Over 100 clients have started legal action against the Grupo Mirador real estate company in Málaga

Over 100 clients have started legal action against the Grupo Mirador real estate company in Málaga
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By h.b. - Apr 28, 2008 - 5:11 PM

The Grupo Mirador website

Many people paid first deposits on homes in 2003 where construction has still not started

More than 100 clients of the Mirador Real Estate group based in Málaga have denounced them for an alleged fraud. They say that homes have not been built despite deposits being collected.
Judges in both Málaga and Torremolinos Instruction Courts are investigating the behaviour of the Mirador group, one of the most active during the real estate boom on the Costa del Sol.

So far, according to El País, more than 119 clients have said they have been affected, with the number said to be increasing almost daily. The total amount paid by these clients as deposits on properties is now estimated to be more than 1.5 million €.

In each case deposits of between 30,000 and 50,000 € were demanded for homes in several developments which four of five years later have still not been completed, and where in most cases construction has not even started, or the necessary municipal licences to build obtained. These irregularities allegedly occurred despite the contract saying that construction was already underway.

The administrators of Mirador, Enrique and Leopoldo Faura are charged in the case, as is Jesús Gotardo from Las Palmeras Properties who acted as a sales agent particularly to British clients in the Mirador de Fuente de Piedra and also at La Perla development in Benalmádena. Most of the complainants are British and relate to the inland development in Fuente de Piedra. They signed contracts in 2003, were told the properties would be ready in 2005, and of the 90 properties which obtained a first occupancy licence just last November, only 30 have obtained a full escritura. Other items such as garages and workshops are missing from the completed properties and the swimming pool is the public one in the village.

Another development called Mirador de la Fortaleza, has not even been started in Vélez-Málaga where no works licence has been issued, and the land involved is embargoed to Hacienda for a four million € debt.

The new court case comes after an earlier judge in Málaga archived the case against Mirador, considering their behaviour had only been impulsive, and only gave the company a warning, considering there was no previous intention to defraud. Now though many consider that there is no doubt of such an intention and the civil cases could well end up in the penal court.

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