I was up in Montroy yesterday looking at a property and was invited to look at another that is for sale too. Now I have to say that the property was gorgeous, a log cabin but one of the proper ones not a shed. Three bedrooms, previously a show house so everything looking really nice and beautifully presented (If I get the listing you will see it here soon)
Montroy Mayor
Anyway I mentioned it was a show house so I asked more questions and the words Klaus the German, Zodiac villas and illegality came up. Uh oh! The alarm bells start ringing!
Let me explain. I have previously blogged here about the corruption in Montroy. The builder Klaus, not supposedly passed away, some suspect he has faked his own death to get away from the myriad of problems he had, put up three beautiful show houses using Lithuanian contractors. There is no doubt about the legality of those three houses and thus the one I saw yesterday is OK, in fact more than OK.
However everything else he built in the Balcon de Montroy estate is illegal, and obviously because of this we avoid anything nearby like the plague, and there are a lot of families currently seeking redress through the Spanish courts. Good luck with that as chasing dead Germans through the courts in Spain is quite difficult I suppose.
The houses were sold by Zodiac villas. Zodiac villas of course went into administration and the owners disappeared back to the UK to avoid prosecution although some involved were caught and are in prison. The Mayor was arrested as being involved in local real estate corruption in the reallocation of urban building land and most of the members of the local council have been removed from the council and are under investigation.
So what lessons can you learn from this mess.
Firstly make sure you do your due diligence when you are buying a property. Most of the buyers of the supposedly legal properties offered by Klaus the dead German used a lawyer recommended by Zodiac villas who worked for Klaus. Not a good idea. Get an independent lawyer who you can ask questions to and is happy to say do no buy this.
Secondly, if you are buying off plan make sure that the build is backed by a bank guarantee on stage payments. If it isn’t you really should ask why not and be very reticent about putting money down. And anyway if you cannot find a property for sale among the 1.6 million already built and empty why would an off plan property be any better?
Thirdly, ask around the local area about reputations and builds. The locals always know what is going on.
Fourthly, if I get this property on the books at the price I believe it to be worth you should really consider a look as it is really nice. Show houses always are aren’t they? Oh and by the way it is totally legal!
Related Reading
1) Power, Corruption and Lies in Montroy
