Any Sign of Legal Action Il -- A further call for information

Hi. I have a leaseback in Le Mazets Du Ventoux. Like alot of these projects not making enough to pay mortgage etc.  I was close to loosing same to threats from BNP Paribas but hanging in. I do believe there are major issues in relation to possible fraudulant carry on by banking interests in relation to property transactions etc. I do not have any information but would be interested to find out more.

I wish I had an answer for you but all I have are the same questions. We are in the same position as many others. Non payment of rent led to us falling into arrears with the mortgage repayments and now the bank has begun proceedings against us. I am absolutely terrified that they will take our home. We have no savings for them to take. Our home is our only asset. I've searched everywhere to try to find out whether they have actually gone that far with anyone but I can't get any anwers. So I echo your plea. Please, if anybody has been through the process, can you tell us how long the whole thing takes and how far are the french banks willing to go in pursuing the debt.

For the record, I never once thought that my house in Ireland could be used as security against a loan in France. If I had thought for a second that it could be I would never have taken the risk. I am absolutely sick with worry about our future. We have one child in university and our youngest is due to begin there in September. My biggest fear is that we will be left with no way of accessing funds for their education. That would mean that not only would we be homeless but that they would have been robbed of the chance to have a decent future for themselves.

I feel cheated and conned by a corrupt scheme. Maybe we only have ourselves to blame because we were naive but all we were trying to do was have some sort of pension plan. We are not wealthy speculators. I feel sick with fear and worry and I just want to run away from all of this. No matter what the outcome our lives will never again be the same. If anyone has any information can you please share it.

HI TINYK 68 

I feel your pain and upset when I read what you are going through . I know somebody who would like to talk to you about this but you do not seem to have a phone number .

Are you able to phone me or text me your phone number ? 

My name is Carol 086-4006844. There is somebody I know that is in the exact same position and you maybe able to help each other o.k 

I know there are 20+ owners in my residence which are taking legal action. Apparently, each person has to take a separate case in France, there is not the concept of a 'class' action. However, costs have been lessened by the French lawyer taking cases for multiple owners. They are still at early stages (I'm not taking a case - not yet), and French legal cases are long. However, they have stalled the French banks taking repossession of the leaseback property for non-payment of mortgage.

The lawyer is taking a case against the French Notaire, French banks (all owners have mortgages with French banks) and French developer and in some cases I think the sales agent or mortgage arranger. The main thrust of the case is that the properties were sold on the basis of 'guaranteed rent' but that, in reality, this rent was never 'guaranteed', and could never have been 'guaranteed' and thus they were mis-sold. The French Notaire had a duty to advise the buyers. The French bank had a duty of due diligence in lending on investment properties. The French developer mis-lead and mis-sold.

Sinead M, we did the same with Residhotel, paid for lawyers, court fees etc and got nowhere! The management company got away with it and are still in operation having stolen our money! beware this is costly and frustrating, a bureacracy headacher that leads to nothing!

/Martina

Can we talk in relation to leasback and all the problems.
p.m me

Hi to Martymatters . Please can you tell me are you one of the group that have an apartment in Andilly or another place ? I am interested to know as I have place with Residhotel so I want to know are you talking about Andilly . Please tell me as you don't seem to have an email or phone number . Thanks 

carol

Hi Tinyk68      I understand what you are going through and I would like to help you. Please leave me / P.M. your contact details. Its only by assisting each other that we will be able to win in the long run.

@ eamon ng, my apartment is in Les Deux Alpes. As already stated, this was managed by Residhotel until they decided to drop us so we are now with a new management company.

/martina

I would alos love to hear from someone that has had their propoerty repossed how does it work what happens etc? I do find it strange that there seem to be no accounts of this process anywhere.

Martina. thanks for reply . Iwanted to know what you took Residhotel to Court for , or if you did, ? Did you loose your case against them or they dropped you before all that happened . My apartment block are in the process of trying to bring them to Court but now they have dropped about 20% of the block and so I don't know where tthat leaves the group that were trying to bring them to Court as I think they dropped the most vocal ones that were running the whole Court idea .

carol

Carol,

We took them to court for non payment of rent.>Went through the whole costly procedure but they declared that our residence as well as others were not profitable for them so they got away with it. They are still of course in operation but obviously there is a loophole there that allows this to happen.Good luck with yours. 

