Testimonials
Here you can see what our customers think about our services.
Testimonials about Contract Cancellation Cases
Testimonials about Conveyancing
Testimonials about Dation in Payment
Paul & Valerie Maher - August 2010 - "Firstly a big thank you to Maria, Steven, Almudena and the rest of the team for successfully securing the recovery of our deposit interest and costs under our bank guarantee. Well done.
Back in March 2007 as we were approaching retirement we visited the Murcia region and decided to buy an off plan villa on a very exciting development in the region and signed contracts and paid over our deposit. We visited the development on a regular basis and in the early stages it was a hive of activity with numerous builders and contractors on site. Our villa was not started we later discovered that the developer did not have all the necessary permissions and that this was the reason for the delay. Over night the development suddenly became like a ghost town with all contractors pulled off site very few properties sold and the completion of a number of the facilities being deferred or not operated.
Communication from the developer was rare and more delays and broken promises came along. We attempted to negotiate with them as we were looking forward to becoming part of this community but to no avail.
We then decided to take action to recover our deposit and started to look around for someone to represent us. The agents suggested a firm of lawyers but we felt that there may be a conflict of interest. We came across the Eye on Spain website and were impressed with the advice that Maria of Costa Luz Lawyers was giving to various subscribers and people with similar problems. I approached Maria on the internet and gave full details of the background of the issues and she came back to say that she was confident that we would recover our deposit under the bank guarantee. We were then given full details of the process together with a note of the costs involved when they would become payable, which was in stages, and the likely timescales of the claim. All highly professional and very clear.
When approaching these claims you must however be prepared to be patient and accept that things do not happen overnight as Costa Luz Lawyers have to get the other side to respond which can be very difficult. We only needed to chase a couple of times more out of frustration than anything else but We need not have been concerned as there was always a quick response from someone in the team and of course the claim was being dealt with as quickly as it could.
We have no hesitation in highly recommending Maria and her team to act for you in connection with your legal requirements as they are very professional and will keep you fully in the picture without too much prompting. We instructed Costa Luz Lawyers in May 2009 and our deposit costs and interest were paid into the Court at the end of July 2010. We were impressed with this timescale as we have heard of these matters going on for years.
We intend to find another property in Spain and we will be instructing Costa Luz Lawyers to act for us in the future as we feel very safe in their hands.
Well done and a big thank you to you all the team.
Paul and Valerie"
Jane Muir - July 2010 - "I am writing from Adelaide, South Australia, where I have been living for the last year after moving from Perth, Western Australia, where all my problems began. This is important to know as I couldn't have been further away from Spain and any critical information if I tried.
I was buying a small, off plan apartment, on a golf course development in the Murcia region, having lived there for a year beforehand. This was in 2006. The developers had a very good reputation and the existing properties were lovely, so when I had paid everything but the final payment I set off for Australia until completion 2 years later. So I hoped. Without knowing anything about the problems concerning the developers or the progress, it transpired that my phase had been scrapped, and along with it my hope of my apartment.
I am English,and wanted security for my retirement in a lovely part of Spain. The next few months were a nightmare of communication, I did think I had a resolution as it was agreed for my funds to be returned, but that never happened, even after months and months of emailing. It is a very hard task to feel anything other than totally abandoned when you live so far away from the problem and nothing seems to be effective. Obviously I was unable to seek advice here, so I engaged a local lawyer which proved to be another year wasted with nothing done at all. Again communication was an impossibility with never a reply to any query.At that point in time I thought I had not only lost my apartment but all my money as well.I can't tell you how alone and foolish I felt. I should have sought advice even before buying it concerning the contract, and to be so naive as to think my money would be returned.
I was now desperate and researched all I could about other cases, and found so very many people as despairing as me. I read everything and wrote to anyone who I thought may be able to help. Then I started to read more about Maria and Costaluz Lawyers, It was just wonderful to read her comments on EOS and to be encouraged by the testimonials of so many of their clients.
This was Christmas, 2009. I sent my first email to her after Christmas, and also sacked the local lawyers soon after. From the very first communication with her, I felt a glimmer of real hope there was someone out there able to do what was needed and realy be on my side. I have found that they have not only talked the talk, but walked the walk, and I've not once felt my questions were irrelevant to them or indeed I was irrelevant. That includes everyone within the team I have had contact with. So now here we are in July 2010, only a few months after first seeking their help, and Maria has this last week told me the fantastic news that they have my full refund with interest.
I still can't quite believe it has finally come to such a good end but also how very lucky I have been to have them represent me, how different it could have been. I'm sorry if this has been a long essay, but I have had, like many, the worst of stress, worry and debilitating anxiety, but the best of experiences with Maria and her team. The very last thing I have to say is please, please don't waste endless time with a lawyer you either don't realy trust or you know in your heart does'nt care enough. I'm sure there are many good lawyers out there, but I can only go by my own experience and truly recommend Costaluz Lawyers.
