Bonanza for Spanish timeshare buyers

There could be a double your money bonanza for people who have purchased a timeshare property in Spain, as a new court ruling looks set to spark-off an avalanche of timeshare compensation claims against developers.

The new Spanish court ruling can now be used by up to 400,000 European timeshare owners to seek compensation from illegal contracts signed after 1996 in Spain and industry experts believe that timeshare compensation claims could reach two billion Euros.

As property buyers already realise, under Spanish law, even if a property is sold on all debts and encumberments are passed to the new owners. If a timeshare property has changed its ownership, the new owners will still be liable for new compensation claims.

Magistrate D. Juan Carlos Socorro Marrero has ruled that a timeshare developer in Gran Canaria must pay back double the amount of the timeshare deposit taken within the cooling off period.

In a case brought against Anfi Sales SL, part of the Anfi Del Mar Group in Gran Canaria, the Magistrate commented:” The case of paying an advance instalment is in opposition to what is dictated in the law 42/1998, article 11, the second section of this mentioned rule permits the acquirer “at any time” to get back double the stated amount.”

Anfi Del Mar reportedly one of the most largest and luxurious timeshare developments in Europe, is now set for up to 10,000 new claims for timeshare miss-selling under the 1994 European timeshare directive. Anfi Del Mar was once owned by TUI, the largest travel agent in the world. The company, who own and operate several of the best known UK high street tour operators including Thomson, were also responsible for taking illegal timeshare deposits at Anfi from 2001 to 2004.

At present there are over 200 live claims for timeshare mis-selling against Anfi Del Mar in the Spanish court system and with fresh claims coming in at a rate of 10 a week before this ruling, it is not known what affect this will have on the stability of Anfi Del Mar.

Under Spanish law, even if a property is sold on, all debts and encumberments are passed to the new owners or if a timeshare property has changed its ownership, the new owners will still be liable for new compensation claims.

This timeshare ruling does not apply to straightforward property sales where Brits and other foreign buyers have acquired the freehold of the apartment or villa. In the case of Spanish bank repossessions, sold by specialists like PropertyInSpain.Net, all unpaid mortgage amounts and other debt is wiped clean and a new mortgage deal offered.

In other new and resale deals, using an independent Spanish solicitor ensures all other debts lodged against the property are paid off before registering the new deeds.

Spain digs into their debt mountain

If you thought the new British coalition government was off to a flying start to cut the growing debt mountain and save the nation, better look at what the Spanish Government has been up to in the same period.

Two countries trading on over-priced properties and suffering from the fact the affordability level has been reached; two countries suffering from their highest unemployment levels; two countries pole-axed by Left-wing Socialist public sector overspending; two countries sharing the biggest tourism market in Europe as Brits continue their three decades relationship - and the Spanish get the lolly and the jobs.

Now the UK has seen the light and a new Government is promising to turn things around and the Spanish Government, with a general election due within the year, has seen what has happened to fellow impoverished travellers Greece and to the UK's failed Labour Government and decided enough is enough.

So there’s to be a new wealth tax on people with “high-economic capacity” as a sop to the less well off, who like their UK counterparts, are likely to be hammered under new austerity measures designed to reduce the Spanish deficit from 11.2% to 3% by 2013. Likely revenue is around EUR 2 billion, based on similar wealth tax abandoned in 2008.

The Spanish Government has got approval for a EUR 15 billion austerity package that includes wage cuts of 5% for civil servants just when the economy, like that of the UK, is just crawling out of the red. With the third largest deficit in Euroland Spain is hoping the move with have a calming effect…

Spanish banks, feeling the pain of their excessive lending in the property sector for the last decade made their first big move as four Spanish regional savings banks, led by Caja de Ahorros de Mediterraneo, reached a preliminary agreement to merge some of their operations.

The agreement, which also includes Cajastur, Caja de Extremadura and Caja Cantabria, would aim to create a joint banking group that seeks to “strengthen solvency and assets of the participating banks”. The move followed the Bank of Spain taking control of another savings bank Cajasur after trade unions blocked a planned merger with Unicaja.

