Problems Getting Refund Following Cancellation

[lovesquadsue]

Hi All,

I am currently having some problems getting our deposit money back from an Egyptian Lawyer who was recommended to us from the agent we used in UK.
We paid the deposit money into the lawyers client account in aug 07 pending us being happy and signing the contracts. We werent happy with the contracts and therefore pulled out of the purchase in november 07. We have been trying to obtain a refund from the lawyer ever since and he is becoming increasingly difficult to contact!
I am in the process of sourcing an Egyptian Law Specialist who may be able to help us recover our monies.

Is anyone having similar problems?
Does anyone have any up to date contact information for the Egyptian Bar Association or other Egyptian Authorities that might be able to help?

Thought I would start a new thread then IF anyone else having similar problems we can share our experiences and hopefully help each other out! Plus people who arent having problems may have valuable information to share!

Thanks
Sue

 

[dave99]

Sorry to hear your bad news

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I suspect that just like in UK it will be difficult getting one lawyer to approach another on this sort of issue.

What has the lawyer told you about the money - has it been paid to the developer or not.

Have you paid any fees due to the lawyer yet, otherwise they will hold your money until paid I bet.

One of my owners used a lawyer in Hurghada and it was a bit hard work and expensive, good result in the end.

Just proves my point about who to trust - someone that is in the UK that you can meet and "take a view on" or someone else, even if it is a lawyer

Any deposits for my apartments are paid to me and any refunds will be paid promptly in accordance with the terms of the agreement, by me in the UK.

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[queenie40something]

Hi Sue - sorry to hear this. In hind sight may be it is better that he is not acting for you especially as he has ' gone underground '. Zeiad is an excellent lawyer and often gives out free advise. He may well post on this thread but if not put his name in the search box and PM him. Im sure he will be more than happy to advise you.

 

[awahee123]

Hi Sue,

I would work quick on this one,you don't want him to disappear.Also you should have some comeback on your agent shouldn't you,the one who recommended him?..

 

[lovesquadsue]

Hi Sue - sorry to hear this. In hind sight may be it is better that he is not acting for you especially as he has ' gone underground '. Zeiad is an excellent lawyer and often gives out free advise. He may well post on this thread but if not put his name in the search box and PM him. Im sure he will be more than happy to advise you.

thanks queenie I will contact him - got a few options on now so thanks to everyone who is helping me out here! Its much appreciated!

 

[queenie40something]

Your welcome and hope you get your money back.

 

[lovesquadsue]

Hi Sue,

I would work quick on this one,you don't want him to disappear.Also you should have some comeback on your agent shouldn't you,the one who recommended him?..

Apparently not because no deposit was paid to the agent - all the monies went directly to the lawyers account. If we had paid the agent a deposit then this would have formed a contract with the agent and YES I could have then gone back to them. As it stands at the moment I am lead to believe there is no come back on the agent (which is terrible!). I am told that it is the responsibility of the solicitor to distribute your money to the relevant parties at the relevant times and if he doesnt do this correctly its negligence on his part - obviously here comes the problem as then you have to employ another lawyer to pursue a claim against the original lawyer for negligence! Nightmare!

 

[lovesquadsue]

By the way - does anyone know what exactly it means in Egypt to exchange contracts? I am being told that contracts can be exchanged without us (the buyer) signing anything.....??
Any ideas?

 

[lovesquadsue]

Your welcome and hope you get your money back.

thank you - so do I!!!! Everything crossed at the moment - will keep this thread updated and post any info i come accross that might help others in the same or a similar boat!

 

[awahee123]

I wish you well with this one but do act fast as there is a lot at stake.

 

[dave99]

Did you give a Power of Attorney

By the way - does anyone know what exactly it means in Egypt to exchange contracts? I am being told that contracts can be exchanged without us (the buyer) signing anything.....??
Any ideas?

