Property deal fell through now solicitor asking for a lot of money

FraudBuster

And one year ago today!

Holiday property agent MRI accused of fraud

Andrew Leach and Tony Hetherington, Financial Mail
12 April 2010

Read more: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/mortgages-and-homes/homes-abroad/article.html?in_article_id=502686&in_page_id=505#ixzz1JJecDGXY

barricades

@silvercar

Yeah circumstances changed a lot! It was a family thing we were doing together and each of us have had problems. Plus the price we would have ended up paying made loosing the deposit not such a big wrench.

@honestEA

Unfortunately I know plenty about MRI - now...
I like the idea of not paying anymore and not talking to their solicitors. The thing is it's technically my solicitors who are asking me to pay them. They are based in Portugal but have an office in the UK. Whats likely to happen to me if I just ignore their requests.

FYI the invoice they sent me say TO OUR AGREED FEE - but they would say that wouldn't they. If it was agreed, it would be in the promissory contract wouldn't it?

barricades

@n79

Thanks for the reply. It's not actually the developer who is chasing me. They have sent me a letter telling me that they have cancelled my contract due to my inability to fulfil the promissory contract.

Its my Portuguese solicitors who have sent me a bill for E2.5k. But I'm not sure they have done much. Does that make any difference?

Honest_EA

Sorry, I misunderstood and thought the solicitors were chasing you for the remaining amount that was owed for each property but as you now say they simply want their agreed fee of 2500 Euro for their services. I think you have had a lucky escape that MRI simply cancelled your contract as they have been known to put serious pressure on buyers to complete although maybe realise they cant get blood out of a stone in your case and are happy to run off with your initial installment as compensation. I have found that overseas solicitors will often negotiate on their fee if they think that you wont pay it at all and will be prepared to come down if you offer them some sort of part payment - any payment is better than none and as you said they didnt complete the transaction so see what you can get away with.

JQ.

barricades wrote: »

Last week I finally got a letter from the developer saying:

"Subject: Promissory Contracts of Purchase and Sale of a Future Asset and of Lease for the purpose of tourist exploration under a suspensive condition signed on 17th August 2007...
You did not sign the public deed of sale and purchase on the date previously designated. So, [the developer] considers the referred promissory contreacts definitively non-fulfilled due to a cause exclusively imputable to you, on the terms of article 808 No1 of the portuguese civil code."

barricades wrote: »

@n79
They have sent me a letter telling me that they have cancelled my contract due to my inability to fulfil the promissory contract.

Erm, that first statement made by the Developer does not read to me like they are letting you off the hook. To me that just states that you have failed to complete on the purchase and they are formally informing you of that failure. If that was in the UK, they would now be starting legal proceedings to force you to complete, or to compensate them for any losses.

Are you certain the developer won't be chasing you to complete?