Delayed Property Sale Contract

Dear Sir /Madam,

I am a Canadian citizen, live in Canada. In June 2010 I purchased 2 apartments in a condominium in Makati City in the Philippines and my wife and I intend to move there after the building will be turned over in 2 years from now.. The contract was signed in the last day before I left the country back to Canada. The sales agent in the Philippines promised to send the copy of the contract to my Canadian address. A month later the agent told me the contract will be ready during the month of august due to overwhelmed number of sales in a very short time. The documents I got from the seller are a list of documents I submitted and a certification documents describing the apartments location in the building, the payment method which is cash and the price of each apartment.

My question is if there is a problem in the fact the company didn't send me the copy of the contract, and is it careless from my side to sign a contract without having a copy of it, and what measures I can take if the company will continue to delay the date the contract will be sent.

Thank You

Soly

do you have other proof that you paid them and that you entered into a contract? i believe there are reservation forms, and acknowledgment receipts for downpayments. the absence of the copy of the paper contract is the best evidence, but it does not mean the agreement no longer exists without it, especially if there is other evidence.

2 months is long, but unfortunately, this is not uncommon with realty contracts. you can send a letter documenting these matters and demand that they send you the contract immediately.

Dear Sir/Madam

Thank you for your reply.

I was so exited getting a place near my wife's family home, I made all the possible errors.

About the proof of payments, I have a document of certification of the apartments, and I have copies of the investment proposal. for the 20% down payments I gave the company:Fi.......st 36 checks and they issue monthly of the money I pay.

I asked for a copy of the sales contract more than once, last time was last week, but didn't got even a reply.

It might be, but I can't proof that it all has to do with the way all this investment was done, because in the initial negotiations there was a discount that was mentioned, but it never appeared in the printed proposal and I have no idea what are the terms in the contract and don't have a proof of it.

I made a mistake to invest so much money and not to use a legal advise. but it was done and now I try to fix it retroactive. The condominium we are talking about is a new atractive property that yet to have it's groundbreaking.

Please advise me if in your opinion I need a lawyer to check if all was done proper, I am not happy with the way things are done since I left the Philippines.

My wife's daughter is my rep at the real estate company but all what she is doing is to deposit money I send to cover the monthly payment, and besides she is working and doesn't have the time or the knowledge to negotiate with the construction company.

Sincerely Yours

Soly Zamir

Good Day,

I got a reply from the sales coordinator of the condominium I purchased.

Can anyone comment if it is a standard procedure in the Philippines?

The message is:
"With regard to the documents you signed before you left for Canada may I request for a signed letter asking for a notarized copy of Contract To Sell so that I can forward your request to our Account Servicing Department. "

Thank You

Soly

I will inform you as soon as I got the notarized/original copy of the Cobtract To Sell (CTS)

i don't believe it's already time to shell out money for legal representation, but you certainly can start looking at this option if only to get the developer to move faster.

i have to admit that even in my personal experience, developers are quick to sell, but once you give them the money, the processing suddenly turns really slow. i believe your concern if there is fraud, but i don't believe that is so. if it's at pre-development stage then they have years to deliver so, they see no great reason to rush.

that said, this written request is BS. if you can send them an email, that should be considered a written request under Philippine law. refer to your name on the email as your digital signature and refer to the electronic commerce act of the philippines.

Dear Sir / Madam

Finally after endless e-mails I received the contract of the 2 condo units I purchased. But all what the company sent was the first page of the contract of each apartment but not the contract including the small print. I lost my options to convince them to do so. A 2nd issue in related to this is the fact I was deceived to believe I am getting a discount in the sale, but in fact I am paying the full price in a pre-sale sales events. I have to mention that in the month I made the investment all the condo buyers were entitled to a discount.

My question is if there is a way to force the company to respect their policy for discount in the pre-sale which by the still going on as we speak? 10% discount of 130,000 ph is a lot of money. Do I need a legal advise? I hope it's not too late to get the discount or to cancel the sale all together.

I live in Canada and my rep in the Philippines doesn't have any clue about legal documents.

In case I should use a legal advise, since I have no idea which lawyer will be good to take care of it, is it possible to get a real estate lawyer name from you? maybe you can help me.

Thank You

SXXX ZXXXX

The documents I got from the seller are a list of documents I submitted and a certification documents describing the apartments location in the building, the payment method which is cash and the price of each apartment.

I don't understand, you mean you paid in full the non-discounted price? what were you expecting, a refund?

I don't understand, you mean you paid in full the non-discounted price? what were you expecting, a refund?


