Avoiding a purchase blunder. What went wrong?

Just in time to prevent a purchase blunder. What went wrong?

It happens quite often that a buyer has found a home and asks our office for further supervision and control of all the documents.

Recently, my help was requested by a buyer who had found a house to be built that he wanted to buy.
The planned house had a final price of €279,500.
Let me call the purchaser Peter.

Just in time.
For some reason, Peter felt that it would be better for someone knowledgeable to look at what he was doing.
That was just in time.

Put under pressure.
The salesperson at the construction company told him that there was someone else with an interest in the property. Peter had to act fast if he wasn’t to lose the house.

Booking already signed and paid.
Peter had already signed a reservation agreement and an amount of €6600 had been paid. The reservation agreement was, in fact, more in the character of a purchase agreement. But I want to jump over that.

Purchase agreement not translated correctly.
Here I do not want to jump over. The purchase agreement was drawn up bilingually - Spanish / Dutch. This, you may think is useful. In this case, it was convenient for the builder. The translation was not correct and did not state everything that was recorded in Spanish.
This is important. In case of a conflict, validity is always namely in the Spanish text.

Payments without bank guarantee.
In addition to the first payment, there was a second-term total of €145 000, to be paid. This was to be paid within two months, and the property would be completed over 16 months. In the reservation agreement, it stated that the payments would be covered by bank guarantee, but that was in the original text and no longer in the contract.

Extras not properly recorded.
Peter had negotiated extras, including a swimming pool, terraces and a levelled garden. While in the purchase agreement, it stated that extras were included in the price, when drawings and descriptions of the extras attached to the agreement to be signed, they were not. So that would be a costly error.

Deviations in the measurements.
The builder cannot be held responsible for dimensions that do not correspond to what was in the contract; not for the plot and not the house. Only when the difference is greater than 10%, can you complain.

A construction company needs to publish its annual figures, that’s mandatory in Spain.
The annual figures are required each year. That way you can see approximately how a company is doing. The builder had, since 2009, no longer met the obligation.

Public sale.
There was a foreclosure auction because the company ceased trading. In 2011, the town of Elche had property from the builder in a public auction, because of unpaid bills.

Loss of €3000, -
Of the €6600, - I was able to recover €3600 for Peter.
The rest was lost.

"Better something than nothing" is a
old saying, but was, in this case, the only option.