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Today we learned that a criminal and civil complaint for fraud and money damages has been filed against Habitats Realty and Pacific Sky, S.A.
Our understanding of the facts are a foreigner in Panama purchased a yet to be built condo paying approx. $836 a sq. meter. The units today are selling for roughly twice that price. Since it is a 220 sq. meter unit the money is substantial. The developers of Pacific Sky claim the purchaser failed to comply with the terms of his agreement and are canceling his purchase agreement freeing up the unit for sale at the current market prices.
The case is proceeding criminally and civil.
There are numerous cases of such things occurring in Panama. Many of these contracts have traps in them to prevent full compliance. We do not know the circumstances of the case and are picking it up second hand but it is worthy of note. New laws passed at the end of October 2007 prevent the developers from writing one sided purchase agreements but the new law only covers contracts signed after the law went into effect.
The best solution is prevention. If you are contemplating a purchase do have us or another competent Panama Law Firm review the contract BEFORE you sign or pay any money on deposit. Better advice would be to only buy a unit that is in existence. If you can’t flush the toilet or turn the light on go find a unit in which you can do such things. With pre-construction there is always an element of risk. Some factors can even be beyond the control of the builder such as raw material shortages that spike costs up, labor strikes for extended periods that increase costs, or the market can even turn down sharply and cause the banks to call the loans and end the construction because the project no longer pencils out according to projection in that people are not going to close on units that are going to be worth less than the sale price. Such things are very possible. If that is not enough reason the older units are not only built better as a general rule but they are much less expensive.
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*Offshore Legal Associates Law Firm.We have no legal ties or associations with any other law firm or corporation with similar or like sounding names anywhere and should not be so confused with any other entity having a similar or like sounding name.