The owners paid only just over €100 each and have each received compensation 40 times greater to repair their terraces.
A court in Torrevieja has just ordered a developer, in a final judgment, to compensate a small homeowners’ association in the sum of €91,000.
The compensation, already paid by the developer and gladly received by the homeowners’ association, has not only given the association moral backing for its position, previously harmed and disregarded as the weaker party to the contract, but has also multiplied the small investment made by each of the owners who decided to claim at the time and who thought they could not afford the costs of the proceedings.
Let us look at the numbers.
The claim concerned water and permanent damp on 16 private terraces in the residential development. The cost of the Expert Report on which the lawsuit was based was €1,800. So, if we divide that €1,800 among the 16 owners who paid for it, the report cost each owner €112.50.
After the trial, the judgment, as mentioned, ordered the defendant developer to pay a total of €91,000 in compensation.
Given the financial circumstances of the homeowners’ association and the viability of the case, DPCON SL, a firm specialising in legal claims for construction defects, reached a prior no-win, no-fee (cuota litis) agreement with its client for 20% of the compensation finally obtained. In other words, of the €91,000 obtained in the proceedings, the homeowners’ association finally received €72,800 (80% of €91,000). The remainder, i.e. €18,200 (20% of €91,000), went to pay the fees agreed with DPCON, covering both the lawyer and, in this case, the court representative (procurador).
In short, each of the 16 affected owners has received compensation of €4,550 (72,800 / 16), more than enough to repair their terraces properly. But in addition, from a financial point of view, the claim has been entirely worthwhile for the 16 affected owners, as they each paid only €112.50 for the Expert Report on which the lawsuit was based. After the proceedings, each of the 16 owners has recovered their investment multiplied by 40.
Moreover, with this system, DPCON guarantees that its clients do not have to pay any advance on costs during the proceedings, with the added guarantee that the previously agreed no-win, no-fee percentage will always be calculated on the amount finally obtained, regardless of the amount claimed.
If your homeowners’ association has cash-flow problems, but has serious construction defects and is within the time limit, contact us so that, after studying the case, we can offer you terms on a no-win, no-fee basis, colloquially known as “on a percentage”.
DPcon Reclamación Daños Constructivos.
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