billybassett

Hi all,

Just back from our week in Ayamonte, and wanted to fill you in on developments for us. We had another look at our terrace which should measure 23.44m2. It actually measures just over 8m2, with the rest of our terrace walled off for the communal area for air-con units. One had just been installed, and it was big. Silvia said there will be 6 units on "our/communal" terrace. To add insult to injury, our air-con unit must be installed on the smalll bit we have left. Incredible!!! We are the only apartment in the building which must have its own unit on its own terrace.

Having taken advice, we now believe that for us, this 3rd terrace is unusable. We have an 8 month old baby, and it will not be safe to have any access to this area. We asked Silvia what could be done. She, at first said that the only guarantee she could give us was that Fadesa would definitely not reinstate our terrace. They were looking at compensation, and a screen to cordon off the area or to give all payments back. We therefore went to see our solicitor to begin proceedings to pull out of the purchase and get our money back.

We then called in on our way home, and remarkably the story had changed. Fadesa are now, according to Silvia, considering reinstating our 23m2 terrace removing the air-con unit already installed and filling in the manhole. We can't therefore now ask for our money back. We have been told to wait for La Coruna head office to make a decision. I think they are just stalling.

I don't think they have any intention of reinstating our terrace, and undoing all the work within the building to enable the units to be installed elsewhere. Does anyone know what sort of work would be involved in moving all the ducting etc so that the units would be installed on each apartments own terrace?

All our plans are now in chaos, and after 2 years waiting and paying, we are left in limbo with a property that is no longer suitable for us, but unable to move on or look at other properties.

Fadesa are acting in a totally underhand way, and I am shocked at the turn of events. Sorry to be on such a downer about things. The situation may not be as bad for others, and compensation plus screening work may leave some still happy with their purchase, but it is no longer the dream home in the sun that we envisaged.

I have pictures that I will post later as soon as I unpack the camera. On a positive note, the site is really coming on, and I am sure it will be a great place in the future.

Karen

billybassett

Pictures as promised. As you can see, there is very little chance of them completely reinstating our terrace to the plans we have in our possession. It would mean a virtual re-build of the exterior upper floor at the back of our property.

Karen

MEL & JOHN

Dear Karen,

My heart goes out to you, this is just an intolerable situation. A suggestion - have you asked if there is another property you could take....a larger one, in a better position and for no extra costs but compensation for having to give up the property you contracted to and paid a hefty deposit for all in good faith ? They can then sell that one to somebody else who (for a reduced cost) may accept all the Air con units on the terrace.

Thinking of you and do hope you can get a fair response from Fadesa.

Mel and John

jdr

Find out how long the solicitor thinks is a reasonable time for Fadesa to make up their mind, give them that time on the understanding that if it is not sorted to suit you, that then you will denounce them for a breach of contract and also claim damages.

Carol&John

Dear Karen,
You must be a saint for keeping us informed of such deflating news, & for posting these photos soon after your return home. When I clicked online, and saw your new thread, I sensed it would be bad news. Truly, I feel saddened for your dream of a place in the sun being tarnished in such a way by Fadesa. And, it is Fadesa who must make ammends. I am not a lawyer, but this is what I would ask my lawyer to do for me...
Mel's idea is a good one. Perhaps you could ask to view another property (that has completed, or is of higher specification?) Fadesa would have to pay for flights and accomodation. And, you are entitled to receive compensation for the anxiety you have had to endure.
If this is not suitable, then you are entitled to have refunded your money, with interest, plus compensation for emotional damage and wasted flights/accommodation.
As for erecting screening etc., it would appear that would be ineffective.
I pray this tale has a happy ending for you and your family.
(We've sent a fax to Fadesa, and still waiting for a reply...)
Regards,
Carol

MEL & JOHN

Hiya Karen

Did you buy direct from Fadesa or from an agent ?

All the best

Mel

billybassett

Thanks all for the kind words. It has been a tough week for all the family, but I'm trying to put things into perspective, and there are worse things happening to others, so hey ho, we just have to get on with it.

We did ask if they had anything else for sale of a similar size, location, with good or comparable views, but they said not, unless we want to wait for the next phases to be built. We don't.

Our solicitor, Pelayo, has said that he will write to Fadesa to ask for our money back, but said that we won't be entitled to any costs, interest etc, unless we want to take them to court. He also advised against this, as he says that Fadesa will play hard ball with us, and will just drag it on for months or even years. He stated that he was totally surprised and shocked at the way Fadesa were dealing with their customers. We are not the only ones in difficult situations, and they are not being pleasant in their dealings with these customers, allegedly.

We have asked Pelayo what he thinks is an appropriate time to wait for a response, and are waiting for him to get back to us. Given the seriousness of the situation, I have asked for a second opinion from a solicitor recommended on spanishpropertyinsights who claims to use consumer protection laws to assist us english in these situations. She seems more confident in getting something sorted.

I have also written a very strongly worded letter to Fadesa in London, threatening press articles etc. I am lucky, my brother works as deputy editor for a newspaper so I may be able to get someone interested in printing a story... I have also asked for the "hoja de reclamacion", which is a complaints document that you as a customer can complete, the company can respond, and then the spanish consumer body (OMIC)will investigate at the local town hall. This can apparently be very serious, and I am advised that spanish businesses invariably try to avoid such complaints being made against them.

Finally, we did (foolishly) buy from an agent, so are aware that we may not get all our money back as Fadesa will only give us back what they have received. The agent has his cut and I doubt he will offer it back. Surprisingly, he has ignored our emails asking for help/advice.

I read the horror stories of others, and stupidly thought it would never happen to me. In hindsight, we have been naive, but have also been unlucky as most people seem genuinely happy with their purchases, and I do think the site will be great in years to come.

