Payout after legal battle

HOLIDAY home buyers whose dreams of a pad in sunny Spain went wrong when they lost their money have won damages after a lengthy legal fight.

A RETIRED couple caught up in a Spanish apartment mortgage scandal have won a damages payment.

Retired management consultant Stuart Granville Forrester and his wife Lynda Mary Forrester, as named in the High Court, of Talbot House, West Road, Nottage, purchased an apartment on an Alicante development between 2002 and 2005.

Despite paying the purchase price, the couple received nothing for their investment as they found themselves saddled with an unexpected mortgage, along with 14 other British and Irish-based victims.

The scandal caused a long-fought legal battle at the High Court in London, where the judge ruled that buyers ought to be given substantial compensation.

It is yet to be decided the exact payout each party will receive as they are decided on the value of the property they thought they had bought.

UK-based agents were found guilty of negligence in relation to the deals, according to the High Court judgement.

As they are now insolvent, the buyers will receive any of the money the agents were told to pay; however Spanish lawyers who provided conveyancing services were also found negligent in their advice given during the transactions, said the judge.

Mr Justice Lavendar said that the buyers had not been warned there was no proof that the developer, who later went bust, would be able to pass on title to the properties and they had also not been advised not to pay anything without such a guarantee.

The court heard that the Spanish lawyers knew of the risk but it had been “deliberately concealed” from the British buyers.

The lawyers were ordered to pay the full value of the properties, when they were assessed, to those who ended up with nothing.