Since the accident, Fernando Salmeron of Bufete Salmeron, a Seville-based law firm specializing in banking and real estate law, has won more than 100 off-plan property cases for Irish clients through Spanish courts. said.
He is currently awaiting sentencing for 15 more clients.
He said all 15 of his clients had “placed deposits for off-plan properties before 2008”.
The claim “concerns various developments across Spain. However, there are also some in Morocco that were built by Spanish developers and paid for through Spanish banks.”
Mr Salmeron recently won a case against Galicia-based Abanca that led to an order for it to pay more than €1.9 million to Irish and British investors who paid the developer for homes that were never built in Marbella.
Spain’s Supreme Court says financial institutions are responsible for refunding deposits
Salmeron’s most high-profile case involving an English-speaking investor was with former soccer player Geoff Hurst, the last surviving member of the England team that defeated West Germany in the 1966 World Cup final. .
Hirst, who played for Cork Celtic for a month in 1976, hired Salmeron to pursue a €298,000 deposit he had placed on an off-plan development property called Aloha Royal in Marbella in 2004, but it remained in active duty. I was planning to use it inside. retirement.
When the real estate bubble burst, the developer defaulted on its bank loans, took Hearst’s savings, and filed for bankruptcy.
Tens of thousands of Irish investors collectively poured millions of dollars into Spanish villas in search of a place in the sun.
However, due to the real estate boom, unplanned developments were either not built or left to rot as ghost apartment complexes, and that dream never came true.
As developers dispersed, buyers were left at a loss trying to collect their deposits.
A newly built apartment in southern Spain. Photo: Getty
However, a 2015 Spanish Supreme Court ruling made the country’s financial institutions responsible for refunding deposits placed for the purchase of unfinished properties.
The court said investors were entitled to have their payments protected by a Spanish bank guarantee, regardless of whether the developer provided the guarantee, even if they had not requested it.
The law required builders and developers to deposit money into secured bank accounts and provide bank guarantees, but the rules were widely ignored.
The Spanish court decision cleared the way for foreign buyers to make claims directly to banks rather than real estate developers, many of whom had declared bankruptcy at the time of the property market collapse.
Salmeron’s new service provides legal advice to prospective buyers
But Salmeron’s company said the long wait to get the deal through Spain’s legal system was made worse by the bank’s appeal of the decision against it. An appeal can extend the litigation period by two or three years.
Earlier this year, a Seville lawyer launched legal services in Ireland for Irish nationals who have bought property in Spain or are considering buying property in Spain in the future.
This new service provides legal advice to prospective buyers, helping them understand the benefits and pitfalls of buying property in Spain and helping them navigate Spain’s complex conveyance process.