Best Regards, Jane"
Kelvin and Judi Kyte - June 14 2010 - "We decided to buy off plan, a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment on the sea front, within walking distance to the port of Duquesa . We visited the site fairly regularly during the building stage and were please with the progress, however we became suspicious when the build was nearing completion and there was no sign of the sea front swimming pool.
We spoke to the site manager and he assured us that the pool would be built once everything else was finished and anyway why did we want a pool when the "... best swimming pool..." i.e. the Sea was only 100 meters away. This statement started alarm bells ringing and so we contacted our Lawyer, after several weeks they got back to us and told us that the developer was entitled to make changes to the build for ‘Technical Reasons' and that there was nothing that could be done.
Luckily I stumbled across the Eye on Spain website and started to read the threads about developers and illegal developments etc. It soon became apparent that one Lawyer in particular was championing the rights of consumers and after speaking to Maria we changed Lawyer to Costa Luz Lawyers.
Maria advised to wait to see if the developer could meet the deadline given on our Bank Guarantee, rather than fight against the developer for breach of contract. Luckily for us the build overran the BG date and Costa Luz Lawyers exercised our Bank Guarantee the very next day.
It has not been easy, and the last 2 years or so have been a very stressful and anxious time, at times we thought that we would never get our money back and did write some straight talking emails to Maria and her team out of sheer frustration at the slowness of the Spanish legal system. The return emails always offered words of encouragement and advised us to be patient and trust that Costa Luz were doing everything they could.
Success at last, in June 2010 we received our initial deposit back and expect the return of our legal costs and interest within the next few months.
I would without doubt recommend Maria Del Castro and Costa Luz Lawyers to anyone in the position of either trying to get deposits returned for whatever reason or simply buying a property in Spain . If we decide to venture into the Spanish property market again, then an easy choice will be which Lawyer we use.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank Maria, Patricia, Almudena and Steven for their hard work and efforts on our behalf."
Regards Kelvin & Judi
Malcolm Johnson - 12/6/2009 "I heard about Maria and Costa Luz Lawyers from the ‘Eye on Spain' forum and was very impressed with the free help and advice she offered. From her postings on the forum it was apparent that she was knowledgeable, honourable but also very determined that ‘justice' must be done.
I employed her in the spring of 2009 to recover my deposit on the Andarax complex in Terque, Almeria which was at that time already 18 months late but not yet started. This week I received my deposit back into my bank account.
Costa Luz Lawyers stated precisely at the start what my costs would be and a realistic timescale was given. They were quick to answer any queries that I had and gave only accurate information.
They are now proceeding to recover my costs and interest which I remain hopeful that they will again be successful.
I am very grateful to Maria and Costa Luz lawyers for the work that they carried out on my behalf and would recommend them to anyone with similar problems in Spain."
Susan Beach-Handy & Mark Ogden (Chesterfield England) - 07 March 2010: "We would just like everyone to know that we have received from the bank our original deposit. We were ill informed by previous solicitors that as our BG was out of date we would not be entitled to our money back if we pulled out of the purchase. This was a very worrying time for us. Costaluz Lawyers were then recommended to us, and i cannot thank them enough. They eased our worries, talked us through every step of the way, and finally after much patience they won our case for us. We have received our full deposit back, and legal costs and interest are to be returned at a later date. So we would like to thank Maria de Castro and her team, especially Steven Schaffer for taking on our case.another success story, thankyou once again Steven"
Patricia & Michael Mc Cormack (Ireland) - 15 February 2010: "A million thanks to Maria, Steven and the team of professionals at Costaluz lawyers, for their help and efficiency during the last eighteen months. I came across Maria's name by chance in the "Eye on Spain" website and arranged to speak to her by telephone a couple of days later. From that moment on I did not look back.We put a 30% deposit on an apartment in the south of Spain in June 2004 and got a timeframe of 18 to 24 months for completion, alas this did not happen. We went through two years of frustration being unable to get any information from the developer and decided to cancel late 2007. The Developer was adament at this stage that he would not refund.
Having explained the situation to Maria and after giving her POA to proceed on our behalf ( we did not have to go to Spain at any stage), the end result was an out of court settlement just before the court hearing in late November 2009.
We have now received our full deposit.
I would highly recommend Steven and Maria and their team and again want to say a big thank you for the kindness and professionalism shown to us, we felt completely confident that there would be a positive result after enlisting their help."
Margaret and Winston Coultrup - 14 January 2010: "Our dream might have turned into a nightmare!We like thousands of Brits had gone to Spain and committed to a dream that regrettably did not materialize. We had planned to live out our retirement in a dream off-plan property on which we put our deposit in April 2005 to be completed in September 2007.
