A Spanish Supreme Court ruling in a case in Las Palmas has opened the way for purchasers of second-hand properties to claim compensation for faults against promoters.
The case involves around 50 people who purchased flats in an apartment block that were offered for sale built in 2004. They claim that when they later took up residence, the front doors and the doors of the fitted wardrobes of the property were of a far inferior quality to those they had been led to believe would be present.
The claimants included buyers who had purchased directly from the promoters, as well as around a dozen who had purchased their apartments second-hand from previous owners. “The doors were as poor visually as they were in terms of durability, soundproofing and waterproofing. They were cheap,” claimed one of the buyers. As a group they claimed more than €360,000 in compensation from the promoters Realia y Acción.
A Canarian court initially ruled that only those who had bought directly from the promoters were entitled to compensation, but this decision was overturned after an appeal to the Spanish Supreme Court led to a ruling that second-hand buyers could also claim.
The Supreme Court concluded that secondhand buyers were entitled to claim on the basis that “having purchased from previous owners does not mean renouncing the rights of those owners.”
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