A Consumer called the TCA earlier this week and asked if I knew anything about timeshare in Cape Verde as he was struggling to get an answer as to who he should be contacting regarding his timeshare out there now that Avante have ceased trading.
I have to be honest, until he mentioned it I didn’t know a thing other than where Cape Verde was placed on the map.
But, as ever, if a Consumer asks a question and the TCA don’t know the answer, we find it!
So, I set out to try and find as much information as possible in the hope of finding something/anything for him to work with.
What I found was a whole other world full of action groups and bloggers desperately trying to advise Consumers on how to deal with the precarious world of property in Cape Verde!
Below is some useful information to consider when looking at investing in a property in Cape Verde (provided by http://capeverdeinvesting.blogspot.co.uk/p/others.html);
Stage payments are unprotected. If you pay stage payments up front then, unlike in Spain and other EU countries, those payments are unlikely to be protected. Do not trust Cape Verde banks or lawyers. Insist on full protection of your stage payments via an escrow account and use the services of a reputable lawyer. Do not release a penny to the developer until the deeds are ready to sign.
Ensure you fully inspect the property before you pay any money or sign deeds. Do not be lazy and trust someone else to do it, otherwise you only have yourself to blame. Ensure there is permanent water and electricity supplies. Do not rely on temporary site power or water supplies.
The Cape Verde Court system has an enormous backlog. You do not want to have to take legal action in a Cape Verde Court; it will take years to sort out and may never be sorted out at all.
Do not rely on any contractual clauses that promise to pay compensation for late payment or guarantee rental upon completion. As I say above, contracts are effectively worthless in Cape Verde because lawyers are, on average, useless or take months to reply to you and the legal system moves slower than a glacier. You cannot rely on any legal safeguards.
Do not rely on your property for rental income. It has proved to be extremely difficult renting holiday homes in Cape Verde and many developers have reneged on rental guarantees.
The safest way to invest in a property in Cape Verde it is to not hand over a penny until the property is ready to move into, there is a habitation license, the deeds are ready to sign and the property is serviced by permanent supplies of power and water.
It looks as though most properties in Cape Verde are owned by a company called Cape Verde Property Investment. The property developers are a company called Tecnicil.
Tecnicil built, and now manage, the largest resort of Vila Verde on the island of Sal, Cape Verde. The resort consists of many apartments, townhouses and villas that were sold to mainly UK and Irish investors between 2005 and 2009.
It has been reports that some Consumers took possession of their properties and entered into rental agreements with Tecnicil. Owners supplied the furniture and pay the ongoing expenses for their properties. However, Tecnicil, despite renting the properties to a limited number of tourists, few if any of the owners has received any rental payments from Tecnicil. The owners though have been expected to pay condominium fees and maintenance fees to Tecnicil, which are alleged not to have occurred for a number of months.
On investigation we have found the below link to an action group in the UK who are pursuing a claim against Tecnicil;
http://www.capeverde-investment.com/
Their opening statement is;
“Welcome to our web site! Our Group has now been joined by a group of 100 Investors at Murdeira Beach resort another failed development!! Any More?
We are a group of UK and Irish investors seeking justice from the Cape Verde developer “Tecnicil” whom we entrusted our money with. We now because of the appalling behaviour of Developers and the lack of action by the Cape Verdean Government invite all troubled investors on Cape Verde to contact and join us in our fight for justice, so use the contact email to join in.
Thinking of investing in Cape Verde Property read this site well and think again before you get your fingers badly burnt as countless people have”.
The site states that they are a group of investors who have not yet taken ownership of our properties. The overriding reason for this is the late delivery of the properties, in some instances is in excess of 600 days. They report that Tecnicil insist that they are owed compensation and condominium fees without any proper presentation of the accounts for any property. They claim that Tecnicil have admitted they have breached the promissory contract, whilst will not honour any duly registered cancellation by the buyers.
It seems that the Consumer who called me is not alone. In fact, it is quite the opposite!
The site was initially designed to target Tecnicil in order to retrieve the Consumers 50% deposits which are lost in Villa Verde. However, the group has now been approached by numerous Consumers from sites all over Cape Verde such as Sambala, Murdeira Beach, Paradise Beach, Djadsal and Esmeralda Beach.
If you have paid a deposit to Tecnicil and/or any other property developer in Cape Verde and are now feel lost without a paddle we advise you to contact the http://www.capeverde-investment.com/ action group via email to: cap.verde.investment@outlook.com
For more information regarding this article or assistance in any other timeshare related issues please contact the TCA on 01908 881058 or email: info@TimeshareConsumerAssociation.org.uk