WE have received a number of enquiries from clients (many of them expatriates) who purchased real estate properties in Spain off plan and who lost all of their money because the developer never built them.<\/p>\n
As we have stated in a number of previous articles, these buyers can recover their money and deposits paid either from the developer, or from the bank that guaranteed the money or which granted a bank guarantee in respect of the build.<\/p>\n
They could also recover their money from the bank, if there was no bank guarantee in place, if the bank received the money from the purchasers, without asking the developer to guarantee these amounts, as required by law 57\/68, through bank guarantee or insurance policy.<\/p>\n
Investors Exclusion of the application of law 57\/68<\/strong><\/p>\n One of the excuses most used by banks in Spain, (noted in the latest case law of the Supreme Court), is that certain buyers who lost their money are not protected by law 57\/1968, because they are speculators, real estate investors, or acquired the properties for commercial purposes, etc.<\/p>\n In this regard, we should point out:<\/p>\n As stated in the judgment of the Supreme Court, dated 1\/6\/2016 number 360\/2016, even if it was a sale excluded from law 57\/68, because the buyer was a real estate investment company, and its objective was eventual resale of the property, nothing would prevent the parties from agreeing and making applicable to the sale the protection of the law and in such a case they should be able to require the bank to return the money.<\/p>\n Therefore, if you or a company that you represent purchased a property and lost the money, but in the contract with the developer it was agreed that your money would be guaranteed by a bank, then the bank could be responsible for returning the lost money to you, in certain circumstances which would require study of the specific case involved.<\/p>\n 3.-Purchase of several properties<\/strong>.<\/p>\n It is generally accepted that banks and many judges understand that when the same person (or entity) purchases several properties, it is necessarily a speculative purchase not protected by the guarantees of Law 57\/68.<\/p>\n\n