Fortunately we had an excellent estate agent who provided us with a Bank Guarantee on all our deposit payments which we seriously thought we would loose as our existing lawyer in Spain was not too proactive in obtaining our money.
Following much trawling through the web we read-up on Costa Luz Lawyers and sent all our documentation to Maris Castro. Once we had her seal of approval that we had a guaranteed case in obtaining our funds, the fear of having to loose a sizable amount of our life's saving was removed. She assured us that we had a watertight case and in just eighteen months we were able to have our deposit, interest and legal fees returned, success beyond our wildest dreams.
Our only reservation being the lack of communication, once assured we had a viable claim we were left oblivious of the process and nothing to worry, unlike UK lawyers who view letters as a money spinner.
We regrettably will never be buying in Spain again the but would have not hesitations in recommending Costa Luz Lawyers, Maria, Steven and the whole team, for their efficient, courteous and helpful service. We will be eternally grateful for having found them and for making our retirement more secure now that our money has been returned.THEY ARE WORTH EVERY PENNY OF THEIR LEGAL FEES."
Val & Keith Conniford - 05/01/10: "Our grateful thanks to Maria, Stephen and the team at Costsaluz Lawyers for bringing our traumatic experience to a successful conclusion.
Once we discovered our dream property purchase in Spain was unlikely to materialize we sought the assistance of a Spanish Lawyer. The progress with our initial law firm was slow, expensive and non productive. In desperation we trawled the internet and found Maria's blog. We were so impressed by the testimonials of other unfortunate innocent clients, we instructed her immediately. The service we received was excellent from start to finish. Constant communication, unlike our previous experience was reassuring; to our absolute delight we were successful in our claim and have received our entire deposit money back. We are now waiting for the costs to be refunded which should take another few months.
If we decide to purchase another property in Spain, there is no other Company I would engage other than Costaluz Lawyers. We would highly recommend them without hesitation.
Thank you once again and Happy New Year to you all".
Diane & Richard Garlick - 6/12/2009: "We would just like to express our heartfelt thanks to Maria, Steven & all the team at Costa Luz Solicitors for their help in obtaining our deposit back for us.
We first got in touch with Maria end of August 2008 .We had been told by our original solicitor our bank guarantee was out of date & we could not pull out without losing our deposit.The First License of Habitation was imminent & we were at a loss to know what to do.As we were disillusioned with his advice & were very worried.
Maria & Steven took on our case after advising us that the "out of date " bank guarantee could be executed this was done in the nick of time as Habitation License was granted about two weeks later.
They have worked tirelessly on our behalf & after giving them POA & emailing them all relevant documents we were able to leave everything to them.Not needing to go out to Spain at all.
They have restore our faith in the " Spanish system "but we now realise the key is a "good " solicitor who is not connected to in anyway to agents or developers & we would recommend them to anyone who asks us.
Many thanks yet again".
Brian and Louise Nicholas - 06/11/2009: "Can I say a tremendous thanks to Maria and all of her team (especially Steven) at Costa Luz Lawyers for their services in getting our money back from a developer\bank after a failed Spanish property purchase. After putting a deposit down for an off-plan villa in 2006, the development initially ran beyond its expected completion date of Sept 2007 and then in Oct 2008, the pulling out of bank funding meant that the developer decided to stop developing all together leaving our money trapped. They never actually informed us of this...we only found out through our agent!
Looking to secure our money in case the developer went into administration (as was feared at the time), we were advised by our agent to transfer our deposit into a key-ready property as we had an "expired" bank guarantee. This ultimately fell-through as the developer couldn't complete citing it was unable to lift the mortgage already on the property (did they not know thiswhen we started the process for the new property?!). Now at our wits end, we sought litigation advice. Our initial lawyer informed us that our original purchasing contract was now null and void as our purchasing lawyer had signed papers for the new property which had fallen through (without our clear consent). She also stated that this had also in-validated our bank guarantee so that wasn't worth the paper it was written on either! Our only option, that lawyer stated, was to sue the developer who we knew had no money anyway...so what point would that be?! Bearing in mind that was just before Christmas 2008, that was probably the most stressful festive period we've ever had.
Not content with this, further researching our options, we came across comments from Maria at Costa Luz Lawyers advising people on website Eye On Spain. Straightaway, I liked the way she came across online, going out of her way to advise people on their situations and about Spain in general. We passed our details to her, no holes barred, and were absolutely delighted when she came back stating that our bank guarantee was valid, the expiration date on it didn't matter and ultimately that she was very confident she could get us all of our deposit back! As I didn't trust our previous lawyer to get the originals of our legal documents to Maria, we took the opportunity to collect and deliver these ourselves to Maria in the Costa Luz Lawyers offices in Algeciras. Meeting Maria and her team in person was a very uplifting experience that really put us at ease. It left us with a feeling full of trust that we were putting the chasing of our savings into the hands of someone who knew her stuff, yet was charming with it and a team who you could tell really cared about what they were doing. The confidence that had been destroyed by our previous lawyer had now been rebuilt.
