Lawyer, Maintenance Charges, Rental help appreciated.
i am a new user on the site so please forgive me if others have asked these questions. 1) Having paid 40k for a one bedder in building C what leg to I have to stand on in terms of a refund? As they are now offering me something different they are changing the contract and I am thinking that should give me some room to negotiate down given the economic downturn. has anyone had any luck with negotiating down with Platinium? Izabell the Manager informs me it could take 2 years for the case to be heard if I decide to get a refund, and to get to resolution if I decide to try for a refund. I wonder what sort of resolution I would get? Has anyone done this, doing this? Also how might one do this? This is assuming that this company can keep going given the financial strain they are under and that I don't loose my initial stake before 2 years are up! 2) If I was to proceed with this does anyone know of a good English speaking lawyer who could advise me on this? I would welcome an initial informal chat with anyone that knows about the position on this.(free of charge if possible!) My sense is once I have paid the final 20k I am committed hook line and sinker but I don't know... 3) If so I suppose I have a delicate situation to weigh up...lose the 40k and just don't throw anymore money at it - or spend a further 27k (including say final payment, fees, and furniture package at 5.5k) and hope to rent it out and that in the longer term things get better. This will involve me getting a further mortgage on top of the 75k mortgage I already have - and it all starts to get rather expensive. 4) What rental might realistically be expected from the holiday market in year one 2010/ and year 2, 2011 based on past experience of you dear readers!? 5) Maybe the best thing is to just proceed with the purchase where I might have something to show for my money rather than nothing.. I have over committed myself by buying somewhere in Turkey and was not able to sell it in time to buy Bulgaria due to the slump.. Please give me your feedback? Sad 6) I have been told I do not hold insurance over the property but that some Ski Construction company does - does anyone know what this means in terms of what would happen if I waited for Building C and they went bust, - Izabel replies along the lines once all debtors are paid any credit would be distributed - but guess things would be quite sore by then. 7) Surely it possible to rent out apartments without going through Platinuim - so that I receive the income direct I don't like the sound of the others who never received their rental income on some other development? 8) Any ideas on maintenance charges for a flat for the year and any other costs involved with buying other than final payment, furniture etc are their legal fees? - tax or anything like that to add on? What is the procedure for final payment and proceeding? I might come over at Xmas and don't want to miss doing something important. If you can genuinely help me with any of this I will post a nice bottle of wine out to you..

Get your best bottle of Liebfraumilch at the ready . 1. Refund = Long legal battle and as you state the company could go bump before you reach the final hurdle. 2. Not sure and don't want advise in case the said Lawyer is crap. There was once a chap called trifonov who used to be on here, although judging by this latest photo he's been eating too much Ready Break and is desperately waiting for the Tie Rack to turn up in Bulgaria: http://www.trifonov.info/en/index.html 3. Difficult one, if you plough any more money in, best to know for sure that the development is complete, you're in at about 60% of the cost, hence you're in somewhat of a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. The resale market is flat on its feet though, if you find something in the resale market for anything like the price you're paying on your current apartment (in terms of the final installments you've got left to pay), you've got to ask the question why are you throwing money (ie the remaining installments) at something thats not even complete. 4. Sorry but nil, in fact allowing for your costs, maintenance and utilities, even forgetting furnishing etc you're likely to have to fund it going forward. i.e. net rental = nil, possibly negative. 5. Proceed if you wish but with caution. 6. 'I do not hold insurance', I assume you have no bank guarantee if the developer goes bust, if they go bust chances are you're left with a mess on your hands, I doubt you'll see much if anything back out of the money you'll have invested, the liquidator is the most probably the only person who will be paid, the banks (who have a charge on the property) are most likely to then dump it to get some kind of return (where you are in the equation who knows). Not guaranteed by any means but likely, someone might take over the project and still deal with you on a continuing basis. But times are tough. 7. With or without Platinum, it an extremely tough rental market in Bansko. Don't bank on any income. Any you get is unlikely to even cover you're advertising costs and additional utilities etc. 8. Maintenance varies and depends on size, to tick the property over (without rental) you could be looking at say £500 for maintenance, key holding etc say £300, utilities say £300, taxes say £200. Hence say £1K - £1.5K just to tick the place over, obviously that depends on size etc and ignores interest on borrowings etc. In terms of legal fees or taxes to buy, well assuming VAT is included in the purchase price then you could be looking at buying costs on the property of say 5% (depends on you legal costs), very very rough estimate, ignoring legal cost say 2-3%. Forget the wine, can't stand the stuff.

Building C of what development? I suggest you click on the Search link and search for Platinum. Have a good read through the results - does not look that encouraging :cry:

I can confirm that Emil is an excellent lawyer and got me out of a few sticky situations with contracts, he speaks excellent english and actually replies to emails...

One of the outstanding occasions where I am ready to co-sign Michael's statement (including Tie Rack :lol: ). While I would advise anyone to go the lengthy legal road, the main danger in the current time is that the developer may go bust before you get anywhere and you are left with nothing.