Spain House Build - Building Started

[Liefrich]

Not too sure what will happen over the next few weeks. We certainly won’t be agreeing to terminate and so anything from their side would be breach of contract.
Downside being a potential long and lengthy legal battle to gain compensation for the fact we’d have to contract new builders at current heavily increased rates, along with claiming additional costs for rent/storage which they’d previously agreed.

Are you absolutely sure about your legal position on this?

I'm a UK lawyer but have had a few cases in Spain (I can't give you any advice). You want to be 100% sure of the legal remedy, how long it will take to achieve and how costly the court process will be before you make any decision. I wouldn't just rely on Google/AI either. You need to speak to a property dispute lawyer. If this all goes wrong, you will be left with a half built house, a lengthy legal battle, and no money to finalise the project.

You may be best looking at reducing/negating the penalties you have agreed with the current builder, sucking it up and just getting the house built. Once you are moved in and not incurring rental costs, you could then look at what options are available to you about reclaiming some costs and/or rectifying any snacks (which there will be)!

 

[Martynt74]

Damn bad news so sorry to hear that

May have to trigger an OCUK Auf Wiedhersehen pet type thing to get you over the line

I suppose you need to consider your penalties etc and if your willing to give a load up in order to get them to finish off
Probably worth getting a bit of quick legal advice as to if it works like the UK
If they ultimately fail on you can you get it completed and then sue them for the money
And whats the position in regards stage payments, do you realistically owe them at this point, or do they owe you, assuming one party walked away at this point

I've been working through the penalties this morning. We've got quite a few things in as "extras" which we know are out of scope. I think as long as the penalties cover the cost of those, which currently sits around €12k i'd probably draw a line under it. Although by all accounts i'm in the right and could probably stand my ground and push for closer to €20k. At the moment there's not been any communication since i initially replied to his message expressing my shock and pointing out i'm not willing to mutually terminate.
At this stage, i think i'd just argue for him to finish the project as initially scoped out and reclaim the total penalties from final payment, and then use those to pay for the extras myself.

Payments wise i've worked out there's around €170k remaining. It's probably around right on the balance, although i'm probably down slightly as we paid around €50k last week. I'm estimating around €190k to finish and the mortgage has around €170k left to payout so i'd need to find another €20k to then try and reclaim back from him.

	Materials
Kitchen	15,000
Bathrooms	13,000
Tiling	21,000
Solar	17,000
Pool	40,000
Garage	10,000
Windows/Door	20,000
Landscaping	20,000
Electrics	10,000
Front Gate	5,000
	171,000
IVA	17,100
Total	188,100

I think that's about it, and some is absolute guess work except for the Kitchen/Solar/Tiling as i've a reasonable idea of those.

The one good thing is that at least he's got a completely valid business and is actively targeting premium buyers, and he's got a lot of very expensive builds in progress. I don't see him damaging his reputation by trying to do a runner or shutting up shop and re-opening. So any legal route would give me a decent chance of success.

sorry to hear about builders proposal - can you jointly access a municipal abritration service,
what do you think objective inflation in building costs have been.

Need to read my insurance documents to find out what it covers, but they seem to include legal protection/support. Our agent is also moving into the legal side of things and has good knowledge so i think we should be ok.

Inflation is probably tricky to guess at. I'd certainly say 20%. On his website right now, there's a house very similar to mine (maybe 10m2 bigger), but without a garage/solar/pool toilet etc. But including a basic plot that's advertised as "from" €447,000. Remove say €47,000 for the land part and he's charging €400k for the house. In comparison, our house was quoted at €280,000

 

[Martynt74]

Are you absolutely sure about your legal position on this?

I'm a UK lawyer but have had a few cases in Spain (I can't give you any advice). You want to be 100% sure of the legal remedy, how long it will take to achieve and how costly the court process will be before you make any decision. I wouldn't just rely on Google/AI either. You need to speak to a property dispute lawyer. If this all goes wrong, you will be left with a half built house, a lengthy legal battle, and no money to finalise the project.