On returning to England, we were (as promised) e-mailed comprehensive documents outlining the processes that were possibly going to unfold to retrieve our money. Any extra questions\concerns we did have were always answered in a timely fashion and a friendly manner by either Maria or Steven, helping us to further understand the process as well as keep our spirits up when things seemed to go quiet. 9 months on from our first meeting with Costa Luz Lawyers, our deposit has been fully refunded and an additional claim for interest\costs is in the process of being sorted out.
We are delighted with the service provided by Costa Luz Lawyers, in particular from Maria and Steven (who we mostly dealt with) due to their timely and personable answers to any queries we have had during the whole thing. I would not hesitate to recommend Costa Luz Lawyers to anyone who finds themselves with a legal issue in Spain...indeed I have already done so on a couple of Spanish internet forums. Many thanks Maria and all of the team!"
Madhu Shah - 15/10/09: "Dear Maria, Please let me thank you for all the hard work that you did over the past two years to get my deposit back from the developers. Also thanks goes to you team who helped me at the court hearing.Although at times I thought that I may lose the money as time was passing by and we were not hearing of any news.Your patience and confidence that you will get the Money back gave me a lot of hope.Thanks also goes to the newsletter EYE on Spain as if I had not subscribed to that letter I would not have know about you and your services. They are doing a great job of informing a lot of British investors in Spain. Taking into account the exchange difference between the time I sent the money and the time I got it back it turns out that I have also recovered any interest that I may have lost over the years.You always answered my e-mails and telephone calls, which a lot of lawyers in UK has got to learn to do.A very happy and satisfied client of yours and have also passed your name to other friends of mine who may have problems in Spain.Regards"
Benny Cribben - 05/10/09: "Before dealing with Maria and her team I was very unhappy with the advice I was getting from lawyers and property agents in Spain. Now that I am dealing with Costa Luz Lawyers its just been a much better experience. I have been given good sound advice, and from despairing on how I could get my monies back from the developer Maria and her team have brought my case to the Courts and won! They have always delivered what they said they would and I would highly recommend them should you find yourself needing advice and support re Spanish property. Now all I need is for the developer to pay what the Court has ordered..........."
Simmon and Emma Dart - 25/08/09: "Like many people in the UK, we were excited about pursuing the dream of having our own property in Spain.
We had spent time looking at various places along Spanish coastline and decided on the Costa del Sol, near Estepona.
Having looked at old property and new, we decided to buy off plan, a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment on the sea front, within walking distance to restaurants and bars.
The Builder was well known in the area and we were comfortable and happy with their other finished developments. The materials were high quality and the finish luxurious. The plans looked superb, and we'd asked many questions along the way. We knew we had a 2 year wait for completion, but we felt it would be worth it.
We visited the site regularly during it build. But each visit we were refused access to the shell of the building (the reasons for this were cited as being a health and safety issue). We also met with the Developer on these visits to ask questions that seemed to keep arising. Each visit something in the build had changed. We quickly realised that this was the way of Spanish Builders and we were just told to accept these changes.
However, some of these changes were fast becoming quite critical. There was now only 1 pool, not 2. The scale on our diagrams was misleading and when accurately checked, we were amazed to find some of the internal rooms were now much smaller than we had been led to believe, and quite frankly unusable in some cases. The pool area was in the shade, we could go on, but this sets the scene. The questions we now had were either being dismissed or skirted around.
Our trust and excitement were quickly waning. The cost of this apartment was more than our home in the UK, so not an insignificant amount of money. We were beginning to realise that not only would we not want to holiday in this apartment ourselves as it really wasn't fit for purpose, our hopes of renting this luxurious, quality apartment out were dashed when we spoke to a local rental company who said they wouldn't even take the apartment on for rent. The comments I received when pressing the rental company for a direct answer were. "Really nicely finished apartments with lots of gadgets; but very cramped, with little or no view, or sun. They will be Un-rentable because people would be disappointed with the rental and would never return". To add to that the rental company told me that there were some serious design flaws, and stated that in the winter months the heavily shaded pool area would receive very little sun. Clearly this was a devastating revelation. We realized that we had been kept out of the apartment block specifically to stop us appreciating the actual size and aspect of the apartment. I was suspicious of the developer's reasons for keeping us out of the building, as we had visited lots of other building sites with this company and others; but had never had an issue gaining access. Now our nightmare was really starting to come together!
The stress this was now causing was terrible. Sleepless nights, worrying about financing the purchase of something that was not what was sold to us was hard to stand. We thought we were trapped and had decided that we were probably better to walk away from our 140k + deposit rather than taking on such a terrible property. We could not believe how we could have been so naïve.
