Costa del Sol Property Blog

The administrators who took over the accounts of the firm Aifos last july have released a preliminary report. In this they name some 6,234 creditors who are owed debts that amount to more than 884 million euros.

However at this stage the list of debts does not include the amounts paid as deposits by the majority of the property buyers who put in a claim to the administratos. Instead these sums are classed as contingent credits subject to the fulfilment of the contracts. A large number of affected clients have responded by contesting this initial adminsitratior’s reports on the grounds that they feel “seriously damaged”. Some even interpret this as a strategy to “get us out of the way”.

The administrators explained that, in the case of the clients who had given money to Aifos towards the purchase of a property, they had considered them as creditors, but with contingent credits, as “if the contracts (to buy the houses) have not been terminated or there is no court ruling that they must be settled, the credits are not liquid, expired or demandable”.

Patricia Morales is a lawyer who represents some of the affects buyers. She explains that given the large stock of unsold properties it is “suprising” that millions of euros handed over by thousands of buyers are not shown in the report.

She added that the report fails to say whether these amounts paid by clients are guaranteed or, if they have been paid to cover VAT, whether the money has been handed over to the taxman.

The buyers find it hard to believe that the amounts have been classed as contingent credits on contracts subject to being fulfilled by Aifos when a large number of allegedly illegal developments have been halted by a court, which implies that it is highly unlikely that the contract is ever going to be complied with.

“Aifos has already failed to honour the contracts and what the clients want is their money back. This almost seems like a strategy to get us out of the way”, said the lawyer.

Morales has called for a further study of all property sale contracts, taking into account whether or not they were legal, whether the amount paid were guaranteed, how much was handed over and paid into restricted accounts, as well as whether money paid to cover VAT was passed on to the tax collection agency Hacienda.

Source: Sur in English, March 26th to April 1st 2010 author: Montse Martín