Property Logic – Moroccan Developer
NEW – 2020 Spanish Ley 57/68 ‘No Win, No Fee’ cases can now be taken for Property Logic payments. Click on this link for more information. Don’t delay, cases must be in court before October 2020.
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Original Article:
This piece of advice on the Moroccan market was very kindly written by Jorge Garcia Larios who is a property expert based in Melilla, a Spanish enclave in Morocco. It deals with the topic of developers that are experiencing financial difficulties but still maintain assets in the Kingdom of Morocco. The assets in question are usually in the form of land as most developers of unbuilt projects, at this stage, have little or no money.
One such developer is/was the Sean Cusack led Property Logic Maroc S.A.R.L a subsidiary of Property Logic (Spain) based near Marbella in the Costa del Sol. The company’s flagship development, called Le Jardin de Fleur, was to be composed of Tourist Apartments and Villas over various plots of land at the Macro Resort “Mediterrania-Saïdia”
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NOTE: New findings by the Spanish Supreme Court mean that those who signed contracts with Spanish companies like Property Logic and Fadesa, who deposited funds into a Spanish Bank Account and had Spanish Bank Guarantees may be able to reclaim their funds via Ley 57/68 in Spain. Click here to learn more.
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Property Logic stopped building some time ago and have ever since been seeking finance to continue the works. The result of this sequence of events has left scores of derelict shells of what were to be luxury apartments and villas full of rats and weeds. It appears to be totally beyond repair at this stage.
To give Property Logic some credit, by comparison to other developers in the region they have been reasonable at keeping up communications with their clients. Unfortunately most of these communications refer to the possibility of raising further funding to complete the project. This funding has always been ‘just around the corner’ but it has never materialised. The willingness to communicate is, however, more than has been shown by other developers in difficulty in coastal Morocco.
From 2004 to 2007, like many other areas, off plan purchases in tourist regions of Morocco experienced a huge boom. Many people came in contact with Property Logic’s high visibility marketing campaigns and it consequently attracted a lot of purchasers. The developer even persuaded some UK based Premier League footballers to invest in the resort. This obviously played very well in UK and Irish media outlets, succeeding in attracting even more buyers. Unfortunately nobody who bought has had deposits refunded, which amount to around 40% of the original property sales price.
Property Logic Payment Structure
Clients reserved their properties with a token deposit which was followed by around 20% of the total cost. Over what was to be the initial construction stage a further 20% was requested at which stage came the signing of a private contract loosely translated from French as “a promise to sell”. Under Moroccan Property Law all these contracts have now expired and, as they were written to favour the developer, they are not robust enough to offer their holders any protection in law. Essentially, the beneficiary names don’t appear officially anywhere in Morocco. There is no legal reference to them so the Moroccan authorities know nothing about them, despite their having parted with significant amounts of money and now having nothing to show for it.
What can clients do?
Following the Spanish Supreme Court ruling on recovery of deposits from Spanish banks there may now be an opportunity to reclaim payments to Spanish based Moroccan developers, such as Sean Cusack’s Property Logic, from the Spanish bank into which the funds were deposited. Visit www.SpanishReclaim.com for further information. You will need to act quickly as there is a 15 year statute of limitations on the ability to reclaim.