We strongly felt the Developer was in breach of their contract on a number of issues, however discussions with our existing lawyers left us feeling flat and that this was an almost impossible task in Spain. That would cost us the earth to do anything about. Lots of protocol, the law was complicated and rarely did a customer take a Developer on in this way. In other words, give up.
Given the technical inaccuracies of the build, we thought we'd try one last avenue and decided to seek the help of a British surveyor who worked in Spain. This was extremely useful as they thought our case was strong and passed on the name of a number of solicitors but one name, a Consumer Rights Specialist in Algecerias Maria Del Castro; sounded just the ticket.
Maria del Castro is a family business Costaluzlawyers there web site: www.cosaluzlawyers.es and they do much of the work without even meeting with their clients. This made it extremely easy to do business as it saved us countless trips to their offices in Spain, but not only that their charges were very competitive anyway. They were much cheaper than our previous solicitors.
During one of our visits to the Spain, we met with Maria at their offices in Algeciras. She understood immediately the problems we faced. She had vast experience in matters just like ours and her knowledge of consumer law was phenomenal. Her English language was good, which made life very easy for us. Whilst we knew there was risk, she did very firmly believe we had a case for breach of contract. She also informed us that we had a bank guarantee that may be exercisable if the developer was late with obtaining the occupation license. This bank Guarantee was an insurance policy put in place to protect our money in case the builder should go out of business before finishing the project. It was the one smart thing we did, we insisted on that being in place. It also had an expiry date and conditions requiring the builder to meet there completion deadline. This gave us an automatic right to break the contract if they were late.
Once we'd instructed Maria to act on our behalf, a weight was lifted from our shoulders. She was tenacious, reliable and delivered on all her promises. She was a positive force; and a force to be reckoned with if you were the Developer!
A year later, the developer missed their promised completion deadline. Maria executed our bank guarantee in a timely fashion and was able to return all our deposit back to us. Maria had to take the developer/ insurance company to court to force them to pay us the monies. And ultimately we expect to get back our legal costs and interest. So we were very foolish and eventually lucky.
We learnt some very valuable lessons. We committed may of the sins:
1. Don't assume you have the same rights in Spain as you do in the UK.
2. If you buy off plan, inspect the site very carefully. Check the height of the structure, the Sun position throughout the day etc.
3. Only buy off plan when the structure is built, and you can clearly see and measure what you're buying.
4. Never buy on holiday, go back, sleep on it for a week when back home then review your decision so you don't make a big mistake.
5. Don't pay too much; so many properties were overvalued for what you get.
6. Always insist on a bank Guarantee, it should help keep your developer on his toes. If they go bust you will get your money back.
7. Use a good solicitor; I would without doubt commend Maria Del Castro to anybody buying in Spain. No Matter where we purchase in Spain, we will use Maria in future.
8. Never rush in; the English sales people that the developers often use to gain your trust are desperate to sell to you. Don't trust them; make up your own mind.
9. Make sure that you can break the contract for an agreed sum, so if they ultimately make a hash of the project or change things in a way you can't live with, you can walk away without loosing too much money. Get their contracts checked by Maria with the cancellation terms clearly stated and agreed!
We would never have been able to work the Spanish Legal system in this way. We would have been unaware of our rights. Maria del Castro and her team made this complex process uneventful and hassle free for us as is possible.
Best of luck
Simon & Emma"
Mike Molloy - 25/08/09: "It seems almost too good to be true, but at long last our family have received a refund of the bank guarantees which we have been fighting for over the last 3 years.
Who could have possibly imagined the turn of events that followed our off-plan purchases in 2004. In 2006, as a direct consequence of Operation Malaya, the courts froze the assets of our developer, building work on the site ground to a halt with only a fraction of the project completed and new buyers naturally shied away. With no further sales taking place, it was only a matter of time before both the promoter and the developer went into administration and the future of the development as a whole was now very much in doubt.
Throughout much of this distressing period of time, we had been attempting to get our money returned by the developer and the bank, using the services of a firm of solicitors recommended to us by the estate agent who had introduced us to the development. It would be fair to say that they fell far short of our expectations, especially regarding communication. Emails would regularly go unanswered for weeks on end and calls would not be returned. It was almost as if our case was too difficult for them to deal with, and they were hoping that we would give up, or look elsewhere....eventually, of course, we did!
Late last year I happened to come across Maria's blog on the Eye on Spain website; I was immediately struck, not only by Maria's supportive advice to others in a similar situation to ourselves, but most importantly by her detailed knowledge of the laws protecting house purchasers in Spain. Having discussed the matter, we decided to contact Maria in December and after reviewing the information which we sent her regarding our situation, she agreed to take on our case.
Transferring our case to Maria was remarkably easy; we only had to pay a visit to a local solicitor in order to get our Power of Attorney apostilled; everything else was done by email or by post.
