Bad estate agent Javea Port Alicante
 

Hello this is our first time posting...
Me (Mo) and my wife (Hayley) have been living in the Javea area since December 2013 in a long term rental property owned by a Spanish Family who live in Bilbao. The property was let to us by an English run estate agent based in Javea Port.
Late last year the Landlady decided she did not want to use the estate agency anymore. So, we asked the estate agent to return our deposit (one month’s rent) lodged with a Finca Management agent also based in Javea Port, as the estate agent would no longer be managing our property.
To date, this estate agent, who claims to be one of the oldest established estate agents in Javea, has not returned our deposit despite two visits to his office and various email requests, Our Landlady has also been in touch with him asking that he return this money without any success.
We would like to warn the forum that we are aware of another Javea resident who has had to resort to social media to have his deposit returned by this estate agent, who appears to have a poor business model and ‘cash flow problems’. We would like to ask if anyone has any experience or can provide us with advice as to how we can proceed to recover our deposit from an estate agent who fails to understand how bad gaining a poor reputation can be for a business in a small town like Javea
Many thanks
Mo

Re: Bad estate agent Javea Port Alicante
 

Hi and welcome to the forum.

Asking advice on how to proceed is a sensible approach and I hope that someone with be able to help you with this.

You state that another resident has resorted to the social media to deal with a problem so I feel that I must warn you that we do not condone naming and shaming on the forum so I am asking you to be careful what you write.

Have you done a search of the forum to see whether this problem has been discussed previously? At the moment it is very quiet due to Easter so answers may be slow in coming. Good luck with this problem.

Rosemary

Re: Bad estate agent Javea Port Alicante
 

Hello Rosemary,
Thank you for your welcome and wishes, I was careful not to name the long established Javea Port based English estate agent who owes me my deposit and will be prudent with any further posts.
Mo

Re: Bad estate agent Javea Port Alicante
 

A denuncia would be the obvious way to go. You could write a post to the local free papers.

Re: Bad estate agent Javea Port Alicante
 

We had serious problems with an estate agent in Oliva which involved theft. The threat of speaking to our solicitor and issuing a denuncia seemed enough to speed them up in sorting out our issues.

Re: Bad estate agent Javea Port Alicante
 

if the owner wishes the deposit to be returned the agent has no legal right to keep it

any deposits paid by the tenant have to be (well, are supposed to be) held in a special 'escrow' account & not used for anything else, so 'cash flow problems' don't cut any ice - which of course means if they have spent the deposit, that's another legal issue

first, visit the agent's office & ask for the complaints book - legally they have to have one & have to supply it to you - you can complete it in English should you need to ( I think I can guess which agent it is, so it shouldn't be a problem for them to be able to understand what you are writing in English)

if they refuse to give it to you to fill in, call the police - it's a serious offence to refuse the book & the police will attend & take over from there

if they do allow you to complete it, take your copy & the OMIC copy to the OMIC office - map, address & phone number here Oficina Municipal de Información al Consumidor (OMIC) - Xàbia

they will advise you what you can do - which might well end up with a denuncia, but often just the action of asking for the complaints book is enough to get the desired result, & if not, then the official complaint in it, & the involvement of OMIC does the trick

Re: Bad estate agent Javea Port Alicante
 

The last posting was thorough and I had not heard of the approach before. We left in 2013 due in part to the antics of an estate agency not in the port and the owner. However whilst we entered into what we thought was a contract with the agent let us say in the main drag it was franchised so to speak with an agent that was let us say again in Denia.

What a mess.

This time and following an introduction from our bank we had the contract investigated by a well-regarded firm of lawyers in Javea. Our bank is let us say of German origin and one should be able to rely upon them?

However at the end the question of the bond is again vexed will we get it back for be it here or in France there is a reluctance to return one's bond.

I wonder what would be the case if the owners were not resident in Spain?

Contract is both in Spanish and English and written on the basis of a twelve month contract renewable. However if bond is not returned? Question of jurisdiction and as a lawyer that fills me with horror.

Quietly one is advised to withhold the last two months rent but that is not to be encouraged. Surely deposits should be held in independent bank accounts. In the UK deposits are normally held under the Landlord and Tenant Act totally independently.

In France it happened once in our latter years there but we had legal insurance with our bank and that soon sorted it out.

Hope it goes well

Re: Bad estate agent Javea Port Alicante
 

Hello, many thanks for the valuable responses so far.
I would like to add some further information to my original post. I have in sent a number of emails to this estate agent and I have had responses back with some excuse or other about how they are waiting for bank transfers etc to arrive and that they will pay us soon etc, however I have had no response to my last email which was just over a week ago. As I have had no response I will visit the office on Tuesday and do as Lynnxa suggests and ask for the complaints book, I will have the number for the local police and will follow the good advice posted--- many thanks..

Mo

Re: Bad estate agent Javea Port Alicante
 

Mitzyboy- we feel for you, we dealt with 3 estate agents in Oliva. The British run estate agent told us a lie and did not have any furnished long term rental available when we arrived in Spain. The Spanish estate agent on the main paseo was a complete waste of time and the other Spanish run agent despite giving good advice was only interested in selling a property to use despite our wish to find a long term rental. Thankfully our friends at the Dog Grove knew of a place which we rented for our first six months in Spain.

Mo

Re: Bad estate agent Javea Port Alicante
 

Mo,

Act quickly, if there really are cashflow problems you won't get it back at all if he goes under, obviously!

In your position I would pay him a visit daily. I'd walk into the office and even if he has other clients there, I would interrupt to say I am going to wait until he's free to discuss the issue with his non-payment. In other words, put some pressure on. If he nips to a local cafe for lunch, catch him in there too. Pressure. Become enough of a nuisance to make him pay you to go away.

I had a friend in the UK who was ripped off by a solar panel scam and the above approach worked.

If you don't speak Spanish then make sure you take a friend who can communicate with the police. Some of the police in Javea don't speak very good or any English and that might hamper your efforts if the get involved.

Re: Bad estate agent Javea Port Alicante
 

Hello Horlicks, Thank you for your post and advice regards the police in Javea. I will translate my phrases with google translate and take them with me as I have no Spanish speaking friends in Javea.
Mo

Re: Bad estate agent Javea Port Alicante
 

I'll be working Tuesday & all week - but I'll PM you my number & you can ring me if I can help over the phone

Re: Bad estate agent Javea Port Alicante
 

I already named the agent involved on here when it first happened, Casas y Cia is the name .... to be avoided at all costs ;)

Hope you have some luck sorting it out

Re: Bad estate agent Javea Port Alicante
 

They have history sadly,wanted 12% commission from the sale of a friends house.Then something very strange happened over the return of a supposed non returnable deposit.As stated stay well away!!

Re: Bad estate agent Javea Port Alicante
 

Hello Lynnxa , we are so very grateful for your offer to assist us, your post provides first class advice, and the information on your blog is priceless, we hope to be in touch with you next week.
With appreciation.

Mo