buying off-plan abroad - cancel contract

avicola

Rick62 wrote: »

So if I have this right, you paid £203k deposit with a further £840k committed without reading the contract in a market you had no understanding of?

Where did you expect to find £840,000? What are the apartments worth now? Why would the developers give any of your deposit back if you pull out?

When we paid the deposit of 35,000 euros 3 years ago, they were worth 165,000 euros in total. Now, they have been valued by the bank at 200,000 euros.

they are currently being marketed for 165,000 which would give us zero loss and would clearly make us ecstatic and I could take my head out of the toilet and sleep at night or eat. Except that isnt going to happen as far as i can see.

We would clearly sell them at less than 165,000 euros.

The whole point is that the estate agent hasnt managed to sell them in this past 18 months for a list of reasons which I wont bore you with. But we have always been promised it is not a problem, it was just taking longer than expected. And we trusted that would happen especially as they are the main estate agent in the whole of Tenerife and are hhighly respected.

But we didnt just walk into it as a rash impulse. We had talks with them over a two year period prior to signing up. We looked at a lot of used apartments with a view to purchase but were then swung over to the off plan idea.

Basically we bought at just the wrong time.

clutton_2

but buying 7 ??????????????? sorry - that's plain idiotic - and i know you will have said that to yourselves hundreds of times -

you need a spanish contract lawyer - like yesterday - i would brace yourselves for the worst - can you sell your residential property in uk to another member of the family for the short term to try to protect that ?

moneysavinmonkey

avicola wrote: »

they are currently being marketed for 165,000 which would give us zero loss and would clearly make us ecstatic and I could take my head out of the toilet and sleep at night or eat. Except that isnt going to happen as far as i can see.

You have said in an earlier post that you can walk away from the deal, hand the properties back to the developer and forfeit only 50% of your deposit. If this is the case you should be absolutely ecstatic! Certainly you need to take a few deep breadths and realise that you have been lucky not to have lost more - you could easily have lost your whole deposit and your UK home and savings if the developers forced you to complete the purchases - i e bankrupted you. Certainly considering the greed of buying 7 (:eek: - why did you buy 7!! Why wasn't one or two enough!!) apartments with no way to fund them if you couldn't sell all prior to completion I think you have had a narrow escape

As the end of the day you will still walk away with a fair sum (£100k?) and your credit record will be undamaged. An expensive lesson to learn, but as they say- easy come easy go.. you are still better off than a lot, so count your blessings!

Doozergirl

And speak to some different agents out there. Just because you think they are good because they have an award, doesn't mean they are. In fact, I'd get every agent you can onto it and offer them additional incentives to get the places sold!

avicola

I don't know yet if we would get 50% of our money back. I am still waiting for the EA's to tell me that. And yes, that would be a blessing.

the www.singingpig.com forum is a good one and i have posted on that with a view to trying to sell.

The difficulty there though could be that we would have to take ownership first as completion date is so close.

And I think we should probably stop digging the hole any deeper at this point.

Bit i will mail all the estate agents I can find.

moneysavinmonkey

what are the rents like for the these apartments.. could that be a possible avenue to cover the mortgage costs?

carpmaster

Can't see any posts from you on the Singing Pig forums? 7 apartments and you didn't even read the small print? I hate to say it but it's nobodys fault but your own. "But the estate agent told me it would be fine". I can't think of anyone in their right mind who would risk almost a million quid on the word of an estate agent.

Kez100

avicola wrote: »

I don't know yet if we would get 50% of our money back. I am still waiting for the EA's to tell me that. And yes, that would be a blessing.

the www.singingpig.com forum is a good one and i have posted on that with a view to trying to sell.

The difficulty there though could be that we would have to take ownership first as completion date is so close.

And I think we should probably stop digging the hole any deeper at this point.

Bit i will mail all the estate agents I can find.

Why on earth are you waiting for the EAs advice when they clearly do not tell you truth as it is? Get a professional involved and get a proper assessment of your position.

PasturesNew

avicola wrote: »

out of money left to me when my mother died. yes, her hard earned cash

This is the bit that hurts me
She won't have had an easy life and wanted to leave some happiness behind.
Inheritance money, imho, needs to be spent extra diligently as it's a lasting monument to the person who left it.

I really do wish you well, for the sake of your poor old mum.

PasturesNew

avicola wrote: »

And I think we should probably stop digging the hole any deeper at this point.

In today's market this is a good plan.
Take a BIG hit, but know the extent of that hit and move on.

Rather than speculating to accumulate greater losses at some future point where you thought the light at the end of the tunnel wasn't a train.

This is so sad. So I am not beating you up about it.