Carol, I am also thinking of you, and hope you won't be disappointed with your terrace when you visit. As I've said before, some duplexes are more severely affected than others, so you may be one of the lucky ones. Fingers crossed. Keep faxing and e-mailing or they will simply ignore you.

Again, thanks to all, will keep you updated on developments, and just to end by saying this has not put us off the area. If we can get 80% of our money back, we'll be satisfied and we'll be looking elsewhere in Ayamonte for a safer investment next time.

Karen

Carol&John

Thank you Karen for the PM. We'll keep in touch and let you know how things
progress.
Carol
P.S. Thank you Dean for the e-mail.

Cptnemo

Hi
Really sorry to read about your situation - hopefully Fadesa will do the right thing and re-instate your terrace. I personally dont think it would be too much of a drama for them to re-run the aircon ducts etc - bit surprised that they opted for a communal aircon area.

I feel the real estate agents would only get full commission on completion of the sale and you should not be willing to accept only 80% to walk away.

Good luck

Jodie n' Mark

We bought a property through palmera property agents and San Jose builders (they have been very good) - I am new to the site so forgive for not knowing all the ins and outs however possibly as a guide it might be worth knowing that we were advised in Spanish Law the builders have 3 months to make any snags good from the snagging list we provided on signing so I believe you should only give them 3 months. I think it sounds like you would be best out of it take your money and run!

Good Luck and I hope you find your dreams.

Woodzie

Hi all

You have proberbly seen the photos we posted of our back balcony on the other thread. As well as the a/c it also has an electrical distribution box. I notice that some don't have this. When we 1st saw it we went back to the shed & asked if we could exchange for a similar property. At the time there was only one 3 bed townhouse left. Paula was very good & took us to view. It was on M3 & although we liked the communal area, its is very large & open we weren't so keen that the garden was north facing, the stairs leading to the roof terrace were accessed through the main bedroom and these said stairs are so very steep. On advice that it had more resale potenial we decided to go for it. Fadesa said they would swop if WE found another buyer for our duplex. If we pulled out of the buy they would charge us 30% of money paid as THEY didn't consider the terrace problem a real reason to pull out. Our solicitor also advised not to try & take them through the courts as it could end up being a long & costly affair. She has also told us that we have 1 year to submit any snags (but not how long they have to address them). As it happens she went ahead & completed, I think we were dithering about what to do and it just happened. She has told us that Fadesa are talking about some form of compensation, but they haven't come up with anything and I believe that unless lots of pressure is put on they will try & brush it under the carpet.

Regards to all Kim

billybassett

Hi Kim,

so sorry to hear of your bad experiences. The way that Fadesa chose to handle your concerns seem like bully-boy tactics to me, and so underhand. Having heard plenty of stories from good sources in Ayamonte, this appears to be the way they are handling all complaints, not only about the terrace situation, but about the water supply problems.

We have also been told that the belief locally is that Fadesa are hoping that as many people as possible will be bullied, cajoled, or just in ignorance, complete on their purchases. This would leave Fadesa with only a small hardcore of buyers refusing to complete, who they will then deal with. Not nice!

We are willing to take a loss if we have to, just to be able to walk away from this, as with 8400 properties on site, I believe we would have difficulties re-selling our duplex with the terrace in its current state.

Can I ask, did you actually lose m2 of terrace? We have lost about 15m2 to enable them to have a communal area. This amounts to about 10% of the total floor space of the property as sold to us. This apparently leaves us in a good position to ask for our money back, but who knows with Fadesa?

Wishing you the best Kim.

Karen

Woodzie

Hi Karen

Our terrace should be 18.1 sq mtrs so it was never as big as yours. I have to say that we didn't have a tape measure when we went to do our snagging & it was abit of a shock to see, at the time we were thinking of the noise & sight issue whilst also trying to snag. It was only on reflection that we thought about the space.As you know we have completed, not sure it was wise but we still intend to persue this as best we can. When we are over next week we will measure and let you know. Your loss of space is far greater and I can see it would make a tremendous difference to your living. We'll keep you posted, good luck.
Kim

Tricia

Hi all

I really feel for you all who are in this terrible situation. We did have final problems with our purchase in Canela but it pales into insignificance in comparison.

We found out at the last minute that we did not have the prearranged mortgage, so had to pay alot more in arrangement fees. In our original contract they had included the mortgage and furniture pack, which we told them we could not sign as we had stated we did not want the furniture pack. We were summoned to head office when they had the revised contract and we noticed that figures were not where they were in the original (although we failed to take it with us) and they did not provide an English version this time. We were told it was all in order and had been checked by our solicitor so we signed. It came to light that the revised contract had the mortgage taken off aswell.

We were foolish to have signed but then again did ask relevant questions and were in effect told alot of rubbish. I went bolistic and IC did offer me 3 choices, complete without paying the extra and get charged astronomical charges and interest, pay the extra to complete on time or pull out with a full refund. At the time I thought they were worse than scum but at least they were happy to give me my money back and re sell for no doubt a higher price.

I would add that through all this the local solicitor was NBG, I am convinced they are all mere paper shufflers who have no intention of looking after our interests in the way in which they should, mind you, we paid nothing like the 1% in charges for her services which is what I have since read is more near the mark, so maybe you do get what you pay for.

All I can add is that I sent so many e-mails to Pryconsa, IC uk, IC sa, followed up with phone calls to all, that maybe they just wanted to get rid of me !!! and so in the end gave me an out if I wanted it.

Tricia

Carol&John

Good morning to All,
Thanks for the kind words and support. This information has been invaluable.
Our upper terrace is even smaller (14m2). I now wonder if there is any need for a door?
Carol