Milton Keynes man wins back tens of thousands he paid for dream Spanish villa that was never actually built

Ugo Boiardi and his wife Debra travelled to Spain in 2004 and bought an off-plan, four-bedroom villa with swimming pool.

Their plan was to move to Spain with their children and start a new life.

However, three years later, hardly any building had taken place at the development and the family decided to move back to MK as the children were not settling.

The completion date for the villa was given as 2008 by the developers. However, the date passed and, with the villa still not built, the builders went bust.

Ugo and his family found themselves in limbo, unable to do anything other than join a queue of debtors.

Then, in 2013, he read an article about fellow Milton Keynes resident Keith Rule, who had taken on Spanish bank bosses in order to reclaim his own ‘lost’ deposit of £45,983, which he had paid for a villa that was never built.

Keith worked with Spanish property law firm CostaLuz Lawyers to bring a class action that ultimately resulted in a £1.3 million pay-out for 46 mostly British property buyers in the same situation.

CostaLuz Lawyers were so impressed with Keith’s determination and attention to detail that the firm hired him on a part-time basis and Keith continues to support clients to get their deposits back to this day.

Ugo contacted CostaLuz Lawyers and began the process of trying to reclaim his lost deposit. He was warned that the Spanish legal system moves slowly but he persevered.

Finally, in 2019, BBVA bank, which CostaLuz Lawyers had made the claim against on Ugo’s behalf, offered to pay Ugo his deposit back, but without interest. Ugo declined and the case continued.

Eventually, CostaLuz Lawyers’ claim resulted in BBVA and Ugo settling on the repayment of the deposit plus half the interest, which by that time was almost as much as the deposit.

Ugo has now successfully received most of his money back - 48,000 euros plus interest.

A spokesperson for the law firm said this week: "Sixteen years after paying his deposit, Ugo was finally able to draw a line under the whole experience, thanks to the persistence of the team at CostaLuz Lawyers."

She said the deadline to make such claims has been extended until December 28 2020 due to the Covid crisis.