Finally, there is to be a massive clampdown on motorist lawbreakers with increased on the spot fines and non payment collection extended to four years because 40% of traffic fines have never been paid in Spain. The Interior Minister said: This doesn’t mean that we think that we are going to make more money out of fines”. Where have we heard that before?

The property market is strengthening as increasing numbers of bargain hunters fly to buy in Spain and find Spanish bank repossessions at discounts of up to 50% and such outstanding loan to values that 90% mortgages are on offer.

Election chaos speeds Brits to sunbelt

It wasn’t exactly a comprehensive survey, but the one on emigration commissioned by Currency UK was timely, as Britain slumped to an all-time low in the corruption league table with the cobbled plans for a Government of the Election Losers to run the country…

That latest attack on UK democracy came just after the survey, so the next one might show even greater interest in Over-50s quitting the UK for that sunbelt lifestyle.

The survey showed that:

1. Many Brits are concerned by the prospect of a hung Parliament and that the next four years will be dominated by huge tax rises, cuts in public service and inflation.
2. People are concerned about the UK's economic strength and this is leading to Brits looking to get out.
3. Three in four Britons have considered moving abroad this year.
4. Three in ten said the poor state of the economy was their reason for wanting to emigrate, a survey found.
5. A quarter of those polled blamed the lack of job prospects while an eighth said a change in the pace of life was the main attraction.

Whatever the outcome of the Lib-Lab and Lib-Con machinations, the country's politicians have clearly lost their moral compass and that will cause thousands more citizens to head South to Spain or Australia, the most popular emigration destinations.

That a pair of disgraced unelected spin doctors are being blamed for the post-election stitch-up fiasco will speed up the departure dates for many.

Not that politics is much better in either Spain or Australia, as both are run by spend-spend left-wing Labour governments… but the sun shines for 300 days of the year, the cost of living is lower and newly-arrived Brits will be so busy retiring, they won’t have time to get involved in the grubby stuff.

McBroon duffed-up by a pensioner

McBroon, the raider of British pensions, came face with a real pensioner when told he had to mix more with real voters instead of the marshalled lines of McBroon-nosers hitherto in the election campaign...

The smiles and smarms of his little chat with Gillian Duffy - a grandmother who had worked for Rochdale council for 30 years - vanished when he got into the safety of his bomb-proof Jaguar. McBroon's rant in which he denigrated Mrs Duffy as "bigoted woman" was picked up by his still attached Sky News lapel microphone and broadcast around the world in minutes.

The message was clear, McBroon epitomises bigotry and hypocrisy, easily capable of switching from Mr Nice to Mr Nasty when he thinks he is not in control. He placed no value on the good works Gillian Duffy had done with handicapped kids and other in need sections of the public.

Her views seemed to him to be at odds with his own, despite she claimed she was a life-long Labour Party supporter but now with concerns about tax, law and order, education and immigration.

Other pensioner voters will have further concerns about McBroon and his rants and rages. He's lost Gillian Duffy's vote and now millions more could vanish because pensioners represent around 40% of the electorate.

And many pensioners will be browsing the property in Spain Spanish bank repossession bargain pages to get as far away from McBroon and his cohorts if they come anywhere near influencing any of their lives after the election...

UK fiscal storms or sunbelt for over--50s

Still no good news for Brit over-50s and pensioners as the last lap of the General Election race gets underway…Not much on Europe either from McBroon or Lord Meddlesome, the former EU commissioner who made his millions there.

More of the silver-hair brigade will be deciding shortly on whether they head off to the sunbelt or weather out the fiscal storms to come in murky Britain, whichever party rules the roost. Pensions are expected to be static, cost of living expected to rise and general expectations have definitely been lowered by the election campaign so far.

