OVER FIVE YEARS AND STILL NOT FINISHED

News

Dave Bull / 2009-07-12 12:00:38

It has been nothing but heartbreak for Jenny

We hear horror stories all the time here in Spain, usually about someone who was daft enough to hand over a wad of cash without asking any questions but a case that should have been in court last Thusday ended is one that most people would agree shouldn’t have got that far.

More than five years ago Jenny Reeves and her husband put down a deposit on what they thought at the time would be a lovely place to retire to. Last Thursday the case ended up in court with jenny facing the man who took away their dream by not fulfilling his contract.

They were promised that they would be ‘in by Christmas’ (this was in February) and now over five years later Jenny, who lost her husband before the case came to court, still doesn’t have anything to show for what she’s paid out.

In February 2004 the couple went with some friends to look at land that was for sale near Pinoso which they hoped they would be able to build at least one house on, to live in, and maybe one or two more as investments. Jenny admits now in retrospect that maybe they shouldn’t have been so trusting when the construction company suggested that they use the same lawyers to keep the expense down but, as ever, they were very pleasant and more ominously, very convincing.

Nothing much happened for a while but the Reeves’’ were regularly assured by the builder that they were just waiting for the town hall to issue the proper licences. Fifteen months after they had paid their deposit the builders called to say that they would have to lose over two thirds of their land because the local council (Jumilla) required it to build a new road. This was now the summer of 2005 and the Reeves’ decided to escape the stress and worry and return to the UK for a while, at least until the new house was built. They returned the following June (2006) and went straight to the town hall to find out, to their surprise, that the licences were sitting there waiting for them – and had been for some time.

To compound the matter they were also informed that the town hall had absolutely no plans to take any land off of them – let alone build a new road.
It was then that they went to a solicitor of their own and started contacting the builder to try and get the new home completed, at the time Jenny says that they didn’t want to go to court; they just wanted to get the place finished. By now they had handed over more than 120,000€ to the builder and feared losing some or all of that investment.

However, the builder had other ideas and continually failed to turn up for meetings and pre-arranged dates to select tiles and other items. Neighbours, who bought through the same builder and have been in their new home some time, are still waiting for the water and electricity to be connected and have heard rumors locally that he claims to have no money.
The builder has told Jenny that he will complete her house…if she hands over another 115,000€, but Jenny - who would have been happy to pay for the house if it had been ready nearer the time promised and not still incomplete over five years later – has offered to allow him to return most of the money she has paid but, so far, the offer has been turned down.

Now Jenny says the magic has gone and she just wants to return to the UK and get on with her life.
On Thursday of last week Jenny should have had her day in court to finally get things sorted out but the case has been postponed for several weeks because one of the lawyers involved is unwell, we’ll keep you informed as to how jenny gets on.

Tags: Paradise Lost, Spanish Dream