Solicitor to check over contract

[romablade1889]

At least the forum is hotting up again after a serious lull in the debate...

On the contract side and from experience, my advice is DO NOT SIGN ANYTHING until you are 100% comfortable and your solicitor advises you to sign... That's what you're paying the solicitor for.

Ignore Fadesa's demands for you to sign the contract now or lose your reservation. I doubt they'd be stupid enough to put your apartment back on the market (a bird in the hand and all that) and if they were then you probably wouldn't want to deal with a company that would do that anywaym it would be unprofessional and down right amateurish. Think used car salesman - "If you make a decision now I'll knock a tenner off, if you don't I have another geezer on the phone wanting to buy it" - it's his mum on the phone every time!!!!...

Secondly, several of us have not received our contracts yet. I don't think it's to do with the plans for AP4 not being available, as the revised plans for AP1 aren't available either. I put it down to my agent taking a hard line with Fadesa and refusing to pass on incomplete and meaningless contracts to its clients.

Remember, every rich businessman in this world advocates one common peice of advice - live life with an attitude of abundance! If this one doensn't hit the mark there'll be plenty of other investment opportunities around the corner. Don't be afraid to walk away if gut feel tells you it's not quite right. They're building new apartments everday afterall, and the Bank of England prints new notes every day - there's always plenty out there for anyone canny enough to get it...

DON'T SIGN - BIDE YOUR TIME - FADESA NEED USMORE THAN US THEM....

[peejay]

Thanks to everyone for shared experiences, advice and comments. It makes us feel much better in a perverse kind of way to know that it is not just us!
We are (hopefully) buying on AP1 but have had problems with that as we first of all had an allocation, then we didn't, then we had a new allocation (which was further back), then we found that the price we had been quoted was incorrect (in Fadesa's favour, by 1,000 euros). On this last point Fadesa have admitted that they had quoted the wrong price to our agent, who had then passed it on to us, but refused to honour the original price quoted.
So, with their apparent refusal now to even discuss amendments to the contract, it is making us twitchy to say the least. We really don't want to walk away, but are beginning to wonder just how professional an organisation we are dealing with.
We were told last week that Fadesa were chasing for the return of our contact but our agent told them that it was with our solicitor and they seemed to accept that, we've not heard otherwise anyhow.
We are certainly not signing the contract as it stands. We are going to do what some others have done and send the details of our solicitor's queries and recommendations to our agent and ask them to take them up with Fadesa on our behalf.
In the meantime our solicitor has said that he will ask Fadesa whether they are willing for our contract and monies to go through a Moroccan Notaire, as he/she would ensure that the proper papers, permissions, etc are in place in accordance with Moroccan law before being handed over to the developers. We don't hold out much hope of this being agreed to, but it seems worth giving it a go - the solicitor says that he would be happy with this if it was agreed to by Fadesa.
Will post again when we hear anything new.

[mcneilee]

starting to think it will be at the end of next month.Wait did i not say that last month.

[ScottieDog]

Here are comments from my solicitor regarding contract:

To briefly summarise, Morocco has laws in place regarding off plan purchases. We have provided a copy of this law to FADESA as parts of their contract do not comply with this law.
The queries we have raised on your contract are as follows:-

Clause 7- By virtue of Article 618-19 the agreement can only be concluded 30 days after notification by the Seller of obtaining the occupancy certificate and then only by legal action. Further by Article 618-14 the maximum penalty id 10% of the purchase price.
Clause 8.3- Article 618-19 requires 30 days not 15 and the contract can only be rescinded by agreement or court action and again the maximum penalty is 10% of the purchase price.
Clause 8.4- The law is silent as to this but this provision is unacceptable. Liability should run from the date of handover not the notice.
By Article 618-5 the contract cannot be concluded until the foundations have been installed to ground floor level and a certificate to this effect annexed (Article 618-3). Also the number and date of the Building Permit must also be stated.
By Article 618-8- any payment made before signature of the contract is void.
By Article 618-9 there must be a bank guarantee or other similar assurance. In this connection we note from your copy letter of 20th October that FADESA offers bank guarantees for all payments made until completion. We should be grateful if you could let us have details.
Also although not actually required by law, there should be a 10-year structural guarantee

.
We have also asked FADESA to provide an update as to the situation with revised plans. We have also asked them to provide us with evidence of the title to the land and to let us know the situation with the planning permissions.

[peejay]

Hi ScottieDog

Your solicitor seems to be more use than ours! Am I right in understanding that your solicitor is liaising with Fadesa on your behalf? Ours seems to think that that's not his job and expects us to do it ourselves, even though it says in our contract with him that he will liaise on our behalf with the seller, sellers solicitor, agent etc. Beginning to think that we picked a dud.

Anyone else's solicitor expect them to do the work themselves?

[mcneilee]

well all i can say is i almost called them today to cancel cos i've herd nothing for some time

[ScottieDog]

My solicitor is dealing with Fadesa directly

SD

[peejay]

Thanks - I am now on the warpath!

[romablade1889]

ScottieDog - who are you using? Is it Grace & Co as that's who Im considering using. Do you recommend them?

[ScottieDog]

Grace and Co - warrington.

Still early days yet. I was very frustrated with them at first - no communication on progress.

Seem to be picking things up now,

SD

[mcneilee]

i had of thought of using them. But ScottieDog first coments about them had put me off but now it seems that they are getting stuck into them . Which is what i'm looking for if i get my contract & idea of the plot

have they found it hard to deal with fadesa

[ScottieDog]

The issue is there's not much choice out there when it comes to solicitors

[davmel]

Does anyone know what protection we have against the developer assigning the maintenance rights to a company and us then getting screwed?

I will be required to pay "the quota ¡n the expenses to support the Entity of Cooperation for the Preservation and Management of the Development and the expenses incurred for the preservation, maintenance and use of the common areas."

Surely we need to challenge this?

Rgds
Davmel

[Pinky]

Yep, exactly what my solicitor said. These charges need to be in black and white with the contract and also to clarify any rules they might impose, eg dos and donts. I managed to get through to my contact at Fadesa by email friday and found out that the architect is still doing the revised plans! So obviously planning permission still hasnt been granted yet!! My solicitors report which I sent them has apparently been sent to HQ, and they are awaiting advices to see if they can change the contract. Yipee, I think we might be getting somewhere!!! Wont hold my breath yet tho!!

[davmel]

I was told that they are simply taking the top 2 floors off some of the front facing blocks (AP1?) in order to meet the requirement of lower site density. So revised plans can't take too long.

The apartments are still selling fast. The last pre-release here was oversubscribed by a factor of two.