I'm delighted to report that using Costa Luz Lawyers really was a breath of fresh air from the outset. Emails are replied to within a set time period. Calls are returned. Everyone we have corresponded with has been courteous and helpful. Best of all - they get results, and very quickly in our case.
It has been a real pleasure to deal with the people who work for this outstanding firm; the quality of service is excellent and their results speak for themselves. We would not hesitate for one moment to recommend them to anyone in need of a solicitor in Spain.
Tina Cahill - 23/07/09: "I cannot thank Maria and her team who have managed to get me out of a nightmare with a Spanish Builder and the Bank. The relief is tremendous.Ihad a property that was not being built, alot of money with the Spanish Bank as a deposit and a lawyer withholding Bank Guarantees fromme and a Bank refusing to pay even with Bank Guarantees. The stresswas enormous.My first lawyer was incredibly evasive and unhelpful to say the least.I found out about Costa Luz Lawyers from Eye on Spain and I would recommend them to anyone needing a reliable, trustworthy lawyer. A breath of fresh air. Steven in particular has givenme excellent advice and responded quickly to calls and emails. They managed to get my Bank Guarantees back from the first lawyer and I havenow been awarded my deposit and interest from the Court in Spain.A special thank you to Steven for listening to all my concerns and worries!It is a shame I cannot thank you in person but maybe one day if I am in Cadiz area!Tina Cahill - Putney, London."
Marie-Helene Dubois - 19/06/09: "I contacted Maria de Castro initially due to an interview I heard with her on a podcast regarding bank guarantees.
I had paid a deposit for an off-plan property which hadn't yet been delivered 4 years later. In addition, the developer was threatening to sue me to complete, even though the property was not yet legally habitable.
Unfortunately, the bank guarantee that had been issued on the payments I'd made had an expiry date of 1 year after being issued. Curiously, the date of expiry preceded even the contractual completion date of the properties so the bank guarantee - although perfectly genuine and offered by a bank - was not even worth the paper it was written on! Even more curiously, the bank was a business partner of the developers'...
I had consulted 3 solicitor's firms regarding this because I was convinced that this in itself was unlawful. What is the point of a bank guarantee which expires before you would even legally be able to use it?
However, all 3 solicitors that I had spoken to turned me away and told me I had no case due to this expiry date and not one gave me any other solution.
Then along came Maria de Castro, took on my case and 8 months later had won it and got me my money back plus interest plus legal fees so it hasn't even ended up "costing" me anything.
It just shows that law is not an exact science and that winning a case and one's money back is all in the art of choosing the right solicitor.
Hopefully my testimonial will serve to save you who are reading it the time and angst of going through three others before getting to the right one. The right one is Costa de la Luz lawyers."
Chris and Janice Beukes - 10/06/09: "We are now celebrating the fact that at last, after so much heartache, worry, anxiety and prayers, we have just received the first part of our deposit back! Thank you so much Maria and her team of friendly, positive and caring professionals.
Like so many of the testimonials we have read on here, we are another English couple caught up in the nightmare of a broken dream of a retirement home in Spain . Years went by with an incomplete off-plan development which went well over its contractual period. The solicitors we had at the time in Spain told us we would be wasting our time trying to enforce the contract which said we were entitled to our deposit back. They said we should go ahead and complete! (as you can guess, these were the solicitors recommended to us by the developer!!) Why would we want to complete on a development fraught with problems and not completed to the standards advertised initially? We were assured at the beginning that our deposit was held with a bank guarantee and not with the developer should anything go wrong, but we later discovered through Maria that the document they gave us was not a genuine bank guarantee. We came across Maria from reading her articles on Eye on Spain and contacted her to ask her what our chances are of getting our deposit back. It was a shock to actually get a ‘positive' and ‘hopeful' response and found Maria to be refreshingly ‘ for us' whereas before, everyone seemed to be against us and treat us a bit as a nuisance. We moved our case to Maria and thank God for the day we came across her name on Eye on Spain . For us, it has been a long process involving going over to Spain for the court case and long periods of waiting. It was my (Janice) first experience ever of having to appear in court and it touched me to hear how professionally and passionately our case was defended in court. It took a long time to hear the result of our case and, we must admit, doubt kept eating away at us. After the excitement of eventually hearing that we had won the case, the next hurdle brought us back down to earth as the developer then appealed! We had been warned that this was very likely, but it still disappointed us. We eventually heard earlier this year that the developer lost his appeal and that we were awarded all of our deposit back, plus interest, plus legal costs! It took a while for the monies to come through (and for it to sink in that we had actually won!) and we have just received approximately a quarter of our deposit back and the rest is tied up in assets. We are not sure how long the rest of the funds will take to come through, but we have confidence in God and are confident also that Maria will stay on the case and see it through to the final Euro!! So watch this space!
Bless you Maria, your family and your team".
