The fifth section of the Provincial Court of Las Palmas has confirmed a sentence by which the promoter of the El Siglo XXI building in Arrecife, Masar Canarias, was ordered to pay 52,920 euros to a buyer, who had deposited this money as a down payment but had not accessed the home.
The first sentence declared the purchase agreement, signed on December 3, 2003, resolved due to "breach of an essential obligation of the seller, by not delivering the property in the agreed time," and forced this entity to return to the buyer the amounts delivered up to that moment, plus interest. However, this sentence was appealed by the real estate company, which has lost again in court.
In any case, the collection of this amount will not be easy, since the company went bankrupt and has a long list of creditors, including other people who bought homes in the Siglo XXI building and who have also won lawsuits like this in the Courts.
In this new sentence, dated October 25, the Provincial Court recalls that the Court of First Instance Number 4 of Arrecife already accepted the buyer's claim and resolved this contract "due to the delay of more than five years from the delivery date" of the home "agreed in the contract." Despite the fact that the real estate company did not deliver the home within the expected time, the affected party did "diligently fulfill his obligation to pay the sum of 52,920 euros in advance since December 2004," according to the judicial ruling.
The Court points out that in the face of this "bleak and frustrating panorama for the buyer," the promoter alleged that it was a "notorious fact that since the end of 2007 the national and international economic crisis" had strongly hit this sector and that, therefore, it could not "replace the construction company that was to execute the work in a sector whose companies were constantly entering into bankruptcy, paralyzing the work."
Arguments "not supported"
Masar Canarias pointed out that despite this situation it had made "a great effort to guarantee the continuity of the work" and finally the work concluded "at the time of the filing of the lawsuit in December 2010, when it was awaiting the Arrecife City Council to grant the first occupation license."
However, for the Provincial Court, "none of the arguments" put forward by the promoter "can be supported." Therefore, it maintains the consideration of the judge of first instance and agrees to resolve this purchase agreement due to "the clearly unjustified breach of the selling promoter."
In this sense, the judicial ruling points out that the "circumstances invoked" by Masar Canarias "do not constitute a case of force majeure that exempts it from responsibility" and considers that the lack of a first occupation license already implies "the basic breach in the delivery of the home" in favor of this buyer.
In addition to dismissing the promoter's appeal and confirming the judgment of first instance, the Provincial Court imposes on Masar Canarias the payment of the costs derived from the processing of the appeal.