I think I didn't explained myself right. I purchased the 2 condos on a cash basis, but the only money that changed hands are 3 monthly payments of 31,629 ph each as part of down payment, spread for 36 months. The scheme called cash payment by the real estate company because the rest of the money for the 2 condos, I mean the total minus the down payment will be paid before the end of the construction - 2012. The amount I paid up to date is 94,887 ph. Does the fact I signed the contract but didn't pay yet is considered as paid? I trusted the sales agent and didn't check the numbers before signing the contract. Is there a way to reverse it or to cancel the contract all together?



Thank You

Soly Zamir

My question is if there is a way to force the company to respect their policy for discount in the pre-sale which by the still going on as we speak? 10% discount of 130,000 ph is a lot of money. Do I need a legal advise? I hope it's not too late to get the discount or to cancel the sale all together.

if you were to file a case and claim there were promises of discounts, it will be difficult to prove unless you have written evidence. mere say so will not be strong evidence and may even be excluded.

if it is possible to prove the offer of discount, then there will be a better chance.

I recommend that you first point this out to the sales company and demand a reduction of your price. you can escalate later on by getting legal counsel to represent you.

I am not sure it will be possible to bring up the discount issue with the company, unless you know better than I do how to do it. The company is Filxxxxxt and the project is the LXXXXXar Makati. For a minor question I needed an answer for I had to go public on Facebook, to bring the Residential Sales Director to reply.

About the proof, I have an email from the sales agent where she admits there was a discount promised me, but according to the sales coordinator I didn't got the discount, because I was not charged the price increase that was about the same time. But there is no sense to this claim because the price increase was a minor change and a discount on cash payment is usually 8% which in my case would be more than 200,000 ph for each condo.

the lawyer's tool to get their attention is first, a demand letter, and if that doesn't work, then an actual complaint filed. i recommend you first make your demand for the discount through email to the sales director. you can escalate later on if there is no action taken.

or you can go direct to getting legal representation to make the demand for you.

Dear Advisor,

Thank you for your answer. I will follow your advise and email the sales director my demand to get a discount on cash payment which I don't believe will do any good, in our messages to each other on facebook he was convinced I am satisfied now since the price is going up next week. The truth is I am so much unhappy, I am ready to cancel all the dale if no discount. The email I will send will be directed to the same guy, AmXXXXX io, the Residential Sales Director.

Regarding the email, I am not a legal expert and my experience in writing a legal document is limited. I was told there are legal documents I can download to my computer. I hope I am not asking to much, but will it be possible to guide me which legal document I will need?

Thank You again, and I will update you if I got anything resolved. My feeling is, Filxxxxx Laxx will not go against the sales coordinator decision

Sincerely Yours

Soly Zamir

please do not put the real names. you can send me a Private message or email if you wish to give more sensitive info.

i do assume that they will reject your demand. this will be a series of escalating steps. the next is that your lawyer will demand the discount.

the only points you need to make in your email are 1) you are a purchaser of their condo 2) you were promised a discount 3) you were made to believe that the contract you signed included the discount and include a copy of the emails that were sent previously. then demand that there be an adjustment in your contract price. just keep it courteous and add that failure will cause you to take further steps to protect your legal interests.

if they refuse, and you even retained counsel to write them, then a complaint at the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board has to be initiated.

Meanwhile, I do not recommend that you stop making the monthly payments.

Good day to you sir. I apologize for using real names, it will not happened again.

I prepared an email regarding the discount, but the only address for email is the company sales of the building where I purchased the units. It runs by the Residential Sales Director. It's a link in the project website. I have no way to know if they got it. I sent copies to the sales coordinator and to the sales agent.

I sent it before I got your last email, so some of the points are missing. I paste a copy here, please comment if I was at least a bit on target.

Here it is:

Good Day Mr. VicXXXX.

I am sure my name is familiar to you. we met in facebook when I had couple of complains against FilXXXX Land regarding the 2 units of 1 bedroom I purchased at the Linear Makati, Tower 1b units 2207, 2208.

No, I am not emailing in concern to a new purchase. I detailed all the history of my purchase and how I was deceived, given promises for discount which I was never got. If you remember I bought the 2 units on a cash scheme, and all the amount has to be paid in June 2011, excluding the down payment that will be paid in 36 installments.

For a buyer who pay cash in a one year time the discount is usually 8% of the total price. By not discount me FXXXXXst charged me too much. in a rough calculation, I pay about 250,000 ph too much per unit, if the total will stay the same. and it has nothing to do with the price of 1 bedroom unit today.

I demand this discount will be deducted from the total price because we made the LOI in mid May 2010 and this is the calculating has to be used. I understand, Sofia and Mich tried to shut me up by telling me I was not charged a price increase. It is a too cheap excuse to use.

I am not talking about money to get as a refund, because the discount is from the money that due only in June 2011 and there should not be a problem to issue the discount. The only thing has to be changed is the total per unit. the 36 checks I gave as downpayment will stay in the same amount.

