CAIXA BANK have been ordered to refund 330,000 Euros plus interest & costs to off-plan buyers at the Guadalupe Hills development in Manilva.
The development was marketed by the bankrupt British Estate Agent company Ocean View through which hundreds of buyers, mostly British and Irish, lost millions of euros in off plan purchases in Spain.
The consolidated Case Law of the Supreme Court and the good work of lawyers over the past decade has resulted in many buyers having their off-plan deposits returned.
Guadalupe Hills in Manilva was one of those developments that Ocean View sold like hot cakes to the British and Irish at the time of the real estate boom. Despite the difficulty of the case, mainly due to the presence of Ocean View as an intermediary who first bought the houses and then resold them to the individual clients; after years of effort and waiting, the case has obtained its First Instance Judgment in the Court of first instance number 17 of Malaga.
There are still many buyers in court trying to recover amounts that Ocean View had guaranteed for itself but not for the buyers to whom they resold the properties. Promotions such as Gardens of Manilva, Estepona Beach and Country Club, Bay of the Rocks, Corals of Estepona … all followed the same way of operating and in all of them there have been difficulties in claiming against the actual developer and bank.
However, all these difficult cases are now finally being solved. If good legal techniques are used, together with Case Law of both Provincial Appeal Courts and the Supreme Court, which follow a brilliant, anti-formalist approach and 100% in support of the buyers, then these difficult cases can be won.
The fact that (1) the sale was to Ocean View, (2) the bank guarantee was granted in favor of Ocean View and not of the final buyers, (3) there were no individual guarantees in favor of the buyers / claimants or (4) the developer did not open the special account that the law requires, are no longer major obstacles, since 2014/2015, there are sufficient reasons for the Bank that issued the guarantee on the development to be condemned to return not only the principal but the interest from the date of payment of amounts and the legal costs.
The CostaLuz-DeCastro teams recently celebrated with their clients the recovery of 330,000 euros as the principal amount of the off-plan deposit plus a similar amount in terms of interest and costs.
There are still many cases of the Ocean View saga that are still unresolved and still in the Court process.
We now expect the same success in all these types of cases.
María Luisa de Castro – Director – CostaLuz Lawyers – Telephone: 00 34 956 092 687 Fax: 00 34 956 092 697
Email: web@costaluzlawyers.es Website: www.costaluzlawyers.es
