UP TO twenty Donegal homebuyers who were caught cold by the Spanish property market crash are expected to recoup much of the €3m they paid for holiday homes that were never built.
A ruling in Spain’s supreme court in December 2015 opened the way for hundreds of Irish people to claim directly from the banks rather than property developers, who promptly declared themselves bankrupt.
It has been estimated Irish buyers are owed hundreds of millions in deposits and stage payments on properties purchased off-plan, most of which were never completed. In total, approximately 500,000 people were affected, including about 300,000 Spaniards.
“It’s been a long road but finally there’s a light at the end of the tunnel,” said David Daly, a financial advisor based in Spain who is handling the Donegal cases.
A native of Cork, Mr Daly worked in London with Patrick Deane, a football agent with Quorum Sports and Co-Founder of Football Agency Network.
“A lot of Pat’s football clients invested in Spanish property and following the supreme court ruling he has successfully managed to recover a lot of their money,” he said.
“Pat found a lot of Irish names on the creditors list but he had no email addresses or phone numbers to track them down and that’s where I came in,” he added.
A number of months back, Mr Daly made an appeal for homebuyers to come forward when he spoke to Ciaran O’Donnell on his Business Matters Podcast for Highland Radio.
“I sent emails to fifteen regional radio stations across the country and through the Highland broadcast alone I got about twenty five replies of which twenty or so are progressing through the courts.
“Over the next six, twelve to eighteen months – depending when it gets to court – we will recover up to three million for these people in Donegal alone. It’s a success story. That money had been written off. They were never getting it back.
“One particular family had upwards of seven members involved and they all lost money in the one development – hundreds of thousands – and it bankrupted a lot of them. We will now recover all that money, and interest too. It’s a life changing thing and they’re all delighted,” he said.
Mr Daly works with No Win No Fee Spain, a group of professionals that have come together to help English speaking residents and non-residents of Spain who have been mis-sold mortgages, or have claims against construction companies or other legal entities.
“We don’t take a penny up front but we do get a quarter of what’s awarded by the count. It’s very transparent and straightforward and I haven’t met a person who has a problem with it. Seventy-five per cent of something is better than 100% of nothing. That’s the reality of it. An awful lot of work goes into each case before it gets to court but, ultimately, the banks know that they have to pay up,” he said.
The closing date for seeking redress under the off plan scheme closed at the end of December 2020 but Mr Daly said their attention has now switched to mortgage holders who signed a “Floor Clause”.
For more information visit http://www.nowinnofeespain.com/