Did you give a Power of Attorney to to the Lawyer if so, depending on the wording he could well do anything on your behalf without consulting you.

What did you instruct him to do on the first contact - what sort of agreement / payment did you make with him.

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[lovesquadsue]

Did you give a Power of Attorney to to the Lawyer if so, depending on the wording he could well do anything on your behalf without consulting you.

What did you instruct him to do on the first contact - what sort of agreement / payment did you make with him.

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hi dave99,

We didnt instruct him to do anything. We paid £18K into his client account which we were lead to believe would stay there until we were happy with the contracts. We have not signed anything and no power of attorney given.
Therefore we thought it would just be a case of the lawyer refunding the monies from his client account.

sue

 

[queenie40something]

OMG - I thought you were just talking about the lawyers fee and not the deposit for the property. You poor thing I sympathise with you even more. That is terrible. An awful lot of money. I really am gobsmacked.

 

[dave99]

Did you sign ANYTHING

hi dave99,

We didnt instruct him to do anything. We paid £18K into his client account which we were lead to believe would stay there until we were happy with the contracts. We have not signed anything and no power of attorney given.
Therefore we thought it would just be a case of the lawyer refunding the monies from his client account.

sue

Did you sign ANYTHING - that could be construed as a contract for the lawyer to act on your behalf - like a "standard" agreement - if so do you have a copy in English.

Has the lawyer actually stated that he has passed on the money or not.

Has the developer told you that he has NOT received the money.

Have you got a letter from the developer accepting your cancellation.

Have you got a receipt from the lawyer for the deposit.

Do you have anything that tells you how the "client account" will be used.

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[Peter Mitry]

Who introduced this lawyer? Were they introduced by the Developer? Who told you that all payments must go through the lawyers account?

 

[queenie40something]

I only paid my lawyers fees into his account and monies for the apartment into the agents bank account.

 

[J4hurghada]

When we bought the company we bought from had there own lawyers department, which also help with visa'a, banking, regestering properties,renting,bill paying, well almost anything that crops up.

 

[lovesquadsue]

Did you sign ANYTHING - that could be construed as a contract for the lawyer to act on your behalf - like a "standard" agreement - if so do you have a copy in English.

Has the lawyer actually stated that he has passed on the money or not.

Has the developer told you that he has NOT received the money.

Have you got a letter from the developer accepting your cancellation.

Have you got a receipt from the lawyer for the deposit.

Do you have anything that tells you how the "client account" will be used.

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Hi again Dave,

No we have not signed anything at all.
The lawyer has told me that he has released the money as follows:
£14448.00 to the developer and £3612.00 to our UK agent as commission.
The developer and the agent have confirmed this. The developer have said they have got not problem refunding their part but want us to pay a canx fee of 15% (they are looking into this now as they did not know we hadnt signed anything as the lawyer told them we had signed). The UK agent is saying its down to the lawyer to refund us the money they have received as commission as its down to his negligence (which is a total joke - why should the get commission on a no deal?).
I have not got anything in writing that confirms how the client account will be used - just verbal information from the agent and the lawyer.
I have got confirmation that the money has been received by the lawyer and have also got a transaction complete confirmation from my banks International Banking Team.
I have not got anything in writing from the developer re the cancellation although they have confirmed over the phone and via email that they will refund the monies etc. The stumbling block here is they want to refund the monies to the lawyers client account - I am then worried if he will refund them to us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[queenie40something]

What a mess!! Why cant the developer pay you the refund direct. Would it be worth a visit over to Egypt to try and sort it all out??

 

[lovesquadsue]

Who introduced this lawyer? Were they introduced by the Developer? Who told you that all payments must go through the lawyers account?

I have had no dealings with the developer until recently as everything was done through the UK agent. They told us to pay the money into the lawyers client account which (stupidly) we did. But, we thought we were safe by going through a well established well known (certainly in the north west) agent rather than dealing directly with the developer.
Sorry for the waffle - does all that make sense?