It was their dream, their ideal home. They mortgaged part of their lives or, at least, their money, and now they are immersed in a nightmare. The situation of the building called Siglo XXI, which is located on El Reducto beach, in Arrecife, is far from luxurious, as its buyers hoped. Although the Arrecife City Council signed the habitability certificates for the 162 homes at the end of May, the problem of this building is far from being solved. The property, which has not yet been handed over to the owners, has already accumulated a delay of more than four years.
This has undermined many buyers, 30 of whom tried to back out of this sale, managing to get the Justice to force the developer to return the money from the down payment of the apartments. However, this refund never occurred, so those affected requested precautionary measures and the Justice ended up preventively seizing all the homes in this building.
Now, the buyers who do want to continue and have already paid their down payment are faced with an apartment preventively seized by the Justice. In addition, as if that were not enough, they face another problem that makes them not dare to complete the purchase. And the developer not only owes money to the individuals who filed complaints and want to recover the amount of the down payment, but also to the bank that granted the loan to carry out this work, and which also has the building as collateral. That is, if the company does not face that debt, the bank could claim ownership of the property. In short, a kind of "dog chasing its tail", in which the developer does not have the liquidity to pay the bank and individuals because it does not sell the apartments, and the buyers are trapped but do not dare to complete the operation and deliver the missing money.
A dark story
This story dates back to the end of 2003, beginning of 2004, when many citizens decided to acquire these homes off-plan. The building was to be completed in February 2007, although the developer had a six-month extension "in case problems arose", according to one of those affected, who prefers to remain anonymous, tells La Voz. "I went there and saw that they never finished. I asked and they just gave me the runaround," he says.
But, in addition, the deficiencies of the building itself, still unfinished, began to come to light. "There were problems with flooding, water entered through the basements, through the garages... They had to waterproof it again, they spent a year pumping water, because seawater seeped in," he says, while recalling that in November 2009 two workers died in a work accident. "The building is cursed," says this man.
Tired of having to continue paying rent for another apartment and that his supposed luxury home, with two bedrooms, never arrived, this buyer tried to back out. "I got tired and remembered that in the purchase agreement there was a clause, which specified that if I was no longer interested in the house, they would return the amounts I had delivered as a down payment plus interest," he says. Then, he decided to send a burofax to the developer to communicate his intention.
Complaint and seizure
He never received a response and decided to go to court at the end of 2009. The sentence came out in March 2010 and ruled in favor of this buyer, who like 30 other affected parties appealed to the Justice. All these failures forced the developer Masar to terminate the purchase agreements, since it had failed to meet the deadlines for the delivery of the apartments. In addition, it condemned the company to return to the buyers the money deposited as a down payment, plus interest. However, this sentence could be appealed and Masar appealed to the Provincial Court of Las Palmas. Therefore, those affected are still waiting for their money to be returned.
But the story does not end here. Faced with this impotence, several buyers decided to return to the Courts, managed to get the Justice to grant them precautionary measures to ensure collection in the future and to agree to the seizure of all the apartments in this building. Therefore, until the developer pays the complainants the money from the down payment, the rest of the buyers who do want to continue with this sale must bear the seizure on their homes.
"That is, the one who no longer wants to buy is not returned the money because the developer does not have it, and the one who wants to continue with their purchase has to endure a judicial seizure", which is added to the right that the bank has over the building. "Obviously, nobody wants to buy like this, because they fear that the bank may keep all the homes, since the mortgage loan (which the developer signed with the bank) is prior to the seizure," says a lawyer in practice.
The only solution at this time would be for Masar to reach an agreement with each of the complainants, return the money, lift the seizures and be able to continue selling without problems. But, for the moment, this seems to be very far from reality.
Tired and fed up
The buyers are absolutely tired and fed up with this situation "I don't want the house, I don't even want to see the building, I don't want to know anything about all this", says one of those affected. "If the bank kept the homes it would be a scandal, because it would leave many people who have paid for their homes on the street," he says.
Precisely the latter can happen and this is the great fear of the buyers who do want to continue with this process of acquiring a home in the 21st Century.
"I bought an apartment in this building six years ago and every time that passes, I lose the illusion in that house," says a buyer, who also consulted with her lawyer what she could do to get out of this crossroads. "He told me that I had two options: either give up the apartment and get into lawsuits with the developer, which has no liquidity, so they are not going to return the money; or wait. I have decided to wait," she says.
This woman cannot "afford to lose the money" she invested at the time. "It was a considerable amount, so in order not to lose everything, I will wait for it to be resolved, although I see it as complicated," she laments, while being "very worried" that the bank may keep her home. "That can happen, and it scares me," she says.
But, beyond the money and beyond the lawsuits and the time lost, what many buyers no longer have is "illusion" in those homes, in that building that was supposed to be luxurious and that has become a nightmare.
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