Do people on here intend to use a Romanian lawyer or a UK based one. The lawyer im considering is Romanian and says he is representing several other people in the same position as me but i haven't been able to find any further info on him and i have been told that it's highly unusual for a lawyer to demand all the fees upfront. Any thoughts?

I have not contracted the lawyer yet. Maybe you are adding the success fee? the lawyer is the contact of a friend, so maybe he is giving me a better price.
He has therefore not explained the strategy yet, but my intuition is that there are two ways: 1) is to say that we were mislead to believe there was mortgages available or that if they are not anymore because of change of romanian regulation that is a force majeur. 2) I think the excuses they have used to postpone the completion are quite weak.
I do not discard they are trying to rip me 1000 euros more, but probably is worth the risk. I am shopping around anyway.

Regarding fees upfront, I am also worried about that. In one side it would be difficult for them to recover them if we decide not to pay them. But in the other side it is the most clear indication of a potential scam or malpractice.

^^ yes this is what im worried about too. Also no one on any forums has said that they have successfully got their deposit back, and if this lawyer has clients in the same position as us then surely someone must know something by now!!

I have heard that the first people to try to get their deposits back through a lawyer started their proceedings back in June and still have no resolution.

Could anyone provide contact details for suitable Estate agents who will be able to let apartments in the greenfields development. I suspect that such agents need to have their office in sector 1 to be able to function efficiently

Hi,

I have read everyones posts regarding their property purchase at Greenfields development in Bucharest.

I assume you have purchased your apartment through MRI who are nothing but con artists. They have over priced the apartments with no thought for after sale care and unless you purchased a well over priced furniture package with them they aren't bothered about you.

That leaves you with an apartment, no tenant, no furniture and needing to sort things out yourselves.

My property was completed in June 08 and was purchased october 06. That was delayed due to weather but as in the contract the developer got away with it. I did try pursuing a refund of charges from them but it didn't come to anything.

I had a nightmare getting my mortgage through CFP but was reccommeneded to Stefan at Easy Credit who got me a mortgage approved quickly. Unfortunately due to the mortgage crisis in Romania Bancpost had severe internal problems and were unable to offer any mortgages.

I am now well overdue my remaining balance with the developer and trying to get a mortgage but unfortunately banks are being very strict on lending to non residents.
Has anyone had any luck? and if so, with what bank?

Has anyone looked into selling?
Also, does anyone know who is good to approach for finding tenants?

I read on the post about people chasing a refund of their deposit. Has that come to anything?

Hi Charles

I am in exactly in the same position as you; Ive paid a lot of money both in trying to secure a mortgage and snagging the apartment which was 'handed over' in december.

Whilst its been impossible to get a mortgage anywhere, the snagging has revealed bad news in terms of finish, overprice, poor quality etc. Service charges took very high, yields overblown and the whole development looks unfinished.

Im afraid our agent friends have washed their hands of this as they have no control over the developer.
The only option I can see is trtng to sue but have heard of no-one actually having any money being returned to them. On what basis I am not sure (contract, no mortgage, missed completion date?) is the best approach.

Its looking increasingly likelly I'll be walking away from a 30 deposit plus additional losses - a real disaster...

Im still sounding out decent lawyers and will post here any progress...

Hi Barbersfort and Charles 14,

I have just joined the thread a month late. Hope you pick this up.

We all seem to be in the same boat. We too purchased in Topaz/Greenfields. We committed in October 2006 and after all the delays through the winter of 2007/2008 we were asked to complete in October 2009. CFPartners let us down with their mortgage promises and we couldn't finance the remaining 70%. Stefan at Easy Credit tried to help but I am self-employed and it created major difficulties which we couldn't resolve.

Consequently the developer closed the contract because we couldn't complete and we have lost our 30k deposit.

We would also like to hear from anybody who has had any success in reclaiming their deposit.

On another note we have just been contacted by MRI to ask if we want to attend a 'meeting' in Manchester in two weeks time. Apparently it is to see if they can 'help' with any difficulties experienced while trying to buy in Romania!

Has anybody else been contacted and does anyone have any idea what their agenda is?

I have also been invited to the Manchester meeting on the 9th March.
A person I know went to the meeting in Belfast, see below his coments regarding the meeting:-

"Met some of MRI people in Belfast about 2 weeks ago in a Belfast hotel.
They told me very little about my own development.
They confirmed that no mortgages were available in Romania and encouraged me to start thinking about raising money in the UK.
Most of the meeting was a sales pitch-trying to sell me property off plan in Portugal, Bulgaria etc .They claimed about half my deposit could be transferred but I don’t believe this. I think the prices in Portugal started at £200K and the transfer of deposit is simply a price reduction. They also told me about “bargains” available in Florida. I listened but told them I wasn’t interested. They were sales driven and didn’t really talk much about Romania in terms of rental prospects, likely values etc.
The meeting I thought would be useful but it really was a waste of time."

I now think it will be a waste of time and money going to their meeting. I do find it strange that MRI are trying to get people to switch from one development to another (an MRI Construction developmet maybe?) and thereby helping thenselves more than us.
Also saying that Romanian mortgages are not available is not true I was offered one yesterday by this company: - http: / /www .connectoverseas .co .uk/. Having read the comments on here, I think I would be throwing good money after bad, I just want to get out
If anyone has a different opinion, please lets hear it?