We are now with another management company with a different structure on payments with a fixed and a variable part based on profitability etc..not so bad but still only 2% yield.

/Martina

My opinion is that you can never trust a variable rent from these French crooks. This is another part of the scam, does anyone on here honestly believe that a leaseback management commpany will be honest about the variable part? Their accountants will ensure that the true variable part is hidden somewhere else. A 2% yield with all the other costs leaves you with a big hit in terms of mortgage payments. I'd advise people against this if they are in trouble. Just look at the figures:

100k mortgage over 25 years will cost approx €600 per month (6x12 = 7,200)

Then you have syndic expenses, tax fonciere, VAT repayments and accountant fees let's say 1800 aprox

Total outlay €9,000, therefore your 'investment' is paying 22% (€2,000)of your costs. If you multiply this over a 9 year lease your 'investment' will end up costing you €63,000.

I know some people have had no choice and want to end up getting some income buy if you look at the numbers in the cold light of day you are just pouring money into a bottomless pit for the benefit of French crooks.

If everyone said 'no' to this 50% offer then they could band together and self manage. In the summer youu'd get more than €2,000 in 4 weeks.

Juan,

Easier said than done. Do you think we would not have taken this option if was possible? All very well if are french speaking and living in France. Yes it is scam and no we dont trust any management company and will gladly pull out if we can. Please keep this forum as useful for owners who are in need. Hindsight is great, none of us would have invested in this joke of a scheme if we knew it was a scam...

/Martina

I realise that, but I am trying to help people who might be offered this 50% + variable scam.

Our property was reposessed and sold at auction in October 2014. Huge shortfall and we heard nothing until last month. 28k euros somewhere in France that the bank didn't claim at the time, and a transfer of debt of about 100k which is the shortfall but ironically much more than the initial mortgage. Can't find anyone in the same position. No collateral on the mortgage except the French property so I'll send the papers back and wait and see!   This didn't happen overnight though. We bought in 2007 and management firm went bust in 2010 etc etc so it's been going on some time! There must be others out there somewhere?

Hi Chris 

I am a bit confised ....are you saying that you owed the bank over 100,000 and still have not heard anything from them since your property was sold ?

thanks 

carol

Hi carol

basically yes! Our property was reposessed and sold at auction in 2014 but only last week we received papers detailing outstanding balance.

. The bank failed to register a claim to any funds relating to the sale so theres 28k somewhere in France that the bank can have and didn't claim. It's not very clear from the documents as the English translation is poor so I'm going to draft a reply and see what happens next. We thought the bank had control of the repossession etc but it seems they didn't.

Chris . Oh it seems such a mess .I really think that the French Government should be sued and I wonder has anyone tried to do that ??? If it were not for the French Government setting up this scam in the first place I am 100 % sure that none of us would have bought in to it ....right ? I think we cannot get anywhere suing the broke Management Companies, the stupid banks that loan the money but has anyone out there tried or talked about suing the French Government or Department of Tourisim over there ??? I might look in to trying to do this .

carol

Hi,

I have a property in SW france and use the management company eurogroups .I have found a buyer for my house as i need to sell ASAP

and  was told last september 2015 that I need to pay an exit fee of 12,500 euros, plus the TVA which is now around 12,000 euros as i have had the property for 9 yrs.

I have now found a buyer and eurogroups have informed me that the exit fee is  now 26,000 euros.

Can anyone shed any light on how they can do this?

Also I did not re sign anything after the 9 yrs was up on the lease, so am I atill tied in with them??

Any help advice would be appreciated.

it is criminal the way thsi organisation treat homeowners.

What is an exit fee? Exit out of the lease? A company can look for compensation if you don't renew the lease but the amount is decided by a judge. You need good legal advice, pm me for the name of a good solicitor.

Hi,

yes an exit fee (penalty)from the lease, 

They cannot decide this....a judge has to decide this.