one dared to go near an off-plan investment opportunity. What initially seemed like a great way to make some easy money, quickly turned into a money pit when some developers went bankrupt due to the crisis and were unable to finish construction on thousands of properties. Even though consumers were promised their payments were protected by bank guarantees, the homes were never completed nor delivered to their new owner nor did the buyers have a legal leg to stand on to try and claim their money back.
Good news – thanks to a December 2015 Spanish Supreme court ruling, this has now changed. If you were one of the unlucky home buyers that lost a substantial amount of money during the crisis as a result of the developer of your new property going bust, you now have until October 2020 to file a claim against the developer’s bank. Not only can you petition to get your money back, but you can also claim interests against the bank that was supposedly protecting your payments.
Whilst there isn’t that much time left to file the claim and the whole process could take anywhere from 12 to 15 months, the success rate is extremely high. When hiring a lawyer to represent you in this case, we recommend you ask if they have any experience with this type of claim or similar and what their fees will be – some firms will charge upfront whilst others work on a ‘’no win, no fee’’ basis. Note though that if you lose, you will still have to pay the court costs even if your lawyer won’t charge legal fees.
The documents you will need to support your case should be easy to arrange providing you kept all paperwork related to the initial purchase transaction, such as the contract between developer and client, proof of payments into a Spanish bank account and any other documentation relating to the process such as developers plans and so on.
If this all sounds familiar to you and you lost the money paid for a beautiful home in Spain that you never got the keys to, we can help you. Contact us today to arrange a meeting at info@premierlaw.net or call +34 952764483.