You may be best looking at reducing/negating the penalties you have agreed with the current builder, sucking it up and just getting the house built. Once you are moved in and not incurring rental costs, you could then look at what options are available to you about reclaiming some costs and/or rectifying any snacks (which there will be)!

100%

A few extracts here from the contract, but it explicity states the builder is at risk of any price adjustments and the project can't be cancelled

This contract is executed at the BUILDER’S own risk and responsibility and, therefore, the BUILDER may not modify the agreed price due to variations in the construction costs or the price of materials.

If either party defaults in the obligations set out in this agreement, the other party, prior of taking action for the termination of the contract or requiring its enforcement, must require the other party by buromail, burofax or any other reliable means to fulfill their obligations within 15 days. If the requested party does not meet the requirement within the term granted, without a reasonable cause, the other party will have the faculty to legally terminate the contract or require its enforcement with compensation for damages in both cases.

As above, i'm willing to suck up some of the penalties to get this over the line. There is a long term benefit to maintain a decent relationship for snag (although i do like the idea of snacks!) resolution which is far more important than a couple of grand.

 

[Liefrich]

Just because it's in the contract doesn't mean it's enforceable; just make sure it is before you make any major decision.

It sounds like you are taking your ego out of it and looking at sensible resolutions. I really wish you all the best. Who knows, the builder may have had a bad day and, after this weekend, will take a more reasonable approach next week.The Latin temperament

Snacks are also far better than snags

 

[Martynt74]

Yeah, i'm fairly sure it is enforcable as there's a couple Spanish laws covering it. Presumably put into place from the nightmare building issues from the early 2000's. I'm also not too sure he could argue for escalation clauses (not that there are any in the contract), as any price increases will be as a result of his failure to deliver the project on time. Again i think i've got a decent legal standing here.

I'm still hoping it resolves itself without getting to that stage

 

[Martynt74]

UPDATE!

We're back on track. I've had a message. Seems his suggestion to terminate was more to give us an out if we were unhappy with the current service and had lost trust in them as the project lead and wanted to find an alternative we may have been happier with. That's certainly not the case. Whilst we're frustrated at the delays, he still has our confidence to deliver the quality we expected.
I think he's also frustrated with the project as certainly some things are out of his control due to external suppliers (although a lot is from within his team leaving things to last minute)

He's suggested a video call next week to discuss everything further.

 

[Jimbeam3678]

UPDATE!

We're back on track. I've had a message. Seems his suggestion to terminate was more to give us an out if we were unhappy with the current service and had lost trust in them as the project lead and wanted to find an alternative we may have been happier with. That's certainly not the case. Whilst we're frustrated at the delays, he still has our confidence to deliver the quality we expected.
I think he's also frustrated with the project as certainly some things are out of his control due to external suppliers (although a lot is from within his team leaving things to last minute)

He's suggested a video call next week to discuss everything further.

Jesus christ! Its like a real life soap opera! The phrase keep your head, while everyone else is losing theirs seems quite appropriate. Glad you are back on track - close your emails and turn your phone and enjoy your weekend!

 

[Martynt74]

Haha tell me about it!

Positive being he's also now mentioned that the kitchen supplier (who also do the wardrobes) installed his front door which is wooden including a smart lock and did a good job. Not sure why this has never been suggested before, but we could be able to have that too!

 

[Vestas]

He's suggested a video call next week to discuss everything further.

I'd recommend that the "agent" you mentioned earlier is involved in this and you make it clear that everyone must give permission to be recorded. You don't want any "verbal agreements" muddying the water if you have to take the legal route.

Best of luck.

 

[arty]

Wow, come for the building project, stay for the first-class drama

 

[sigma]

Wow, come for the building project, stay for the first-class drama

The two go hand-in-hand more often than not.

 

[sigma]

My rule of thumb with builders is that if you're lucky they'll do 80% of the work to a reasonable standard and you'll finish the rest off yourself. If you're lucky.