buying off-plan abroad - cancel contract

avicola

Your messages really are too kind. Especially when I deserve a good beating.

And crikey Clutton! So nice. Not true, but nice so that made me smile. Really I have just laid everything out on this forum that was relevant, knowing I would get a bit of a bash here and there, but if it brought out one good idea, it was worth it. And I can see now what an amazing set of individuals you are, who are good, kind and caring people in a sometimes weird world. In addition to which, I now discover there is a pub on the website – it just keeps getting better!

And the forum has helped keep me sane I have to say because when you have something this stupid, you can’t tell your family or friends. Not yet anyway.

But, when I woke up this morning, I felt a complete mental change, as if I had turned the corner. So your messages were icing on the cake.

I am not sure why I felt different to the past weeks since we discovered the truth that we agreed to loose 100% of the deposits if we did not complete or re-sell. I think I have been in a state of shock! It is a horrible feeling, not helped by knowing that you only have yourself to blame. But between you, one will refuse to talk about, the other can’t stop going on about it, so you drive each other even crazier. You can’t concentrate on anything, you’re awake in the night thinking about it, and it just gatecrashes into your head at every opportunity. Obsessively checking emails, checking any sites you can think of for information and I have practically wrung google dry.

At least last night though, I started to get some information through from a forum in Tenerife which might be useful. Basically, they say that we can’t be forced to completion unless they have a ‘cedula’ which is an official certificate which they can only get when they are off builder’s electricity etc. We hope and think they are unlikely to have that as apparently it is quite common practice to try and force you into an earlier than needed completion. And since we saw the apartments in May, they were far from completed. So maybe that accounts for my more buoyant mood.

I can’t quite figure out why this situation should obsess me though, even if admittedly it really is a large amount of dosh. That is quite bad to let it take over, as it has done, but it is hard to stop it. But this morning I didn’t feel like that and started concentrating on work and really got back to my life.

No matter which way this goes though, it has been a life changing experience (yeah, stupid to say). I have had one enormous slap and need to pick myself up and move forward from this.
I realise that I have to completely overhaul my attitude to money. Thinking about it, I would probably describe myself as a penny pincher and that is not always good. (I am not a penny pincher with the family I have to say!) I think that money has always been important to me, possibly too important, which is why I got myself into this situation. But I have always been encouraged to think that money has a job to do and that is to work as hard as it can. Of course, the potential risk over reward has to be assessed, which is where we went wrong.

But it’s not the be all and end all. I have got great health as have those around me; I have got a roof over my head so I am one hell of a lot better than an enormous amount of people. So it would be despicable of me to feel sorry for myself. And I really don’t. I also think those negative thoughts eat away at your soul and are only destructive. So I am really glad that today, my head is in positive-thinking mode.

I never did have any big plans for the money though. It was intended to be our pension fund and to leave as much as possible for our children. But I am not sure how necessary or life-productive that is. OK save, but I need to loosen up my attitude to money.

I also need to be more tolerant of other people who apparently make mistakes or appear a bit dim. Anyone can take a fall or make seemingly inexplicable decisions.

I know now that is people that are important. Family, friends, neighbours, colleagues .. a stranger on the bus .. whoever.

I would also like to thank Martin, along with everyone else, for this site. It has meant more to me than you know.

(Good grief, it sounds like a will!)

And the other thing I plan to do is on a more practical note. Learn better Spanish.

Hey, I am stopping all this thinking for now and going back to work!

clutton_2

""so I am one hell of a lot better than an enormous amount of people.""

how true and how brilliant that you have turned your thinking around thru 180 degrees - well done you !

avicola

clutton wrote: »

""so I am one hell of a lot better than an enormous amount of people.""

I did of course mean 'better off' which I am sure you realise!

avicola

Here is an update, such as it is ….

The papers have now been served on the developers to cancel the contract. The main basis being that they have grossly overrun the time they were allowed when they were granted a licence to build.
i.e. they were granted a 2-year licence in August 2004

They now have until 23rd July to come back with something, so we may not know anything before then.

It is proving a little hard to find out exactly what the solicitor is up to as I haven’t received a copy of what he has sent to the courts … but hoping I will get a copy via email tomorrow. Ah, tomorrow, what a splendid word.

I have however been looking on a couple of other sites and been ‘talking’ to people who work in admin in the estate agency business in Tenerife.