While the UK politicos argue about who can make the most cuts while keeping frontline jobs and creating millions of new jobs with no cash in the piggy bank to invest, their Spanish equivalents are taking a more sensible tack to solve that country’s similar problems.

Spain has billions of Euros put away for such a rainy day, unlike McBroon who sold Britain’s gold at an 80% discount, spent faster than earnings for a decade and promised the end of “boom and bust” just months before UK PLC went bust and tumbled into the biggest Black Hole of Debt ever recorded.

While Britain has a few miles of high-speed train tracks from the Channel Tunnel and plans to get one to link London with Birmingham in 10 years or so, Spain is criss-crossed by high speed trains and has just announced a EUR 20 billion extension of the network. The work will get underway quickly as a major jobs generator and will boost business and tourism once completed.
If only the UK could make take such decisive action as quickly as Mañana Land!

Meanwhile, as the election rumbles on, over-50s see more reasons to retire to a sunbelt country like Spain: UK pension will go further; lower cost of living; better weather and life-style; strong British ex-pat communities etc…

Two new truths boost Spanish property

Two new truths on the same day might be a shock to the system, but there is a link between them that British over-50s and retirees will be quick to spot.




Shock one came when McBroon, having denied for years that he was the architect of the UK’s fiscal meltdown as Chancellor and then Prime Minister, finally admitted he’d been too soft on the bankers and their antics caused the crisis.




Shock two was when Spain’s ultra conservative National Institute of Statistics (INE) revealed the first double digit growth in Spanish property sales for three years. Sales increased by 20% in February after a marginal 2% in January, a great boost for Spain’s main engine of economic growth.




As 60% of the sales were in second hand properties, it seems like the many Spanish bank repossession bargains are the main driver of this new-found market recovery. Other indicators also seem to point towards a slow but clear and steady recovery of the collapsed real estate market. Analysts expect the activity in the main second home markets to spread across Spain in future month.




So if McBroon was the architect of Britain’s fiscal disaster and ongoing hardships for families and the over-50s that’s not going to endear his party to the voters. However, the Cameroons haven’t announced any plans to help the over-50s recover from McBroon’s pensions raids, so a move to Spain remains a good hedge.




The high level of property sales in Spain suggests the prices are ripe and tempting for many 1,000s of buyers and specialists PropertyInSpain.Net claim current prices remain at their lowest for a decade in Spain.




Right now might be the opportune moment for savvy investors to grab a bargain property in Spain before they are snapped up by the more derring-do Scandinavian, Russian and Spanish buyers, who have pushed the sales to record levels so far this year…

Payback time for pensioners as McBroon quits

It should be the beginning of the end of McBroon and his bungling Labour Party as he announced the General Election date and scuttled round to Buckingham Palace to get his demob from the Queen…



That was just 24 hours after it was revealed that the Over-55s are the biggest voting segment in the UK as they represent over 42% of the electorate. These are the pensioners whose pensions were robbed by McBroon for five successive years until there was hardly anything left in the pot that was worth taxing; the 42% also includes the next generation of pensioners who will find the pot is empty and, as a result, will have to eke out their golden year.



It’s payback time for the over 50s, who have witnessed the biggest decline in Britain’s economy since Herr Hitler departed the scene and the biggest pile of debt in the country’s history. They worry about their futures, they need to worry about the future of their grandkids as National debt is around one trillion pounds and needs repaying pretty pronto.



Quality care in old age doesn't come cheap. But if McBroon hadn't stolen £100 billion from pension funds and destroyed a private pension system that was the envy of the world, millions of over-50s would have a lot more money to pay for their own care as they get older.



If, despite the huge anticipated anti-vote of the over-50s, McBroon cons his way back to Downing Street, the exodus to sunbelt countries will become a stampede.



If the Cameroons win the election, they don’t have a magic wand to restore the basket-case UK economy, so a place in sunny Spain will still come in handy for this and the next generation of Brit families.



Beat the rush to Spain – start looking for property bargains now…the prices are the lowest for a decade.