This is not strictly speaking a precedent as it is a Court of First Instance ruling but represents the opinion of Judge that is likely, within the same judicial district and among the Judges of the area, to be the prevailing stream of thought in respect to the matter. It was clear that SGR was guaranteeing the transaction.

Regards,

Steve Reddy.

Thank you for your email.

In principle, you did go down the route that every other claimant has, which is to join the insolvency proceedings and wait for the outcome of the voting by the creditors. Unfortunately though, generally speaking there is little one can do given that the majority of voting power lies with the bank, the biggest creditor, and perhaps a few suppliers, and so buyers have little power.

In addition to the above, there is a great deal of uncertainty when going into insolvency proceedings because they take long, one does not know when they finish and one does not know how much will be returned. In your case, you have some expectation to recover a significant part of the deposit but over a protracted length of time as you have reached an agreement.

My client is also in the same situation as you: she joined the proceedings you are currently in and is awaiting to get a response. When she approached us we said we could not help her as there was little advice we could give her to improve her position. In other words, we would have charged her for advice that had no perceptible added value.

With the insurance policy things change now, as she is entitled to claim directly from this company. 3 notes on this:

1- We don’t know how profitable this insurer is, and if they have funds available.
2- We are waiting confirmation on whether they will appeal the ruling.
3- Irrespective of point 2, we will enforce the ruling, which under Spanish law we are entitled to.