It seems that the developers are really trying to rush the completion through. Our estate agent (when they were still acting for us, which now they are not) told us that the apartments would probably be completed October, which is why it was such a shock to suddenly be told 3rd July. Other estate agencies were apparently telling their clients it would be December, such was the amount of work to do still to do on the development.

So something is afoot with the developers. Doubtless they are also in need of financial input. Hopefully, our claim has gone in early enough.

And hopefully, we will know more … tomorrow.

inmypocketnottheirs

avicola wrote: »

Ah, tomorrow, what a splendid word.

And hopefully, we will know more … tomorrow.

Just to help with a littleSpanish/English translation:

Manana - another day (i.e. not today) - commonly believed to mean tomorrow!
Manana por la manana - tomorrow.

Just so you know!

fc123

Just a quickie avicola, great post no 133.
Lots of people (sensible, intelligent, nice, hard working people) have lost money on things that didn't go to plan.....and when it happens, it is hard to discuss with those closest.

OH lost a shed load on a contract in 03..we are still paying it down; but the learning experience from it was immense. He won't ever get shafted again.

My FIL spent a chunk of his prescious, much needed retirement pay off on a timeshare during the late 80's. Disaster....in the end he accepted the loss but he could have really benefitted from a forum like this had they existed then. He didn't even get legal advice as he didn't want to spend even more £££ that could've been lost too.

Hope it all works out. Good luck.

ruggedtoast

It can happen to anyone. I put most of my life savings into a mutual fund that a supposedly independent IFA from Bradford and Bingley (die BandB die!) told me was absolutely safe and then went travelling. I didnt do any research at all, didnt realise there was any risk whatsover and forgot about it.

You can imagine my face a 18 months later in Thailand when the girlf emailed me a statement and we'd lost a third of it in the dotcom crash. It just about worked out in the end but im now extremely cautious about investing.

avicola

Spoken to the solicitor again today but there is nothing to update me with.

It seems there are several laws applicable to us and a similar precedent, all of which he has cited in the ‘demanda‘. The solicitor remains quite confident but as I pointed out to him, so was the estate agent.

Anyway, I have tried to think how a judge would look at it, with complete impartiality.

Sometimes, I think we have a good case given that they are almost 2 years beyond the final date of the licence they were granted (plus other factors).

And then I think that we have no chance as the developers are now saying they are ready. (Although they still have not received the cedula which the authorities grant when they view everything to be complete.) And of course we did sign the contract.

So who knows, but thankfully I am not in the pit of despair or soaring panic that I originally was.

I can highly recommend forums as the way to go though. I feel very lucky that I have had the opportunity to ‘talk’ about this situation, with the added benefit of not just two heads but many more.

That leads me to think what a great help forums could be in helping all of sorts of people. For example, if you are over-fond of a tipple, you could have a virtual pub where all they serve is chat. I guess it would be a themed chat room …in the driest sense.

It really does help to know that other people have had a similar experience where they have trusted experts and just let them get on with it, so thanks for that ‘ruggedtoast’.and ‘fc123’.

I see now that one of our many failings in this was our lack of monitoring of the situation and to take appropriate decisions as a result of our findings. In fairness, we did continuously request updates from the estate agent, but were fobbed off by endless excuses.

Oh well, we will stand-by and wait for more news.

Yeah, mañana is definitely not tomorrow, thanks for that ‘inmypocket’. Unfortunately, sometimes the actual days of the week forget to produce the goods as well. I think they like to tell you what you want to hear, just to please you!

clutton_2

forums are the new "neighbourly chats over the garden wall" - but with neighbours from all over the country/world !!!!

i have found forums about just about any topic you care to name - its fantastic that folks are so willing to help others for no cost

neverdespairgirl

inmypocketnottheirs wrote: »

Manana - another day (i.e. not today) - commonly believed to mean tomorrow!
Manana por la manana - tomorrow.

Just so you know!

A Cornishman goes on holiday to Spain.

Wherever he goes he hears "Manana ... manana ... manana"

Finally he asks his hosts "Eere, wass all this 'manana' caper 'bout?"

"Manana means tomorrow."

"Oh, ees, we've got a word like that over to Penwith, tho' we do say
'dreckly'. Mind you, 'dreckly' adden got the saame sense of urgincy as
'manana'."