Grand Royale Act 15 Issued!!!??? Payment Now Due
Hi Guys, Has anyone else bought an apartment in Grand Royal. Having some difficulties with the developer over his definition of complete and mine. It seems act 15 has been passed on the complex and full payment is due. However I had some photos taken and its still a complete mess, in fact a building site. One third of the complex has not even been started as their are over head cables still running through. This is the part of the building that has the restaurant etc. in it. The whole thing seems like a bad joke! Its also 12 months over due. To add insult to injury, it would seem my solicitor is more interested un the developers interests than mine! Any advice appreciated. (and yeah, I've changed my solicitor, JUST!)

You shouldn't be surprised. Some developments in Bansko get even act 16 at this stage so it is good that at least 2/3 of the complex is ready :D

Hi there Yes we too have bought in Grand Royale and have just got a demand for final payment. Its an absolute joke - developer apparently managed to get Act 15 signed off for the two blocks that are complete and since thats where our apartments are he is expecting the remainder of the payment. We have several issues with this, mainly that he is claiming that a so called 'force majeure' (because of overhead cables) prevented him from completing on time...however this obviously did not hold up blocks B and C and so we can't see how he can get away with this excuse - it's late, plain and simple and without the force majeure he should not only have to give us our deposit back, he should be liable for a 25% penalty! Really disappointed in solicitor who it seems is more on his side than ours - the demand we got today gives us only 10 days to pay up and claims Act 15 was issued in August and the deadline for payment was 4th Sept, but this is the first we have heard of it. Changing solicitor is now a priority - can you recommend anyone in particular or know where we can enquire??

Solicitors, solicitors... always hard to choose. Try google, yahoo or msn. You can try also the online directories such as hg.org

Both myself and a friend of mine purchased an apartment in the Grand Royale and have been thoroughly unimpressed with the whole process. We initially reserved two apartments (Studio A1 and Studio A2) and paid the deposits on these - when it came to finalizing the contract they had mistakenly reserved us Apartment A1 and Apartment A2 - extremely incompentent. For a start we were told that we would be kept somewhat up to date with progress of which we have heard or seen nothing. Additionally; back in March we enquired as to whether completion was near so we could organise money for our final payment and we were told all was running to schedule and so to get our finances sorted - all of which now appears were lies...... Into our contract we had it written that if completion time runs over that stated we would pay 15% less of the purchase price and in the case that this is further extended by 3 months (which it has been) we had the right to pull out of the contract and have our deposit refunded plus 15% of the purchase price. Our lawyers have sent the various letters to the developer but this is all happening at a very slow rate (6 months to get this far!). They have now suggested that in order to get reimbursed we will have to take the developer to court. Does anyone have any suggestions or experience in this area and would we present a stronger case (and far less in legal bills) if we were to combine our situations into one appeal?? Many thanks Ben

Hi Ben, I am in the same boat and I am disgraced at the agent (BestBulgarian) who have been non-existent. I have paid a deposit on a 1 bed in the incomplete section A. My lawyers are Dimitrov, Petrov and Co in Sofia; I would be lost without them. I am considering legal action but am slightly put off by the 3 year estimated wait, the legal fees and court costs (1200 euros) and the uncertainty of the outcome. Alternatively, I could wait another year, or two, for completion and hope that the 10% discount offsets the weak sterling rate. Martin

Hi all Looks like we are in a similar situation to all of you... We have gone through BestBulgaria and are in section B. The first letter we had from the builder was in November, saying that he sent us a copy of Act 15 in August and as we had not paid by September, we were now paying a daily interest charge and had 10 days to pay the remaining 75%. We never received the first letter in August, we guess nobody else did either? In a very slow process with our solicitor, Kondov, Dimitrov and Co, he has informed us that he is awaiting a completion date and compensation details and that we could take no notice of the builders letter. We stopped stressing for about 2 days ;) We have tried to contact the builder regardless by email, fax and letter. We have however not had any acknowldgement from him. In fact we received another letter from the builder mid December saying that as we we had not contacting him (???!!!???) we had until the 31st December to pay up or he willtake us to court! So where next??? :shock: We are not happy paying for an appartment in an unfinished building. Our contract references Act 15, however we do not have a copy of the original Act 15. We assume the original Act 15 would have been for sections A, B and C. If it is only for B and C, then we have been mislead/mis-sold... Gonna stop rambling now ;) Anybody else as lucky as us with court threats? Wouldn't mind if we had done something wrong! We are awaiting a response from our solicitor regarding the last letter from the builder. Obviously we didn't pay up so keep fingers crossed we don't end up in court!

hi guys i havent bought into your complex, but the same thing happened to me.i bought at pirin place the one with the glass lift opp the kempinski and have the same problem , its was supposed to be built with a shop cafe bar area.none have been built three years after completion.and i suppose will never be built.not very happy as effects rentel without.how act 15/16 can be passed without everything being built to planning i never know

Well to keep everybody up to speed with what we have heard since the last post... We spoke to our solicitor and he is confdent that the builder will not be taking us to court. He believes the builder is having funding problems and therefore is trying to get monies from people. Our solicitor will be proposing to setup an escrow account into which we will pay the remaining balance. The buider then has the security of the monies being there and we are safer in the mind that the buider will only get the money when the building is "truely" completed - none of this act 15 rubbish! So now just need to decide if we think that's a good idea or not ;) paulp: I fear we will be in the same boat with Grand Royale. The builder is relying on the council moving the pylons - if our council is anything to go by - who knows when that'll be! I feel even more the peeps who are in section A :'(

Hi All Just returned from Bansko on 05 January and we to are in the middle of purchasing an apartment in section A of the Grand Royale!!!! We visited the site whilst we were there, the overhead cables have been moved but there was no sign of life there except for a security guard!!! Section A is still only a base, there are no roads to the property, it will be a long time before completion. We called into a property shop while we were there and spoke to a lady who spoke very good english, we have emailed her our contract and she has spoken to a solicitor on our behalf. The solicitor is asking if we saw any pre-approved plans prior to paying a deposit, we never saw anything like that, she is doubtful that there were any such plans and if so this could mean that the build was not passed by the council...We could then be entitled to our money back plus penalty. Did anyone else see any pre-approved plans? We too have used Best Bulgaria and I emailed them numerous times prior to our visit to Bansko to see if we could meet up but no reply, we also tried to call them while we were there but the number was unobtainable!!