I decided to purchase from FilXXXXX Land because they are a solid large real estate company with a good reputation of excelent customer service. here is a chance for the company to proof they really care for their customers.


I hope most of it is on target, the rest I'll sent after their reply, if ever. They have usualy a problem reading emails.

Thank you very much for all your help

Soly Zamir

this is clearly a demand letter. give it a week for them to respond. good luck.

I hope you are having a nice weekend,

I thank you twice, for complimenting me on the demand letter, and for hiding the names. I forgot do do it in the attached letter.

I am not even sure if the sales director will check the email, the only address I found is a link in the condo website for customers that like more information about the project.

I am waiting already the 5th month for this discount, I can wait another week.

Thank you for your help, I will inform you in a week if there are any news.

S. Z.

Good day to you sir,

It's over 10 days since I emailed to Mr. A... at F... the real estate company. In this period of time I learned couple of things.

Apparently there are 2 lines of sales in the company, the first one is what called In House sales, done by the real estate company agents and the other line is a brokers line, that in every sale report to the company rep that comes and finalize the sale, Something I was not aware of when I made the investment. I was sure I am dealing with the company sales agent. Anyway, the person I emailed the discount demand email is the in house sales director, and in a return email he explained me the situation and told me he forwarded to Ms M... the sales coordinator which is dealing with the brokers a copy of my email and asked her to respond. The only respond I got is an email from S... the broker in which she asked a question not related to the discount demand. Nothing from the sales coordinator.

In all this time I got conflicting answers when I asked for the discount, one answer was that the discount will be taken from the broker profit. Other one was that 3 months after 3 checques of mine will be cleared I'll get a refund to my bank account. And then I was asked not to bother the sales coordinator anymore. As you know already nothing of the promised discount was paid.
There was an not accurate information about combined units that if I knew when I made the investment I wouldn't invest in 2 units to be combined, but this another issue.

I do not think any of the real estate company managers is aware to the fact there is a problem with an investor, I have no idea how to reach them, and the in house sales director that is willing to help says he is not allowed to touch the brokers part of sales.

I must mention that my wife, myself, my wife's daughter who is our rep to deal with the company, and the broker were waiting at the L... project showroom to the sales coordinator to arrive and she O.K.ed the agreement including the discount and later changed her mind.

Can you give me a direction where to go from here? all this anger made me lose interest in this project, it might changed if I'll be able to get the lost discount,

Thank You

S.Z.

seems like you've exhausted everything you can do personally. the only thing left to recommend is to acquire legal counsel and be prepared to file a case at the House and Land Use Regulatory Board.

I must caution that I cannot agree that you have a clear and unmistakable right to the discount because of the existence of the contract. law gives contracts a very powerful presumption of regularity and as a rule, the law will not rescue you from a bad deal.

nevertheless, i believe your case still has merit as long as you can prove the promises of the discount, but as to a guarantee of success, I cannot go that far.

My personal experience at the HLURB is that developers have an advantage, but it is still possible to win with good evidence and good lawyering.

Good Day Sir,

In order to find out if I have a case against F..... I need to have a copy of the contract. All what I was able to get is a copy of the contract's front page that details the price and the buyers names. The rest of the contract we signed was never sent to me, and I can't tell you if all was done correctly. The fact they keep the rest of the contract for themselves doesn't look good.

Anyway, I can't force the company give me a copy of the contract, the sales coordinator doesn't reply to my emails and I will need a real estate lawyer to get the contract and to review it to determine if all was done in good faith.

I'll just add that at the time I signed the contract the official price for sq/m at the property I purchased was about 90,000 ph, including taxes. but I am paying about 105,000 ph for sq/m including taxes.

I don't know any real estate lawyer in the Philippines to help me get the contract from the company and check it. Actually you are the only legal professional I can think of.

No idea if it's against the rules of this website but my private email is solyxx@hotmail.com

Thank You

Soly

sent you an email

Hi Sir, How are you,

No email from you has been arrive. It might been delayrd, but I must leave home now. I'll check again this afternoon, Toronto time.

If you want to try and email again my email addresses are: soly36@hotmail.com s-zamir@rogers.com

Thank You

Soly

Dear Sir, I have a major problem.

Couple of months ago you helped me with legal advise concerning a delayed sales contract, I gave up the fight after the real estate company finally gave me a copy of it.
Things became much more complicated now, I was diagnosed with a severe blockages in my heart and 2 weeks ago went through emergency triple bypass operation, and as you can imagine I'm recovering at home now without a date I'll be able to return to work any time soon, and without salary I can't stand in my commitment of the monthly down payments to the real estate company.
Is there any legal measures I can take to protect myself? after all it is not my fault of becoming sick.

Yours

S.

first, read your contract what it says. there is a law here which requires an allowance of time and 50% refund in case of non-payment.