Barry & Gwen Cox - 04/06/2009: "We contacted Maria at Costa Luz lawyersthrough eye on spain website, we already had a Solicitor in Spain, who was no help to us at all, within 2 weeks of having our P.O.A. Maria and herstaff had received cheques on our behalf for repayment of our Bank Guarantees.Excellent, speedy professional service, No hidden charges, progress reports from start to finish.We would highly recommend anyone with any lagal issues to get in touch with Maria, we have already recommended her to other people on eye on Spain .Thanks Maria and all the staff at Costa Luz Lawyers."
Geraldine O'Leary - 16/05/2009: "Dear All at CostaLuz Layers, I am more than pleased to take this opportunity to thank you for an absolutely first rate service which I would not hesitate to recommend to anyone requiring legal advice/services in Spain.
I, like many others, came across Costaluz Lawyers through the website ‘Eye On Spain' whilst watching the video link Justin posted of his conversation with Maria and her brother. Excellent and extremely informative. After unsuccessfully attempting to obtain a refund of Bank guarantees via a Spanish Solicitor based in England and also directly with developers I contacted Maria. From the start I was filled with confidence and security in the knowledge that I had come across a person with complete integrity and commitment to offering a totally transparent service of the highest standards, backed up by a team of equally dedicated personnel.
Almudena and Steven kept me informed at all times in a charming and, notwithstanding, totally professional manner - for this a big thank you - certainly an asset to the Company.
What more can I say but muchisimas gracias Maria. When I find myself in Cadiz, which I surely will, I will thank you personally."
Emma & Simon Dart - 20/04/09: "We were introduced to Maria del Castro in Spring of 2008. We already had a solicitor based in Spain, however we felt we needed specialist advice to assist in resolving some issues around our apartment purchase in Southern Spain.
Our initial contact was made via conference call. Maria put our minds at rest and we felt very confident that she had the necessary experience and understanding of consumer rights and property Law to argue our case.
It was after this phone call that we decided to entrust Maria and her team with our case and we met with her in person a few months later. This was something we wanted to do, Maria didn't expect us to do this; in-fact most of Maria's clients never meet in person; but communicate via email and conference calls. Maria explained to us that this made it very easy to keep clients informed, without them incurring costly travel expenses.
Maria and her team spent considerable time listening to our concerns and were able to make constructive comment around each point, providing even more reassurance that we had chosen a very supportive and knowledgeable company.
On returning to the UK, Maria had ensured that all paperwork and information was in place, so that as little disruption and stress was caused to us. Maria and her team worked hard and effectively to secure a positive outcome when our case reached court.
We cannot thank Maria and her company enough, for resolving this important matter in our favour. Without them, we feel that it would have been a lost cause.
We would have no hesitation in recommending Maria del Castro and Associates to anybody struggling with a Spanish property purchase."
Martin & Cheryl Bunney - 09/03/09: "We are delighted to add our Testimonial to your website... Like so many others before us, our dream of a Spanish holiday home for ourselves and our family had turned into a 5 year nightmare.
After 4 years we were in despair and our previous lawyer seemed incapable of recognising our worries and fears that we would ever recover the deposit which we had paid for what we had hoped to be an apartment on a beautiful beach front location in Murcia.
Over the 4 years before it all turned sour, we would fly out to Spain as often as we could for long weekends etc and would always visit the site. We started to become concerned that work had slowed down and in fact had stopped although our apartment was actually finished and fully equipped with all white goods. It took many months to even ascertain from our first lawyer that there was a problem. Eventually and after many emails (most of which were unanswered) from us to herwe were informed that the Developer had been involved in a fraud scandal in Marbella and furthermore Habitation Certificates would not be issued for the apartments in our Phase.
Communication from our previous lawyer was unhelpful and gave us no hope that the lawyer would actively work on our behalf to try and recover our money and she seemed very reluctant to issue proceedings against the developer even though our Bank Guarantee was due to expire in December 08.
Having joined Eye on Spain we read about Maria at Costa Luz Lawyers and went on to her website and were extremely impressed by the Testimonials.In desperationwe contacted Maria and were immediately surprised and delighted at the speed of her responses and the optimistic advice which she gave us.She was able to explain indetail and in clear english the case which we had and our prospects of success. We had almost given up hope that we actually had a good case due to the advice given by our first lawyerwhereas Maria was totally the opposite and was confident that we should be successful.
From day one she inspired us and we had no hesitation in asking her to take on our case and have been delighted with the action which shehas taken and the helpful assistants who work alongside her. Maria and her team are geared up for litigation work and we feel that was missing from our previous lawyer. We have been successful in the litigation and have recovered our deposit and Maria is now pursuing interest and costs for us.We cannot put into words the immense relief that someone had finally been able to end our nightmare and recover our money. We truly thought that we had lost our deposit and had it not been for Maria and her team we feel sure we would have. Maria has done more for us in 6 months than the previous lawyer did for us in three years!! We must also say a big thank you to Steven Schaffer in Maria's office who has also spent a lot of time helping us with queries. He too has always responded to our emails almost immediately and done his best to reassure us and keep us confident of success.