Nobody builds without approved plans even in Bansko :lol: ...although it is not that difficult to get "approval" there.

Lizziem, My solicitor has informed me that building cannot take place during the ski season and is due to begin again in May. The developer is still pushing a completion date of Dec 2009, which seems unlikely given the time taken so far. I have been offered apartments in Knights Lodge, which are ready for purchase now, but I am deeply unsure now and will take a look when I visit 7 Feb. My solicitor has also informed me that the original contract terms have been broken and I am entitled to a deposit return. However, such an action would take years to go through the Bulgarian courts and would cost a lot more in legal fees, with the outcome being no certainty. I am not sure what to do at the moment. Martin

Update after getting back yesterday, I got an apartment on Block A to state my position. I met chap from BestBulgaria who informed me about one or two things which I will pass on for you to make your own judgement? Firstly, there are no money worries with the devlopment, the developer, Bularco, have several developments in Bansko & Sofia and the company could have funded the build without any money from buyers, hence the excellent payment plan they offered us, i.e. 75% on completion???. Secondly, the cables have gone!!! Apparently Bularco had to take the local authority to court to get the thing moved and still nothing happened, but it has now at last gone so block A should be started after the season ends. Thirdly, he also arranged for me to gain access to a virtually completed 1 bed apartment in block C. I am not a builder but the finish seemed to be of a high quality, the bathrooms were reasonably contemporary and also well finished, the main door was substantial, the furnishings also seemed to be of more than adequate quality. We also got to see the reception area which is virtually complete and the pool & spa area. The pool is a good size with a decent childrens area at one end and the whole are feels very spacious. The ground floor needs a bit more work than the upper floors but only cosmetic. All the external fixtures, lights etc all again seemed of decent quality, not to everyones taste (my wifes!!) but not cheap and nasty. The only other issue was that BestBulgaria no longer appear to be managing the Grand Royale once it up and running, which was my understanding when purchasing, apparently a UK company called Bluewater?? (i think) will be doing it, so not sure how that going to affect maintenance etc??? Does anyone know anything further about this? So to finish my take on it trying to be pragmatic is that the devloper seems Ok and has tried to get the cables moved ASAP, the build quality seems high, and the design and space it creates is good. I was pleasentlt surprised with what I saw yesterday which has put my mind to rest on a lot of things. Obviously the delays have caused some worries, and not having e-mails responded to just increases the concern, but I got the impression with the amount of enquiries due to the delays the agent and developer seem to have taken a bit of a siege mentality, which isn't really helping and I told the agent so. What I would say is think long and hard about the cost of pulling out of your contract, from what I have seen they are actually going to give us what they promised (except late) which seems to be more than a lot of people seem to be getting at other devlopments reading some of the horror stories on here. I also have some photos that I have not uploaded yet, if you PM with your e-mail address I shall forward them on if you would like to have a look?? Hopefully this time next year we will all be able to put the worry behind us and have a pint together. Cheers Jimmy

Re: Grand Royale Act 15 Issued!!!??? Payment Now Due
hi , Well i and one other have bought in grand royal and my solicitor seems to be the same saying that everyone is refusing to pay there last installment which seems a bit shifty to me as the cable that was blocking the way has been removed now (so interlink tell me any way). I would be interested to hear from another solicitor on the matter and check we are getting the right advise ... the solicitor im using is called kondov dimitrov any chance the same solicitor as you?? Hi Guys, Has anyone else bought an apartment in Grand Royal. Having some difficulties with the developer over his definition of complete and mine. It seems act 15 has been passed on the complex and full payment is due. However I had some photos taken and its still a complete mess, in fact a building site. One third of the complex has not even been started as their are over head cables still running through. This is the part of the building that has the restaurant etc. in it. The whole thing seems like a bad joke! Its also 12 months over due. To add insult to injury, it would seem my solicitor is more interested un the developers interests than mine! Any advice appreciated. (and yeah, I've changed my solicitor, JUST!)

I for one would feel better in a group to face this head on nas it seems to be lawless on there side !!! Both myself and a friend of mine purchased an apartment in the Grand Royale and have been thoroughly unimpressed with the whole process. We initially reserved two apartments (Studio A1 and Studio A2) and paid the deposits on these - when it came to finalizing the contract they had mistakenly reserved us Apartment A1 and Apartment A2 - extremely incompentent. For a start we were told that we would be kept somewhat up to date with progress of which we have heard or seen nothing. Additionally; back in March we enquired as to whether completion was near so we could organise money for our final payment and we were told all was running to schedule and so to get our finances sorted - all of which now appears were lies...... Into our contract we had it written that if completion time runs over that stated we would pay 15% less of the purchase price and in the case that this is further extended by 3 months (which it has been) we had the right to pull out of the contract and have our deposit refunded plus 15% of the purchase price. Our lawyers have sent the various letters to the developer but this is all happening at a very slow rate (6 months to get this far!). They have now suggested that in order to get reimbursed we will have to take the developer to court. Does anyone have any suggestions or experience in this area and would we present a stronger case (and far less in legal bills) if we were to combine our situations into one appeal?? Many thanks Ben