We have no hesitation in recommending Maria and her firm to anyone else who finds themselves in the same situation that we were in. Without Maria we really do not know how matters would have turned out but we could well see us still without the apartment and no prospect of recovering the deposit particularly in view of the currenteconomic climate with Banks and Developers going out of business. We just thank Maria for helping us finally bring this sorry and traumatic experience to an end. If our story sounds familiar to you don't call anyone other than Maria who we are sure will do herutmost to help and guide you.
Thank you Maria, Steven and all your wonderful team".
Julian & Diane Newton - 09/02/09: "In December 04 we signed for our off plan dream home in the sun, sadly it turned into a nightmare. The developer went bankrupt and we were afraid that we would loose everything. After researching various solicitors in the UK and Spain , we decided to contact Maria at Costa Luz Lawyers. From our first contact Maria and her team were professional and responded to our queries quickly.8 months on and not only have we received our full deposit, but we also every confidence in Maria and her team to have all interest and legals cost reimbursed.Thanks again Maria to you and your team".
Christina Smith - 7/11/08: "Maria de Castro has provided us with expert and impartial legal advice based on a thorough knowledge of Spanish consumer law in our successul recovery of a deposit paid to developers who did not deliver the project as sold to us. She has guided me and my partner, who is a UK solicitor, through an unfamiliar legal system and is a shining example of how lawyers should operate. Queries are always dealt with promptly and courteously and Maria has shown great patience in explaining the issues involved. Her staff are equally delightful to deal with and we were made very welcome when we visited her offices to discuss the case. Language is no barrier as she and her team speak fluent English. We wish her and her team every future success and have no hesitation in recommending her services."
Linda & Abdul AlHadithi - 08 Oct 2008: - "We would like to thank Maria and her team for the invaluable help they have given us over the past year. We changed to Maria after having many problems with our previous lawyer, mainly that he was acting in the best interests of the developer and not us his clients. It was such a joy to find an independent, trustworthy lawyer like Maria. She has helped and advised us every step of the way and has just secured an out of court settlement with the developers enabling us to recoup most of the monies paid, we could have gone to court and Maria advised us that we had a very good case in obtaining the full amount paid with interest.
However in the current climate we decide to accept the offer and with the exchange rate we received about the same amount that we initially paid. I cannot thank Marie enough for her help and would not hesitate in recommending her to anyone in a similar position. She knows the Spanish laws and is not afraid to use them, she is totally independent of any estate agents or developers and I think that is vital. We meet Maria earlier this year and she is a genuine, lovely person who would like to uphold the reputation of the legal system in Spain.
Thank you Maria your help is very much appreciated. Best wishes to you and all your team."
Sue & Chris Smith - 14/10/08: "We would like to thank Maria L. de Castro at Costa Luz Lawyers for all their help and advice through such difficult times. After buying an off-plan property in Spain which we paid a significant deposit on, the property was never built and we felt our dream of owning a place in Spain had gone, then we found Costa Luz Lawyers and without their help we would not be in a position we are in now. We have successfully claimed back our deposit and we are now looking forward to buying a lovely property we found recently and are now excited about spending our spare time in the sun. I would recommend Maria to anybody in a similar situation. Once again thanks for everything and wish you every success."
Amanda Buss - 14/10/08: "I would like to thank you for all the help, advice and support you gave me through difficult times when I didn't know where to turn. It is comforting to know that there are local lawyers here with integrity who work in a professional and expedient way and support those who have been treated unfairly. I would not hesitate to use your services in the future and you have confirmed that I made the right decision by moving to Spain! What kind and generous lawyers!"
Rob Johnstone - 12/08/08: - "I contacted Maria L. De Castro at Costa Luz lawyers in October of 2007 after a Spanish off-plan property on which I had paid a deposit in excess of 70,000 Euros, had completed a year late, and for the developers were refusing to refund this amount. My existing solicitor had told me I was very unlikely to receive a cent back and that I should complete on the development even if it meant further losses.
After explaining the situation to Maria she suggested I could probably expect 50% back, and thought it was worth fighting the developers. I took her advice and - just 8 months later - have now actually been awarded 100% back by the Spanish courts plus all my legal fees and interest.
To say this is way beyond my wildest dreams would be an understatement. I would highly recommend anyone with any legal issues surrounding the purchase of Spanish property get in touch with Maria without hesitation"
Beverley Hutchinson - 03/07/08: "Maria L de Castro is helpful, fast, efficient, honest and a credit to her profession - I will use her again and again - and highly recommend her. Do not hesitate to contact her for all your legal issues".